“Dusting off the drawings” for 2012

Adrian Mauro (seated) and Brian Chamberlain.

BURLINGTON—The lenders are lending, the economy is improving, and it’s time for hotel builders to “dust off the drawing plans and move forward,” says Adrian Mauro, president of Chamberlain Architectural Construction Management.

But resuming projects that were put on hold during the recession has its share of challenges. “Brand standards change, and we’re revisiting plans to update them. Municipal bylaws change,” Mauro notes.

Sometimes these changes can be beneficial to hotel developers. For example, in some municipalities, bylaws now require hotels to have one parking space for every two hotel rooms, rather than the previous ratio of 1:1.

“A lot of hotels have excess acres,” says company founder Brian Chamberlain. If they have excess land over and above the requirements, they can build another hotel or sell it for an alternative use.

“Site planning efficiencies were not as good as they are today,” Chamberlain adds.

Northern Ontario hot

The location of hotel projects has also changed in the last few years.

“Five years ago, 80 per cent of our hotel projects were in southern Ontario. Now we have hotel projects in every province except P.E.I.,” notes Chamberlain.

Northern Ontario is active thanks to mining, now that gold is worth $1600 an ounce and iron and nickel are also in demand.

“A lot of communities have older motel Mom and Pop operations, that were built back in the 1960s,” Chamberlain says. With the surge in mining business, such communities are ripe for new, modern  brands, such as Hilton Garden Inn. One such community is North Bay, where they are tearing down hotels along the waterfront.

Mauro points to the new Holiday Inn Express and Suites in New Liskeard, ON.

“There’s always difficulty for hoteliers in small towns because they need a brand.  They have a hard time realizing [a brand] is a good investment. Sooner or later there will be a Holiday Inn or something else in [communities such as] New Liskeard.

“If the motel owners don’t do it, someone else will,” notes Chamberlain.
Chamberlain calls this area the “Ontario ring of fire,” referring to the mining belt surrounding Hudson Bay, curving from North Bay through Elliot Lake to Thunder Bay and into Manitoba.

“Thunder Bay is positioned to become the centre of the reborn mining industry.

“The fact is that the north needs to rejuvenate their product. The challenge is how to get there.”

Chamberlain has a number of projects that have recently opened or will open soon.

The lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in Brampton.

• The Brampton Hilton Garden Inn, near Pearson Convention Centre, opened in mid-September. Its proximity to the Convention Centre produces a natural partnering. Large weddings are held at the Convention Centre, feeding the hotel.  Convention Centre business helps offset shoulder times.
• The first Aloft in Ontario is set to open in March.  This project, for Northampton Group, is located at Vaughan Mills Road on Bass Pro Mills Drive.  Aloft promotes social interaction of guests in the lobby. Billed as "a whole new travel experience" this Starwood brand features a loft-inspired design, no-walls and no-limits space.
• Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott near Highway 10 and Courtneypark Drive opened recently.