Firm behind big hotel identified

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This article was published 19/02/2016 (3624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A luxury hotel chain, whose parent company has business ties with True North Sports & Entertainment, will be developing and managing the new hotel that will be part of downtown Winnipeg’s $400-million True North Square development.

An informed source confirmed Thursday Vancouver-based Sutton Place Hotels, which owns and operates three other high-end hotels in Western Canada, will be developing and managing the True North Square hotel.

“That’s the only name I’ve been hearing for weeks,” said the source, who didn’t want to be named.

He said True North Developments — the developer behind the True North Square project — would be making a formal announcement next week.

True North Square is expected to include a total of three highrise towers — a 27-storey hotel/condominium tower and a 19-store office/retail tower on the former Cityplace parking lot at 225 Carlton St. and a nine-storey office tower across the street on the former Carlton Inn property.

True North spokesman Scott Brown confirmed Thursday there will be an announcement next week. But he refused to say if Sutton Place Hotels has been chosen to develop the hotel. A spokesman for the hotel chain’s parent company — Vancouver-based Northland Properties Corp. — could not be reached for comment. Brown said True North will not only announce the name of the hotel developer, but also some of the tenants who will be leasing space in the office towers.

A local radio station CJOB reported True North Square is getting a Sutton Place Hotel and it will have at least 275 rooms. And local events planner Jonathon Strauss, of Strauss Event & Association Management, said Thursday two reliable sources told him the same thing.

Strauss said Sutton Place Hotels would be a logical fit because Northland Properties already has other business ties with True North. It owns the Moxie’s Grill & Bar restaurant chain, which has an outlet in True North’s MTS Centre, and the Shark Club Bar & Grill chain, which partnered with True North to open a restaurant/bar/gaming centre on the second floor of Cityplace. As well, Northland and True North both own National Hockey League teams. True North owns the Jets, while Northland owns the Dallas Stars, who happen to be in Winnipeg next Tuesday to play the Jets.

“So these guys are connected in a whole bunch of ways,” Strauss said.

He also noted Northland’s ties to Winnipeg don’t end there. Northland also owns the Sandman Hotel Group, which has a hotel in the city, and two other restaurant chains with outlets here — Denny’s Restaurants and Chop Steakhouse & Bar.

He said a hotel in the True North Square development would be good news for Winnipeg.

“We need another hotel downtown, and we need a hotel to connect the MTS Centre and the (RBC) Convention Centre. It’s the missing link.”

Klaus Lahr, general manager of the RBC Convention Centre, has long maintained the city needs a new luxury hotel that’s connected by a skywalk to the newly expanded convention centre. He noted Sutton Place is an experienced luxury-hotel operator, with hotels in Vancouver, Revelstoke and Edmonton.

“Sutton Place has an excellent reputation, and in my opinion, it would be on par with the Delta, if not a step above it,” he said. “It’s a name and a brand I can get excited about.”

Lahr said the sooner a new hotel gets built the better. He added a luxury hotel with about 275 rooms would likely take 24 to 28 months to build.

“So if they get into the ground this summer… by the winter of 2018 we could probably expect the hotel to be open,” he said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca