Hotel rooms trump apartments
Tenants seek new homes ahead of riverfront highrise's conversion to hotel suites
Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenix
Published: Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Residents of a downtown apartment building connected to the Sheraton Cavalier hotel have been told to start looking for new homes as the building's owner prepares to convert their suites into hotel rooms.
The occupants of 37 rental apartments in the Cavalier Tower on Spadina Crescent received notice of the conversion plan last week, said Paul Leier, CEO of Cavalier Enterprises, which owns the building and the hotel.
Leier said he personally went door-to-door in the building and managed to speak face-to-face with about 70 per cent of the tenants. Many are elderly and several have lived in the building for decades, enjoying its proximity to services in the downtown area.
The family of one tenant says the conversion is an example of the rich getting richer at the expense of people with limited means.
But Leier says the company is doing what it can for its tenants.
"It hasn't been a tough business decision, given what's going on in the city right now -- but it was a tough decision because we know there is going to be some inconvenience to our tenants. So we wanted to make sure that we came up with a really good plan to hopefully minimize any disruption they're going to have."
The company began preparing for the conversion more than a year ago. During that time it has not been re-renting units that became vacant as tenants chose to move out, Leier said. The company has put together a comprehensive plan to help the remaining residents in the 50-suite building find new homes, he added.
The apartment building conversion will coincide with major renovations at the Sheraton Cavalier, adding up to a $10-million investment, Leier said.
The conversion project will entail basically stripping the Cavalier Tower down to its concrete skeleton, and replacing the mechanical systems, elevators and even the windows, he noted. The end result will be about 50 large new hotel rooms -- most of them two-bedroom suites.
"Basically it's going to be a new hotel and we think it's going to be a great hotel, quite honestly. We don't think there's a better location in the city . . . and 60 per cent of the rooms will have a river view," Leier said.
"The market has really grown here. The provincial economy has been so strong -- and the Saskatoon economy -- over the last two years, that we really feel this is the right time for us to do this. We believe it will be the finest hotel in the province."
Saskatoon is on the verge of a wave of hotel construction that could add more than 500 rooms to the city's existing inventory of about 3,300.
Alberta-based Lake Placid Developments is about to begin work on a 12-storey hotel at River Landing this fall, and a full-service Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites is slated for the old Pacific Cinema site downtown.
Developers have also expressed interest in building hotels in the city's south end near the new Stonebridge subdivision, as well as the University of Saskatchewan campus.
"The market is busy," said Sheraton Cavalier manager Dale Grant, who is also president of the Saskatoon Hotels Association.
"I don't know if I would say there's a shortage (of hotel rooms), but I would say that we feel pretty confident that the (Cavalier Tower) conversion . . . is something that we'll be able to effectively sell still."
Saskatoon's tight housing market has been steadily pushing up the cost of rental accommodations all over the city for more than two years, with the highest prices typically found in the downtown area.
In an e-mail to The StarPhoenix this week, a woman whose parents have lived in Cavalier Towers for many years said the hotel conversion benefits a wealthy owner while leaving those on fixed incomes scrambling.
Downtown apartments with similar amenities -- a quiet atmosphere, air conditioning and elevators -- now cost up to $1,400 a month, if you can find one, she wrote.
"That is just awful (that) at this stage of their lives they have to be uprooted and have to pay such high prices, which many cannot afford."
Fred Schitka, a working senior who lives in the building with his wife, said news of the owner's conversion plans was no surprise for most tenants in light of the current real estate market, "but nobody expected it would come that quick."
He said he was lucky to find an impending vacancy at another downtown highrise right away, but many of his neighbours have been searching daily without success.
Leier said the hotel conversion will start this November and proceed in stages, starting with the lower floors.
Any tenants on those floors who have not been able to find new homes by then will be able to move up into vacant suites on the higher floors, so no one will be forced to leave for at least six months, he added.
The company also intends to pay for tenants' moving expenses, Leier said.
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© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
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hmmm... not sure what to think about that. At least it's getting a much needed facelift.
) Sounds like a good project to increase urban density!
Thanks guys! Hope to visit your great city again, soon! (U of S alumni!)
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