An Ottawa builder plans to construct a new $22.5 million hotel at King Edward and St. Patrick streets, after purchasing several adjacent lots.
The new Holiday Inn will have 167 rooms, with a dining area and meeting space on the ground floor, according to plans submitted by Manor Park Management.
Construction of the nine-storey structure will begin in January, if the project’s requested site plan and minor zoning variances are approved.
“We were able to take advantage of all three sides of the property — and particularly the frontage along King Edward — to really make it a landmark redevelopment,” Dennis Jacobs, the private consultant who wrote the application, told The Ottawa Citizen. Jacobs was also the city’s former planning policy chief.
“With the redevelopment that’s happening on King Edward, particularly things like La Nouvelle Scène, it’s bringing back King Edward to what it used to be, which was a very prestigious address,” Jacobs is quoted as saying.
The site comprises several municipal addresses: 235 and 237 King Edward Ave., 364 and 380 St. Patrick St., and 259 and 261 Murray St.
Woodman Associates Architects provided renderings.
It sounds like all the developer is thinking about is how to cash in on 2017. The celebration will come and go, and while it will guarantee a good start, it is far from certain that the hotel on King Edward would have a long life in a status quo environment – an island in the sea of traffic, truck route which does not have a clear timeline to be relocated, and other adverse factors. One can’t help but ask the question who will stay in the hotel by choice. During 2017 festivities people will, because everything will be taken but beyond that?… Is Holiday Inn going to be selling the hotel in 5 years to the same student residence company they sold to their current hotel on Cooper street, because they won’t be making any money… Is this a project that makes commercial sense, in particular, in its current 9-storey rendition? And, on the other side of the equation, how does one even start building a massive project like this in the surroundings where people won’t have a relief from construction, because they don’t really have anywhere else to go… And are interprovincial users of the Macdonald-Cartier bridge ready for delays in their commuting times during the construction process – the site is not that large overall to be self-contained, is it?