Embassy Suites Hotels, a brand of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, is planning to significantly expand the number of hotels that it has in Canada.
Hotel Construction
Embassy Suites Hotels, a brand of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, is planning to significantly expand the number of hotels that it has in Canada.
The brand opened its latest Canadian hotel (its second) last September with its Montreal operations, a 204-suite hotel owned by Vancouver-based Aquilini Group Properties LP and managed by Pacrim Hospitality Services Inc. The hotel is located in Old Montreal, adjacent to the Palais des Congrès de Montréal.
The $75 million structure is divided into two parts — a hotel on the first 11 floors and condominiums above that to the 21st floor. The building was originally designed as two separate residential units, each with a separate entrance, but during the initial construction, it was decided to place a hotel on the bottom half.
Construction began in late 2004 and was completed in August 2007. Altering the design contributed $10 million to the construction cost.
“We changed the design two years ago after we decided to split the risk,” said Jocelyn Lafond, vice president of operations for Aquilini.
Because the decision to have a hotel was made early on, Aquilini was able to redesign the suites component prior to construction.
Magil Construction Corporation served as the project manager for Aquilini.
“We have a lot of interest in developing our hotels in Canada,” says Rick McCue, vice president of brand performance and support, Embassy Suites Hotels, “either through new construction or repurposing existing buildings, converting hotels of other brands or by adoptive re-use of existing projects.”
The brand’s other Canadian hotel is located in Niagara Falls.
“We are very open to secondary and tertiary markets,” said McCue.
While Hilton owns the brand name, Embassy Suites hotels are owned by franchisees.
“There are several projects for which we have applications in progress,” says McCue.
“The new hotel in Montreal helps us with driving some of the interest in Canada.”
Typical Embassy Suites hotels range from 150 to 300 rooms, with between 4,000 to 8,000 square feet in meeting space.
The brand has just launched a new prototype design for future hotel construction that his has called Design Option 3.
“It takes up less land and allows the developer to be able to find some cost savings via double-loaded corridors side-by-side — it is a very scalable design and flexible enough to handle each kind of market that is out there,” said McCue, who noted that sustainable construction is also important to the company.
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