Conrad Black
Senior Member
Heads Up | Vancouver
A Building Boom to Welcome the Winter Games
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/travel/13headsup.html?8dpc
Bonny Makarewicz for The New York Times
The convention center, on the waterfront, and behind it, the site of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Vancouver hotel.
By CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON
Published: January 13, 2008
AS the sawdust flies in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics, new hotels — and many other things as well — are rising around Vancouver.
More than a half-dozen higher-end hotel projects will open in the next few years from Vancouver to the resort town of Whistler, about 80 miles to the north, where the Alpine and Nordic races will be held. Most hope to open before the Olympics.
It’s all part of a larger construction boom around British Columbia, although much of the activity is centered on greater Vancouver: between July and September 2007, there were 843 major capital projects planned or under way province-wide, worth a record 135 billion Canadian dollars, about the same in U.S. dollars, according to the province’s Ministry of Economic Development.
Around Vancouver some of the most noticeable dust is coming from the Olympic event venues, which are all now being built or refitted for the Games — everything from the new speed-skating oval in Richmond, just south of Vancouver, to a new curling complex, the Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park, adjacent to Queen Elizabeth Park. Some 580 million Canadian dollars in federal and provincial money will help build the venues, not including the investment by private developers who, for example, will build the athletes’ villages and then sell them for condos after the Games.
But the construction hardly ends at stadiums and ski runs. Workers are pouring cement for pylons on a 16-station, north-south light-rail line that will connect downtown with Vancouver International Airport and Richmond. Another project is under way that will triple the size of the city’s convention center, and allow it to be used as the International Broadcast Center during the Olympics. And a 65-mile stretch of the cliffside Sea-to-Sky Highway between west Vancouver and Whistler is being made straighter, wider and safer with a 600 million-dollar effort. The latter two projects, planned before Vancouver got the Olympics nod, were sped up because of the Games.
Vancouver’s hotel market didn’t need any urging. There are about 25,000 hotel rooms in greater Vancouver. Occupancy rates for the city’s hotels will be 73 percent in 2007 and 2008 — the second-highest rate among major Canadian cities, behind Calgary, according to forecasts by PKF Consulting, which advises the hospitality industry.
“We don’t have an awful lot of luxury hotels now,†said Beth Walters, director of PKF’s western Canada office. “Right now the Opus and the Wedgewood are two of our higher performing hotels — and they’re boutique-style hotels,†she said.
The city’s first newly built hotel in five years, Loden Vancouver, is now nearing completion at the edge of the Coal Harbour residential neighborhood downtown, between Stanley Park and the main business district. It’s also the first Canadian hotel by Kor Hotel Group (Maison 140 in Beverly Hills, the Tides South Beach, among others). The hotel, which will have 70 rooms, six suites and a “rock star penthouse†according to the general manager, Edel Forristal, is expected to open early this year. Loden’s residential component, a 236-unit residential tower, opened next to the hotel site last year.
Loden, heavy on design elements, has curved windows with glass that alternates between clear and green, reminiscent of the changing waves in the nearby harbor. Inside, as with other Kor properties, the décor mixes bold vintage-1940s patterns with a color scheme of caramels and corals, Ms. Forristal said. The restaurant will focus on local, sustainable products. “I think it will be more a sense of calm and getting back to organic feelings and textures — but with energy,†she said.
Doubles will start at 199 Canadian dollars when the hotel opens, or about $205 at $1.03 to the Canadian dollar. Later, rates will rise to 399 dollars, depending on the season. Information: (604-669-5060; www.lodenvancouver.com
The five-star Fairmont Pacific Rim Vancouver, the flagship of the soon-to-be six Fairmont hotels in British Columbia, is now rising and will occupy 22 floors of a 48-story tower in Coal Harbour. Going against the trend, the Fairmont will be huge — 415 rooms — with retail stores, and condos atop the hotel. It is scheduled to open mid-2009.
The luxury hotelier Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts enters the North American market in January 2009 with the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver. The 119-room hotel will occupy the first 15 stories of a 61-story building — Vancouver’s tallest — now rising around the corner from Loden. Topping the hotel will be 293 condos and luxury residences. The “green†high-rise, which will have silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, will have among its amenities a new 6,500-square-foot, Tibetan-theme spa and a sculpture galleria curated by the Vancouver Art Museum.
