Chain bets on new hotel

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This article was published 05/07/2011 (5532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canad Inns is adding to its growing hotel empire with the planned construction of a 17-storey, 200-room hotel adjacent to the McPhillips Street Station Casino in northwest Winnipeg.

Manitoba Lotteries Corp. announced Monday the Winnipeg-based hotel chain has been selected as the developer and owner/operator of the hotel, which will be built on the former Days Inn property immediately north of the casino.

MLC acquired the inn and land last July from local investors for $6.3 million and will retain ownership of the land.

Canad Inns president and chairman Leo Ledohowski said the hotel is expected to cost about $50 million to build, with construction getting underway by late this winter or early spring and finishing in early 2013.

Canad Inns was long thought to have the inside track on landing the hotel project because it already owns and operates a 146-room hotel adjacent to the MLC’s Club Regent Casino on Regent Avenue.

The McPhillips Street facility will be the chain’s 14th hotel and one of its largest. It also recently began construction on a $40-million, 18-storey hotel on the Health Sciences Centre campus on William Avenue.

Manitoba’s hotel industry is in the midst of its biggest growth spurt in more than a decade, with more than a dozen new properties and hundreds of rooms either under construction or in the works.

Some local industry players have expressed concerns the Winnipeg market is becoming saturated.

But Manitoba Hotel Association president and CEO Jim Baker said Monday there’s a growing demand for rooms in the city, in light of the expanding economy, the recent arrival of a new NHL hockey team and the scheduled 2013 opening of the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“So who knows, really, what the capacity is?” Baker said. “Time will tell.”

Ledohowski and Manitoba Lotteries Minister Steve Ashton both hailed the new casino hotel as a classic example of the private and public sector working together to benefit the province as a whole.

“Projects such as this new hotel are creating not only economic growth and reasons to visit Manitoba, but also providing exciting entertainment and employment opportunities for Manitobans,” Ashton said.

The MLC said having a hotel connected to the casino will enable McPhillips Station “to capture its own overnight casino hotel patrons, similar to other major convention and gaming facilities in North America.”

MLC spokeswoman Susan Olynik said the corporation plans to build an overhead link to connect the casino to the new hotel.

Ledohowski said Canad Inns and MLC also will be working together over the next couple of years to further upgrade their casino-hotel complex on Regent Avenue.

Olynik said Club Regent has already added a new lounge and gaming area and plans to expand the concert bowl area. And Ledohowski said Canad Inns may add more rooms and restaurants to the hotel, although those plans are still under discussion.

He said the McPhillips Street hotel will boast more amenities than the Club Regent Hotel — things like a sports bar, two restaurants and a dinner theatre — because research shows consumers are looking for all-inclusive destinations with dedicated entertainment and a variety of dining options available on-site.

He said the 1,500-seat banquet and conference centre will be the second-largest in the city after the Winnipeg Convention Centre.

Although the chain has another hotel farther north on McPhillips Street, Ledohowski said it shouldn’t be negatively affected by the new casino hotel.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca