Hotel project awakening

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This article was published 16/10/2023 (706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of Winnipeg’s longest-standing hotel construction projects has an end date in sight for the first time in three years.

Northland Properties’ Sandman Signature facility, which broke ground in 2018 beside the existing Sandman Hotel and Suites on 1750 Sargent Ave., near the airport, is expected to be completed and open its doors in 2025.

“It definitely has taken us longer than we hoped. Usually, we’re wanting to get in the ground and get it up and built within three years,” said Steve Sammut, Northland Properties president and COO.

The outlook on the 127,540-square-foot project was murky for years, owing to the pandemic’s impact on labour shortages and supply chain issues. The dust finally settled enough for construction to resume in 2022, and what stood as a shell of a new build for years now looks like a puzzle that’s coming together.

“It’s been a challenging one, for sure,” Sammut said. “We just ran into all kinds of issues with getting the stuff we need.

“Then the other thing that happens is, really, (the pandemic) had a big impact where you mothballed the project for a while and things were slow to ramp up, in the meantime what you’re realizing is the plans that you laid out at the time — because a lot of these plans were made pre-COVID — the world changes and you actually have to go back and redesign a bunch of things and make sure we’re doing the right thing or building the right thing.”

Many of the redesigns were in the finer details of the project, but one major pivot came in configuring the hotel’s restaurant, The Tavern Collective, which will be the third dining option on the lot, joining Denny’s and Chop Steakhouse and Bar, which are attached to the existing hotel.

Once completed, the Sandman Signature and Sandman Hotel and Suites will offer 425 rooms, nearly 5,000 square feet of banquet hall space, five corporate meeting rooms and a corporate lounge.

The Winnipeg Richardson International Airport has three hotels on base — The Grand, Courtyard by Marriott and Lakeview Signature — and, with the addition of the Sandman Signature, another 10 options in the surrounding (1.6-kilometre radius) area.

“For the airport, we’re always looking to see how we can help the city grow,” said Tyler MacAfee, vice-president of external affairs for the Winnipeg Airports Authority. “And as the city grows, that’s good for the airport. So it’s very circular. So when we see new hotels going up that’s a great sign that things are rebounding and we’re seeing a need.

“From the airport’s perspective, it’s a great thing and it’s great that it’s located close to the airport and gives travellers another option.”

MacAfee noted the Airport Authority has invested north of a billion dollars in itself since becoming a private entity in 1997, including a new terminal, environmentally sustainable upgrades to its operation and adding the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. It’s all in the name of making Winnipeg a more attractive destination, and the addition of more hotels only helps the cause.

“We’ve seen that development expand our cargo capacities, the west side of the airport — once the North End Treatment Plant is set to go — then that whole area will start to be developed as well,” MacAfee said.

“And what we’re seeing in cities around the world is an understanding that the airport is that connector to the world. Airports that are going up in Asian countries where the airports are fairly new, the cities are really building around those airports. So I think that’s where we need to be going as a city, is really looking at how do we build out this infrastructure that is really our connection to the world.”

Michael Juce, president and CEO of the Manitoba Hotel Association, concurred that more hotel builds in the surrounding area are a plus for the airport, but added that more rooms can have a trickle effect on important areas like Winnipeg’s core.

“Another one that we talk about a lot is downtown, of course, and having that room capacity to bring in more events for the Convention Centre and stuff like that,” Juce said.

While more rooms could be beneficial for tourism, Juce said it doesn’t mean Winnipeg is in a bad position when it comes to hotel options and that the city must balance how much supply is sustainable outside of events.

He pointed to Vancouver, where its hotel supply was grand enough — and peaked — during the 2010 Olympics, but didn’t have the same demand afterwards. Some hotels have since been converted to condominiums, but those moves may have been premature.

A recent report by Destination Vancouver, by accounting firm MNP, which looked at the city’s room capacity, projections and builds it had in the pipeline determined the city is well short of the mark and it could get worse as its tourism continues to grow.

In fact, the report predicted that the demand for the city’s hotel rooms will exceed supply by 2026, leading to billions in forgone revenue over the next 25 years.

“I think this report really rings some alarm bells of saying, ‘If we don’t get more hotel stock, we’re going to lose out on events in Vancouver and things like that,’ which you’re losing tax revenue, you’re losing jobs, you’re losing all of that,” Juce said.

“It gets complex on how many rooms you need in each city but I think we’re fortunate where we’re not at that point where Vancouver is where crisis is a strong term, but that report is pretty interesting.”

Doubling down on their investment in the Manitoba capital was always in the cards for Northland Properties, according to Sammut. He said it’s easy to be a believer in the direction Winnipeg is going, with its growing potential for more visitors.

“It’s just, we think it’s a good market. We’re a proud Canadian company and we look at it as Canada, for us, is our home and so we look at Winnipeg and we think it’s a solid city, (the existing Sandman Hotel) been there a long time and we think there will be growth there,” Sammut said.

“We put up the Sandman always knowing at some point when we thought the market was ready for it, we would go forward with a Signature, as well.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca