gjhall
Sep 2, 2011, 2:19 PM
So, we now have some proof that there's demand for some new hotel space downtown. Thought it would be fun for us to talk about brands and locations, so I will get the ball rolling.
I'd love to see a boutique hotel like they mention in the article at the corner of Dalhousie and York, replacing the surface parking lot at the Courtyard Marriott. Probably around 8 storeys. Could be Le Germain, Ace, or Thompson perhaps.
Also, the Rideau Centre could add a 30+ storey hotel on the Nicholas Street side and wrap it into their expansion plans. Hyatt would probably fit here.
Thoughts?
"Mark Sutcliffe: Convention Centre has the space, but lack of hotel rooms means big conferences still bypass Ottawa
By Mark Sutcliffe, The Ottawa Citizen September 1, 2011
Not long ago, Ottawa was in the running to host a major global event for polar countries. The city’s bid had a lot going for it. It was Canada’s turn to be the host country and the capital was offering its stunning new convention centre as the main venue.
“It was an international convention that would have brought delegates from all over the world, from places like Scandinavia and South America,” says Pat Kelly, the chief executive of the Ottawa Convention Centre. “We were looking at about 2,500 delegates in for about three nights. So it was a significant piece of business.
“We went down the road a considerable distance with the organizers,” says Kelly. “And they were really favouring Ottawa and loved the new convention centre.”
The new meeting space was certainly large enough to host the meetings and the event planners, according to Kelly, loved the city. But there was one problem: the city had barely enough hotel rooms. Attendees would have to be squeezed into every available bed across downtown, possibly in up to a dozen different hotels.
That wouldn’t be ideal for the delegates, who prefer to be accessible to one another and as close as possible to the convention site. And it would be particularly problematic for the organizers, who would have to negotiate a separate agreement with each individual partner hotel.
“In order to put the room block together, it was going to require somewhere between 10 and 12 hotel contracts,” says Kelly. “This is something that the vast majority of convention planners steer clear of.
“So we lost the bid to another city where they could deal with three or four hotels instead.”
That isn’t the only time a lack of sufficient hotel space has been an issue since Ottawa began marketing its spiffy new meeting space. Kelly says the city has lost three or four fairly significant conventions to other Canadian cities when the capital either came up short on total room inventory or competitors could offer a shorter list of larger hotels for planners to work with.
The majority of events that the convention centre pursues aren’t large enough to tax the city’s hotel-room inventory. But now that Ottawa has a more spacious meeting facility, it’s on the radar of organizers of larger events coming from the U.S. and Europe. For those bigger conventions, Ottawa is meeting requirements for meeting space but not hotel rooms.
Some existing hoteliers might not welcome new competition, but the reality is this: Where Ottawa’s main obstacle to attracting large events used to be a lack of convention space, it’s now a shortage of beds.
“We need another 600 or 700 hotel rooms in the core,” says Kelly. “The convention centre didn’t used to be able to fill the hotel inventory; now it’s the other way around.”
Any new inventory would be welcome, but Kelly would like to see at least one or two large hotels built so that event planners can house their delegates in a small number of locations rather than have them spread all over the city.
One potential obstacle to new hotel construction, however, is the fact that the city reinstated development charges for downtown. New projects in the city centre used to be exempt from the fees but city council reintroduced them a few weeks ago.
The new charges were supported by the homebuilding industry, which worked with city officials on a plan to make them manageable for new residential construction. But the return of development charges may scare off some potential commercial builders who were interested in creating hotel space.
For a new downtown condominium project that is subject to development charges, the builder can pass the cost on to the buyers. And since every new project faces the same fees, it’s a level playing field.
Unlike condos, however, new hotels have to compete with older facilities that were built before the development charges were reinstated. That means the new hotel will have a higher cost structure to pass on to its customers, putting it at a competitive disadvantage.
A representative of one builder told me recently that his client was interested in building a boutique hotel with about 100 rooms in the ByWard Market. But development charges might make the project cost-prohibitive. He would like to see city council exempt hotels from the fees.
Whether city hall goes that far, it should encourage the development of new hotel properties in the downtown core so the tourism industry can fully capitalize on its new convention centre.
“We’ve made this investment, we have this wonderful new facility,” says Kelly. “Ideally you’d like to have all the parts in place so you can be as competitive as you can be.”
I'd love to see a boutique hotel like they mention in the article at the corner of Dalhousie and York, replacing the surface parking lot at the Courtyard Marriott. Probably around 8 storeys. Could be Le Germain, Ace, or Thompson perhaps.
Also, the Rideau Centre could add a 30+ storey hotel on the Nicholas Street side and wrap it into their expansion plans. Hyatt would probably fit here.
Thoughts?
"Mark Sutcliffe: Convention Centre has the space, but lack of hotel rooms means big conferences still bypass Ottawa
By Mark Sutcliffe, The Ottawa Citizen September 1, 2011
Not long ago, Ottawa was in the running to host a major global event for polar countries. The city’s bid had a lot going for it. It was Canada’s turn to be the host country and the capital was offering its stunning new convention centre as the main venue.
“It was an international convention that would have brought delegates from all over the world, from places like Scandinavia and South America,” says Pat Kelly, the chief executive of the Ottawa Convention Centre. “We were looking at about 2,500 delegates in for about three nights. So it was a significant piece of business.
“We went down the road a considerable distance with the organizers,” says Kelly. “And they were really favouring Ottawa and loved the new convention centre.”
The new meeting space was certainly large enough to host the meetings and the event planners, according to Kelly, loved the city. But there was one problem: the city had barely enough hotel rooms. Attendees would have to be squeezed into every available bed across downtown, possibly in up to a dozen different hotels.
That wouldn’t be ideal for the delegates, who prefer to be accessible to one another and as close as possible to the convention site. And it would be particularly problematic for the organizers, who would have to negotiate a separate agreement with each individual partner hotel.
“In order to put the room block together, it was going to require somewhere between 10 and 12 hotel contracts,” says Kelly. “This is something that the vast majority of convention planners steer clear of.
“So we lost the bid to another city where they could deal with three or four hotels instead.”
That isn’t the only time a lack of sufficient hotel space has been an issue since Ottawa began marketing its spiffy new meeting space. Kelly says the city has lost three or four fairly significant conventions to other Canadian cities when the capital either came up short on total room inventory or competitors could offer a shorter list of larger hotels for planners to work with.
The majority of events that the convention centre pursues aren’t large enough to tax the city’s hotel-room inventory. But now that Ottawa has a more spacious meeting facility, it’s on the radar of organizers of larger events coming from the U.S. and Europe. For those bigger conventions, Ottawa is meeting requirements for meeting space but not hotel rooms.
Some existing hoteliers might not welcome new competition, but the reality is this: Where Ottawa’s main obstacle to attracting large events used to be a lack of convention space, it’s now a shortage of beds.
“We need another 600 or 700 hotel rooms in the core,” says Kelly. “The convention centre didn’t used to be able to fill the hotel inventory; now it’s the other way around.”
Any new inventory would be welcome, but Kelly would like to see at least one or two large hotels built so that event planners can house their delegates in a small number of locations rather than have them spread all over the city.
One potential obstacle to new hotel construction, however, is the fact that the city reinstated development charges for downtown. New projects in the city centre used to be exempt from the fees but city council reintroduced them a few weeks ago.
The new charges were supported by the homebuilding industry, which worked with city officials on a plan to make them manageable for new residential construction. But the return of development charges may scare off some potential commercial builders who were interested in creating hotel space.
For a new downtown condominium project that is subject to development charges, the builder can pass the cost on to the buyers. And since every new project faces the same fees, it’s a level playing field.
Unlike condos, however, new hotels have to compete with older facilities that were built before the development charges were reinstated. That means the new hotel will have a higher cost structure to pass on to its customers, putting it at a competitive disadvantage.
A representative of one builder told me recently that his client was interested in building a boutique hotel with about 100 rooms in the ByWard Market. But development charges might make the project cost-prohibitive. He would like to see city council exempt hotels from the fees.
Whether city hall goes that far, it should encourage the development of new hotel properties in the downtown core so the tourism industry can fully capitalize on its new convention centre.
“We’ve made this investment, we have this wonderful new facility,” says Kelly. “Ideally you’d like to have all the parts in place so you can be as competitive as you can be.”