Prestige Hotels to build its first hotel on Vancouver Island

While hotels are drowning in red ink, a Kelowna company is taking the plunge and building an oceanfront facility in Sooke, B.C.

KELOWNA, B.C.

While hotels are drowning in red ink, a Kelowna company is taking the plunge and building an oceanfront facility in Sooke, B.C.

Kelowna-based Prestige Hotels & Resorts has decided to build its first hotel on Vancouver Island.Since its 1993 start, Prestige has built nine hotels in the Okanagan and Kootenays.

What makes Prestige unique is the company is also the general contractor for its projects.

“We build our own hotels. It helps make us more efficient,” said Tanya Stroinig, Prestige’s vice-president of operations.

From the first excavation to the grand opening, Prestige is part of every construction decision.

“We know why we choose certain fixtures. We have to service the hotel, maintain it,” she said.

Prestige is an arm of Huber Developments, the contracting company started by Josef Huber.

Hotel and motel construction was a good part of the business.

Prestige was born when Huber realized it made sense to build and run their own hotels.

Josef’s son Joe Jr. now oversees operations, while Kelowna-based Rudy Wiens is construction boss.

The $15-million, Sooke project broke ground in early November. A January 2011 opening is forecast.

Built on a one-hectare lot overlooking Sooke Harbour, the 105,000-square-foot hotel will have 122 guest rooms, a 400-delegate convention centre, full-service restaurant and bar, day spa, bakery/cafe, lobby shop, indoor pool with hot tub, fitness centre and an outdoor gazebo.

Originally billed as a plantation style exterior, complete with porticoes, the design actually has an island colonial feel, Stroinig said.

Palm trees — Joe Jr.’s personal taste — will grace the property, part of a desire to create lush grounds.

The project’s Vernon-based architectural technician said the detailed columns and grand circular entrance are a 1920s look.

“It’s an ageless design. Twenty years from now it will still look good, not like the West Coast design you see all over that doesn’t look good in 20 years,” said William Sokol, who works for T.R. Thorburn Architect.

“We want to do something unique for the Island,” Stroinig added. “We’ve been looking for the perfect opportunity. Waterfront is key.”

The building itself will be concrete and wood frame construction with asphalt shingles.

The exterior will be stucco and hardiplank, and will be creamy white in colour.

Each floor will have its own ambience achieved by different touches and décor.

Many of the rooms will have verandas to take advantage of waterfront views.

Prestige got special zoning to allow the deal to sell the 1,800-square-foot, fifth-floor penthouse as a private residence.

LEED features will be absent in Prestige’s Sooke project, becasue it would raise costs, Sokol explained.

Local workers and companies will be hired, but Stroinig said bids must be competitive.

Wiens brought in about four key employees, who are calling Sooke home until the project’s completion. At peak construction, about 100 workers will be on site.

Challenges have been minimal.

“For us, coming from the Interior, we’re not used to quite so much soil,” Stroinig said, as loaded dump trucks haul out dirt.

A tourist magnet, Sooke, 35 kilometres west of Victoria, has been trying for years to attract a hotel.

Up to now, visitors stayed at the many local bed and breakfasts or the high-end Sooke Harbour House.

Some of those businesspeople are displeased over the impending competition.

To entice Prestige, the 10,000-resident municipality struck a deal with the company.

For the hotel’s first five years of operation, Sooke municipality will pay Prestige $300,000 each year, giving it use of the conference centre for 12 days each month ($25,000 per month or $2,083 daily).

“People have been upset by the concept,” Stroinig said, “but it’s to draw people to the community.”

Next door to the hotel, the municipality is building a public boat launch and pier. Prestige is contributing $200,000 toward the project.

“The public can use our space and we’ll use the boat launch. We want to become the locals’ resort,” Stroinig said.

As for building a new hotel, while chains like Victoria’s Traveller’s Inn faces bankruptcy and luxury inns like The Aerie, north of Victoria, are in receivership, Stroinig said there’s always risk with any development of this size.