The Hotel Georgia, a landmark 1928 Art Deco hotel that once played host to luminaries from the Prince of Wales to Marlene Dietrich, is undergoing a complete restoration and is scheduled to reopen in 2010. It’s being paired with a new 48-story-condo luxury residential tower, one of the tallest in the city.
A Ritz-Carlton and accompanying residences are slated to open after the Olympics.
In Whistler, which will be home to the Alpine and Nordic ski events, Nita Lake Lodge is the last new from-the-ground-up hotel to appear; with the lodge, the town has reached its cap on new commercial accommodations. The 77-unit condominium hotel, with three private rentable chalets, opens this week, about 450 yards from the Creekside base area, where the downhill, giant slalom and other Alpine races will finish.
Mike Duggan, the lodge’s general manager, describes the aesthetic as “sort of an upscale, Ralph Lauren look,†from the lodge’s porte-cochere to its use of local stone to its setting on the shores of nonmotorized Nita Lake.
The lodge also incorporates Whistler’s train station in its design; passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer or Whistler Mountaineer scenic trains can disembark and have porters take their luggage straight to their room. The trains currently run from May to October. The lodge’s restaurant will be overseen by Andrew Springett, former executive chef at Vancouver Island’s lauded Wickaninnish Inn. “We’re looking to create a little bit of a throwback to the romance of the rail times,†Mr. Duggan said. One-bedroom suites in midwinter start at 540 Canadian dollars. Information: (866) 602-1447. www.nitalakelodge.com
In Squamish, a town of 15,000 people that lies halfway between Vancouver and Whistler, four new hotels seem likely to appear by the time the Games begin — including two higher-end hotels.
The five-star Shannon Falls Spa & Resort will be situated between Howe Sound and Shannon Falls. The 36-acre resort will eventually have 250 rooms, plus 184 quarter-share town houses.
More immediately, Executive Suites Garibaldi Springs Golf Resort, a 110-suite hotel set between the 9th and 18th holes of the Garibaldi Springs Golf Course, will open in the first quarter of 2008. The condo-hotel has a timber-and-stone lodge appearance and amenities like an indoor/outdoor swimming pool.
With so much happening in the area, when the Olympic cauldron is set ablaze on Feb. 12, 2010, even Vancouverites may not recognize the skyline lighted by its glow.
A Building Boom to Welcome the Winter Games
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/travel/13headsup.html?8dpc
Bonny Makarewicz for The New York Times
The convention center, on the waterfront, and behind it, the site of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Vancouver hotel.
By CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON
Published: January 13, 2008
AS the sawdust flies in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics, new hotels — and many other things as well — are rising around Vancouver.
More than a half-dozen higher-end hotel projects will open in the next few years from Vancouver to the resort town of Whistler, about 80 miles to the north, where the Alpine and Nordic races will be held. Most hope to open before the Olympics.
It’s all part of a larger construction boom around British Columbia, although much of the activity is centered on greater Vancouver: between July and September 2007, there were 843 major capital projects planned or under way province-wide, worth a record 135 billion Canadian dollars, about the same in U.S. dollars, according to the province’s Ministry of Economic Development.
Around Vancouver some of the most noticeable dust is coming from the Olympic event venues, which are all now being built or refitted for the Games — everything from the new speed-skating oval in Richmond, just south of Vancouver, to a new curling complex, the Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park, adjacent to Queen Elizabeth Park. Some 580 million Canadian dollars in federal and provincial money will help build the venues, not including the investment by private developers who, for example, will build the athletes’ villages and then sell them for condos after the Games.
But the construction hardly ends at stadiums and ski runs. Workers are pouring cement for pylons on a 16-station, north-south light-rail line that will connect downtown with Vancouver International Airport and Richmond. Another project is under way that will triple the size of the city’s convention center, and allow it to be used as the International Broadcast Center during the Olympics. And a 65-mile stretch of the cliffside Sea-to-Sky Highway between west Vancouver and Whistler is being made straighter, wider and safer with a 600 million-dollar effort. The latter two projects, planned before Vancouver got the Olympics nod, were sped up because of the Games.
Vancouver’s hotel market didn’t need any urging. There are about 25,000 hotel rooms in greater Vancouver. Occupancy rates for the city’s hotels will be 73 percent in 2007 and 2008 — the second-highest rate among major Canadian cities, behind Calgary, according to forecasts by PKF Consulting, which advises the hospitality industry.
