New hotel to be built on urban reserve

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/08/2018 (2647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Portage la Prairie is getting its first new hotel in three decades thanks to an initiative on an urban reserve.

Long Plain First Nation will spend $10 million to build a Microtel Inn and Suites on its urban reserve along the Trans-Canada Highway at Portage.

It’s the hotel chain’s first venture in Manitoba and 20th location in Canada. The hotel will create about 25 full-time jobs.

The venture will be funded through Long Plain’s economic development arm, Arrowhead Development Corporation. A sod-turning took place in Portage on Thursday.

“It’s going to be an exciting project for us,” Long Plain Chief Dennis Meeches said. “We’re looking forward to creating employment for our people. Economic sovereignty and providing job growth for our Long Plain members is a goal for us.”

Arrowhead commissioned a study on the viability of a new hotel in the area and the assessment came back very positive, he said. Meeches doesn’t see the location on an urban reserve being a drawback for customers.

“I don’t see why. It’s happening all over the place in Manitoba. There’s South Beach Hotel (in Scanterbury) and Kikiwak Hotel in Opaskwayak Cree Nation,” he said.

Meeches added that a professional hotel management company will oversee the hotel operations which will be located on Keeshkeemaquah Drive and Crescent Road West, on the site of the Keeshkeemaquah Conference & Gaming Centre, overlooking Crescent Lake.

An advantage to constructing the hotel on reserve land is Long Plain won’t have to pay provincial sales taxes on building materials, Meeches said.

Portage la Prairie Mayor Irvine Ferris called it “a smart move” by Long Plain. “It’s a real shot in the arm. This is something that will benefit not only Long Plain but the city of Portage la Prairie and the entire region.”

Ferris said Portage’s hotel capacity has been insufficient for luring midsize conventions to the city.

When the Portage Terriers hockey club hosted the 2015 RBC Cup, Canada’s National Junior A Championship, there weren’t enough rooms. “We had people staying in Headingley and Brandon driving out for it,” Ferris said.

“Right now, we host a lot of smaller conventions. In the past, we’ve bid on some midsize ones and the reason we didn’t get them is we didn’t have enough capacity when it came to rooms,” he said.

The Microtel is a slightly smaller hotel with 75 rooms, compared to other brand hotels that often exceed 100 rooms. It will feature a 3,500-square-foot water park and an indoor swimming pool, as well as a conference centre. It will offer hot continental breakfasts and some full-kitchen suites.

MasterBUILT Hotels Ltd. in Calgary has the Canadian rights to Microtel Inns. It hopes to build another 60 or more hotels in Canada over the next 15 years, including more in Manitoba, it said in a press release.

Long Plain was recently certified by the Vancouver-based First Nations Financial Management Board, allowing it to borrow at preferential interest rates similar to those paid by municipalities and other levels of government.

A First Nation must demonstrate sound financial management for five years to obtain certification.

Long Plain is a unique First Nation in that it has urban reserves in Portage and Winnipeg. The land is part of a fulfillment of Canada’s outstanding treaty land entitlement to the First Nation.

It’s current businesses on those reserves, operated by Arrowhead Corp., earn in the range of $7 million per year. Arrowhead, which includes two gas bars and a gaming centre, employs 160 people.

In 2017, Long Plain won the Visionary Indigenous Business Excellence Award from the University of Manitoba Asper School of Business.

These are good times for Portage. In the past 15 months, more than $1 billion worth of investment has been announced for Portage.

That includes the Roquette pea-processing plant, expected to create 150 new jobs when it opens next year, and the doubling of capacity at french fry maker, Simplot, adding 90 new jobs.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca