Westin Montreal merges buildings of three centuries

MONTREAL—The Westin Hotel is back in Montreal with a new-build/renovation project that encompasses buildings from three centuries.  The largest part of the hotel is a new-build 22-storey tower, but the hotel also includes the old Montreal Gazette building from the mid-1950s and is connected by a bridge over a back alley to structures built in 1860 and 1890.  The older buildings were completely gutted and modernized, but some of the facades are intact.

Old Montreal has rules regarding facades of the 19th century buildings. The actual Gazette building encompasses the front drive, lobby, and mezzanine. The fourth floor houses the Atlific corporate offices, a fitness area, and the spa, which is still to come. Floors five to seven are office space, and floors eight to 11 are catering space. Atlific kept some of the old Gazette building features such as marble floors, but the fire sprinklers, elevator shafts, plumbing and electrical are all new. And the hotel also includes the latest in technical gadgets.

For the new tower, they dug a hole six storeys down for a parking garage, then added a 22-story tower with 335 rooms.  The remaining 119 rooms are in the older towers. Hotel general manager Jacques Baheux describes the hotel as sleek, modern and clean, with a lot of light fixtures, including some that look like big bubbles.

The construction project, which took three- and-a-half years, was budgeted at $90 million—no figures were given as to actual cost.  It is not only the largest construction project in owner Atlific Hotels’ history, but also the largest new build in Montreal in several years.  The end result is 454 guest rooms spread over the four towers, which have a combined total of 65 storeys.

“There are five or six hotels of our size in the city, but the difference is that ours is brand new.  The other difference is our location in Old Montreal across from the convention centre, within the sights and sounds of the leisure traffic,” says Baheux.  One side of the hotel faces onto St. Jacques, Montreal’s main finance street.

The hotel includes 40,000 square feet of meeting space, with another 8,000 of pre-function area, suitable for conference registration or buffets.

There are two restaurants, but while both are named to reflect their newspaper heritage, that’s the full extent of the newspaper theme.  Rather the emphasis is on Quebec produce and cuisine.  Le Reporter, open in the evening, serves appetizers and tapas.  Gazette Restaurant, open for three meals a day seven days a week, features foods such as lamb from the Charlevoix area of Québec, duck from Lac Brôme in the Eastern Townships, local cheeses and icewine.  The restaurant serves a Quebecois breakfast with cretons (Quebec potted pork), baked beans, maple syrup sausage and crèpes.

“It’s fun, says Baheux. “It has a Quebec twist to it.”

Baheux, who comes to Le Westin Montréal from a hotel in the U.S. Virgin Islands owned by Ocean Properties, Atlific’s U.S. parent company, has been working in the hotel business for 26 years full time—34 years if you count his part-time experience. He has worked all over the world including the U.S., the Caribbean and Europe.  “But I have family up here —I’m very comfortable living in Montreal,” he says.

This is Baheux’s second hotel opening—the first was Disney in Paris.  Le Westin Montreal had its soft opening in May, with business starting in earnest June 1.
 
“We’re unique in that we’re a commercial, retail and hotel centre with attachment to the old city and the convention centre.  The [Westin] banner has been off and on again in this town, and now it’s back.  Westin is very excited to have us on board.”