[Moncton] Downtown Developments

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Monctoncore

The Crowne plaza will be in need for some major outer upgrades to match all the newer developments around it! Also to bad they went with 4 stories, instead of 5 or 6, but that’s not important, the development itself is.

I agree. With a new Hyatt across the street, and a new Hilton down the street, the Aquillini's will have to step up their game and do a serious renovation to the exterior of the Crown Plaza, and to the adjoining retail/commercial plaza.

[HanSoloCup]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I agree. With a new Hyatt across the street, and a new Hilton down the street, the Aquillini's will have to step up their game and do a serious renovation to the exterior of the Crown Plaza, and to the adjoining retail/commercial plaza.

When the Crowne Plaza announced the $6 Million renovation they mentioned that they were considering ideas and talking with architects for exterior renovations but had no plans to tackle it any time soon.

So the bad news is it could be awhile before the exterior is tackled, the good news is it is in their plans to do.

[JHikka]

Hyatt development should have three or four more storeys added onto it. Density and street frontage are nice but the height is disappointing, IMO.

[MonctonBoy]

Here are some high res pictures of the Hyatt Place Hotel as well as the link to the Corey Craig website: http://coreycraigdevelopments.com/hyatt-place-moncton/

[MonctonRad]

Nice find - thanks.

Good to have an additional view of the front entrance showing where the restaurant will be. There is no question this will be a higher class family restaurant or steak house.

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Hyatt development should have three or four more storeys added onto it. Density and street frontage are nice but the height is disappointing, IMO.

Agreed but I do beleive the reason for the limited height has to do with the event centre next door.

Originally Posted by MonctonBoy

Here are some high res pictures of the Hyatt Place Hotel as well as the link to the Corey Craig website: http://coreycraigdevelopments.com/hyatt-place-moncton/

I do love the High res images.

I do know projects like this take time but reading off the Corey Craig Group's website 2020 seems far off into the future for a project such as this.

[Monctoncore]

Originally Posted by Scarface

Agreed but I do beleive the reason for the limited height has to do with the event centre next door.



I do love the High res images.

I do know projects like this take time but reading off the Corey Craig Group's website 2020 seems far off into the future for a project such as this.

If you look closely, it looks like they plan on having some underground parking, as I see a garage door. That can add sometime, or they may be planning a late summer start to the construction

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Scarface

Agreed but I do beleive the reason for the limited height has to do with the event centre next door.

What about it? The Crowne Plaza across the street is taller, as is the GoC building. The Events Centre should be creating density and height, not limiting it.

It's interested that Hyatt opted for surface parking instead of an underground garage. That parking lot should be fun to deal with during events.

[flyer99]

Originally Posted by OUIR@random

The logo says otherwise and a Hyatt Regency is usually a very large hotel with hundreds and hundreds of rooms. I highly doubt that it will be Hyatt Regency, if so it will be the smallest Hyatt Regency property in the world with only 120 rooms. My money is on a Hyatt Place.

The mayor said in her FB post today it would be a Hyatt Place. I don't know why the developers last night said Hyatt Regency. It was a confusing statement by them.

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by flyer99

The mayor said in her FB post today it would be a Hyatt Place. I don't know why the developers last night said Hyatt Regency. It was a confusing statement by them.

It is. Specially when the Images they have for the hotel say Hyatt Place

[Monctoncore]

Not sure if this was mentioned, but the Chateau Moncton is undergoing renovations.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Monctoncore

Not sure if this was mentioned, but the Chateau Moncton is undergoing renovations.

There'll be a lot of pressure on hoteliers around the city to upgrade their properties with all the new hotels opening up in the next couple of years.

[Taeolas]

Yeah, though it seems like the existing hotel owners are not happy with the new announcements

The head of Moncton's hotel association says the addition of another multi-million dollar hotel to the city will likely drive occupancy rates down, at a time when hotel rooms in the city are often underoccupied.
...

This year the occupancy rate for Moncton's 2,200 hotel rooms was about 64 per cent, said Ray Roberge, the general manager of the Delta Beausejour and the president of the Greater Moncton Hotel Association.

"It's a decent occupancy, but certainly not a great occupancy," he said.

Roberge said he expects the four projects to add another 500 to 600 rooms, which will probably drive the annual overall occupancy rate down even further.

"You're not necessarily going to find 500 or 600 additional people coming to Moncton just because they built a new hotel," he said.

It sounds like sour grapes to me to be honest; Moncton's vacancy rate during busy weekends is pretty much nonexistant; getting a room in the Summer at any time is almost impossible, so these rooms will certainly be welcome then.