“We don’t have an awful lot of luxury hotels now,†said Beth Walters, director of PKF’s western Canada office. “Right now the Opus and the Wedgewood are two of our higher performing hotels — and they’re boutique-style hotels,†she said.
The city’s first newly built hotel in five years, Loden Vancouver, is now nearing completion at the edge of the Coal Harbour residential neighborhood downtown, between Stanley Park and the main business district. It’s also the first Canadian hotel by Kor Hotel Group (Maison 140 in Beverly Hills, the Tides South Beach, among others). The hotel, which will have 70 rooms, six suites and a “rock star penthouse†according to the general manager, Edel Forristal, is expected to open early this year. Loden’s residential component, a 236-unit residential tower, opened next to the hotel site last year.
Loden, heavy on design elements, has curved windows with glass that alternates between clear and green, reminiscent of the changing waves in the nearby harbor. Inside, as with other Kor properties, the décor mixes bold vintage-1940s patterns with a color scheme of caramels and corals, Ms. Forristal said. The restaurant will focus on local, sustainable products. “I think it will be more a sense of calm and getting back to organic feelings and textures — but with energy,†she said.
Doubles will start at 199 Canadian dollars when the hotel opens, or about $205 at $1.03 to the Canadian dollar. Later, rates will rise to 399 dollars, depending on the season. Information: (604-669-5060; www.lodenvancouver.com
The five-star Fairmont Pacific Rim Vancouver, the flagship of the soon-to-be six Fairmont hotels in British Columbia, is now rising and will occupy 22 floors of a 48-story tower in Coal Harbour. Going against the trend, the Fairmont will be huge — 415 rooms — with retail stores, and condos atop the hotel. It is scheduled to open mid-2009.
The luxury hotelier Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts enters the North American market in January 2009 with the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver. The 119-room hotel will occupy the first 15 stories of a 61-story building — Vancouver’s tallest — now rising around the corner from Loden. Topping the hotel will be 293 condos and luxury residences. The “green†high-rise, which will have silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, will have among its amenities a new 6,500-square-foot, Tibetan-theme spa and a sculpture galleria curated by the Vancouver Art Museum.
The Hotel Georgia, a landmark 1928 Art Deco hotel that once played host to luminaries from the Prince of Wales to Marlene Dietrich, is undergoing a complete restoration and is scheduled to reopen in 2010. It’s being paired with a new 48-story-condo luxury residential tower, one of the tallest in the city.
A Ritz-Carlton and accompanying residences are slated to open after the Olympics.
In Whistler, which will be home to the Alpine and Nordic ski events, Nita Lake Lodge is the last new from-the-ground-up hotel to appear; with the lodge, the town has reached its cap on new commercial accommodations. The 77-unit condominium hotel, with three private rentable chalets, opens this week, about 450 yards from the Creekside base area, where the downhill, giant slalom and other Alpine races will finish.
Mike Duggan, the lodge’s general manager, describes the aesthetic as “sort of an upscale, Ralph Lauren look,†from the lodge’s porte-cochere to its use of local stone to its setting on the shores of nonmotorized Nita Lake.
The lodge also incorporates Whistler’s train station in its design; passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer or Whistler Mountaineer scenic trains can disembark and have porters take their luggage straight to their room. The trains currently run from May to October. The lodge’s restaurant will be overseen by Andrew Springett, former executive chef at Vancouver Island’s lauded Wickaninnish Inn. “We’re looking to create a little bit of a throwback to the romance of the rail times,†Mr. Duggan said. One-bedroom suites in midwinter start at 540 Canadian dollars. Information: (866) 602-1447. www.nitalakelodge.com
In Squamish, a town of 15,000 people that lies halfway between Vancouver and Whistler, four new hotels seem likely to appear by the time the Games begin — including two higher-end hotels.
The five-star Shannon Falls Spa & Resort will be situated between Howe Sound and Shannon Falls. The 36-acre resort will eventually have 250 rooms, plus 184 quarter-share town houses.
More immediately, Executive Suites Garibaldi Springs Golf Resort, a 110-suite hotel set between the 9th and 18th holes of the Garibaldi Springs Golf Course, will open in the first quarter of 2008. The condo-hotel has a timber-and-stone lodge appearance and amenities like an indoor/outdoor swimming pool.
With so much happening in the area, when the Olympic cauldron is set ablaze on Feb. 12, 2010, even Vancouverites may not recognize the skyline lighted by its glow.
