The city has begun the redevelopment of Hastings Park by removing buildings and developing natural areas, gardens and water features. A new agreement was signed by the City and the province, establishing the City as the owner of the site. The PNE's lease with the City was held by the provincial government until 1994. By 1946, the event's success caused the site to be renamed 'Exhibition Park.' Today's Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is the modern day descendent of the Vancouver Exhibition.

This pressure resulted in the first exhibition, staged by the Vancouver Exhibition Association, in 1910. Local residents began lobbying for more wholesome activities such as tradeshows for dairy farmers, loggers, and horticulturists.

Hastings' role as a resort continued until the turn-of-the-century, with leisure-seekers drawn to the area for the New Brighton Hotel (destroyed by fire in 1905) and the half-mile race track at Hastings Park. As Hastings grew, it laid claim to virtually every first for Vancouver: first road, first hotel, first post office, first telephone,first real estate transaction, first subdivision, and even the first ferry between Burrard Inlet and Victoria. The settlement's name was changed to Hastings (officially the Hastings Townsite) in 1869 to commemorate a visit to the area by Admiral George Fowler Hastings. From there a ferry, the Sea Foam, commenced a triangular route, first across Burrard Inlet to the logging operation at Moodyville, then back to Stamp's Mill (at the foot of Dunlevy Street), then along the northern shore of the inlet back to New Brighton. By 1868, vacationers, loggers and mill workers made the 16 kilometre journey from New Westminster to the Brighton Hotel via stage coach. New Brighton was a popular weekend retreat for residents of the province's capital city, New Westminster.

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