I suspect they aren't looking forward to the improvements they'll have to make to compete with Shiny New (along with Shiny New and close to the new Arena)

[MonctonRad]

Sour grapes indeed.

There are stats out there showing that Moncton has the highest occupancy rates east of Montreal. As you've said, on a number of weekends (during the summer and during tournaments in the winter) that it's hard to find hotel rooms in the city. With the new events centre, and with professional management of the centre, there will be new touring acts coming to the arena, and most people coming into the city to attend these events will want to rent hotel rooms within walking distance.

The other downtown hotels will do just fine. They'll just have to renovate a bit and pick up their compete level........

What I wonder is if the new Hyatt might torpedo those plans by Valmond Robichaud for the Double Tree Hotel on East Main Street........

[lirette]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Sour grapes indeed.

There are stats out there showing that Moncton has the highest occupancy rates east of Montreal. As you've said, on a number of weekends (during the summer and during tournaments in the winter) that it's hard to find hotel rooms in the city. With the new events centre, and with professional management of the centre, there will be new touring acts coming to the arena, and most people coming into the city to attend these events will want to rent hotel rooms within walking distance.

The other downtown hotels will do just fine. They'll just have to renovate a bit and pick up their compete level........

What I wonder is if the new Hyatt might torpedo those plans by Valmond Robichaud for the Double Tree Hotel on East Main Street........

Just as recent as 1 month ago, the weekend of the christmas parade..the closest accomodations available through any website not named airbnb was in Bouctouche NB. They continue to do some good things with sports tourism & festivals in the summer there is a definite need for the additional downtown hotels especially in the events centre as you say.

[PEI highway guy]

This is not the firsat time I have heard the President of the Moncton Hotel Association predict doom/gloom when new hotels come on board. Funny thing is the projects keep coming. A 64 % OCCUPANCY RATE IS VERY HIGH. That is an average of 365 days a year. on nights like Dec 24/Dec 25 maybe 2 to 5% of rooms are sold. Stats can be misleading. if you take out he 10 slowest nights of the year, that 64% is probably a fair bit higher. these announcements are good and will most likely lead to spinoffs that will keep Moncton growing.

[Feneant]

Well, even with what you folks are saying, you have to admit Moncton sometimes has little going on. Take Charlottetown for example, they have the Cavendish music festival, Jack Frost Festival, cruise ships, burger love, Fall Flavors, I think they also have a pork love week and some kind of seafood thing, etc. It feels like the province/city go out of their way to bring in more folks. And no, you can't counter any of those with 'we have Costco'!

There's a reason why the answer to 'what is there to do in Moncton?' is 'Drive to Halifax'.

[MonctonRad]

Every city has their own festivals, which tend to play to their own strengths. Moncton has more going on than you seem to let on - for example:

World Wine & Food Expo
Hubcap Comedy Festival
Frye Festival
FICFA
Atlantic Nationals
Atlanticade
Ribfest
Moncton Highland Games
Acoustica Music Festival
Mosaiq Multicultural Festival

Add in numerous trade shows in the springtime, many sporting tournaments, lots of touring acts at the casino, the performing arts series at the Capitol Theatre, big concerts at the events centre (when it opens).

And don't forget our attractions like the zoo, Magic Mountain, shopping and retail and Moncton''s location within close distance to Fundy Park, Hopewell Rocks, Cape Enrage, Parlee Beach etc.

I know I've missed lots, but you get the idea. There's lots to do in Moncton, and this will improve even in the short term, especially with the opening of the events centre, and the soon to be completed Fundy Trail. I think the Fundy Trail is underestimated by many. It will quite literally be NB's Cabot Trail, and with Saint John and Moncton on either end of the scenic drive, the hoteliers in both cities should do quite well from this in the tourism season.

I think Moncton can justify the 4-5 new hotels being built.......

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Feneant

Well, even with what you folks are saying, you have to admit Moncton sometimes has little going on.

What would you consider a lot going on? Moncton's not a big city, and the list that MonctonRad provided is pretty extensive.

[L'homard]

Sports tourneys fly under the radar. The late Ian Fowler showed me a study once about these tournaments' tremendous impact on hotel occupancy rates. And thats exactly why Ian developed a strategy to make Moncton the place to host these tournaments.
I wish I could remember the economic impact figures and occupancy rate numbers generated by minor sports tourneys, but it was some time ago.
These things don't attract spectators in any great numbers, but when you bring in 100 or many hundreds of moms and dads and kids for little Bobby's hockey tournament, it's HUGE.
THus my support for more hotel rooms.