If all goes according to plan, Thompson may have two new hotels under construction and about 150 new hotel rooms on the way by spring.
The are currently about 450 hotels rooms in the city, probably averaging a 70 per cent occupancy rate, says Keith MacDonald, president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce and general manager of both the Burntwood Hotel and Thompson Inn, owned by Manfred Boehm of Winnipeg.
MacDonald says at 70 per cent occupancy the eight hotels in Thompson, which besides the two he manages also include Days Inn, Meridian Hotel, Country Inn and Suites, Interior Inn, Mystery Lake Motor Hotel and Northern Inn & Steak House, are likely making money, but he doubts the local market can absorb 150 more new hotel rooms profitably.
While proprietors have historically held a lot of information about the local hotel industry fairly closely, MacDonald says it is no secret the halcyon days of 2007 are long over as the number of contractors working in town is down significantly.
When the city was developing its five per cent accommodation tax on hotel rooms in 2008 it estimated that on average there were 300 occupied rooms per night in Thompson at an average price of $85 per night.
There has been a big slowdown in out of town contactors working at Vale Inco since the global economic meltdown during the fall of 2008. While very few jobs have been lost directly at Vale Inco, the company significantly slowed down last year the $750-million capital projects expansion of its mining, milling, smelting and refining operations here begun in 2008 and aimed at boosting production by about 36 percent over the next decade. The company still spent about $258 million in Thompson in 2008 on capital projects.
As well, construction employment peaked at around 1,100 workers last summer at Manitoba Hydro's 200-MW Wuskwatim Generating Station at Taskinigup Falls on the Burntwood River, located 45 kilometres southwest of Thompson and 35 kilometres southeast of Nelson House.
The $1.6-billion project is on track to come online in 2011.
MacDonald says while contractors still stay at local hotels it is often just for a single overnight now while in transit elsewhere. And advance reservations are not always necessary as walk-in traffic is often welcome because rooms are empty, he says.
Al Can Global Development Inc., of Selkirk, now wants to build a 69-room three-storey Extended Stay Hotel franchise on Moak Crescent, behind Minute Muffler, while Yellowknife developer Tony Chang is still planning to build an 80-unit Super 8 Motel, a commercial strip mall and apartment rental housing on Mystery Lake Road, across from City Hall, says Gary Ceppetelli, the city's director of planning and community development.
City council on Jan. 4 approved a 60-day extension to Al Can Global Development Inc.'s application to option the Moak Crescent property. That extension covers the period Dec. 19 to Feb. 17.
Ceppetelli says Al Can Global Development Inc. was granted an initial 120-day extension for an application to option the property last Aug. 21. "The proponent requires the extension to complete negotiations and financing with a private partner," Ceppetelli wrote in a Dec. 30, 2009 memo to council and city manager Randy Patrick.
Chang purchased some vacant land from the city on Mystery Lake Road and had some hold-ups with one small strip before ownership was transferred, but much of it he already owned through the eight Nickel Apartments buildings, at one time known as "The Pinks" and built in the early 1970s. Most of the key planning approvals for the Super 8 project have long been in place but there were longer than expected delays in registering the plan of subdivision with the province due to the property transfer issues.
Chang, through Orion Properties, owns 144 units in eight three-storey buildings. Built in the early 1970s, The Super 8 project will be years behind what was thought to be the original schedule when the project was first announced in November 2007 if construction begins this spring.
Chang is developing the Super 8 project through T.E. Holdings Ltd. He also owns the 120-unit Grey Wolf Bay Townhouses, which have undergone almost complete renovations in a project costing more than $4 million over the last two and a half years.
