Well this just in!
Cinema site to be hotel
By Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix
Published: Monday, April 09, 2007
The operator of Holiday Inn Express plans to build downtown’s first new full-service hotel in a generation, buoyed by Saskatoon’s robust economy and the expansion of TCU Place.
The Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites will be built on the Pacific Cinemas site. Demolition of the theatre will be complete as early as Sunday.
“We’re optimistic about what the future has for Saskatoon,” said Jeff Krivoshen, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express on Idylwyld Drive and director of operations of the numbered company that owns the Pacific Cinemas site. “The recent expansion of the (TCU Place) auditorium leads us to believe there’s going to be more conference and convention business coming to town.”
The Pacific Cinemas building on 22nd Street and Pacific Avenue could be demolished as early as Sunday to make room for a new hotel
The expansion of the Prairieland Park exhibition grounds has also generated optimism, Krivoshen said.
Under the company’s franchise agreement with Holiday Inn, it must begin construction within a year and build at least 140 rooms, Krivoshen said. The cost and number of rooms and storeys is still undetermined. The Hilton Garden Inn has 180 rooms spread over 16 storeys.
The new hotel will feature a restaurant, banquet and meeting space and both above- and below-ground parking.
Confirmation of plans for the new hotel comes one month after Remai Ventures backed out of building a downtown mineral spa that it concluded isn’t economically viable.
Despite big recent events like the Junos and Vanier Cup that filled up Saskatoon hotels, there isn’t demand for another downtown hotel, said John Bevis, general manager of the Sheraton Cavalier.
“Is it going to come in handy 12 months of the year? I don’t think so.”
The hotel industry has had a couple of strong years, but it has shown little growth during the past decade, Bevis said. TCU Place’s 54,000-square-foot expansion last year has brought more travellers downtown, but not necessarily enough to justify another hotel, he said.
“To add another 140 rooms into the downtown core, when you do the math it doesn’t seem to work,” Bevis said. “It’s hard to swallow.”
The last full-service hotel built downtown was the Ramada Renaissance, now called the Radisson, in the early 1980s.
rnickel@sp.canwest.com
Big News! But the site isn't very large. I guess this means they have to go vertical. Maybe 15 storeys?
Linear Mode
