OTTAWA — A new hotel tower is being proposed next to the current Andaz hotel property in Ottawa’s ByWard Market, allowing the site to handle more guests and host larger meetings, according to the Ottawa Business Journal.
Claridge Homes, the hotel’s developer, says the new hotel tower would include 136 additional rooms and a 3,600-sq.-ft. ballroom.
Claridge vice-president Neil Malhotra says an analysis following the hotel’s first year in operation concluded the Andaz needed more space to host gatherings of 200 people or more, as well as more rooms to accommodate guests attending events at the downtown property.
A site plan filed with the city says the proposed building at the corner of York and Dalhousie streets would be connected to the existing 200-room hotel by a ground-level podium. The two-storey structure currently on the site, which houses a nightclub, would be demolished to make way for the new hotel tower.
If the plan is approved, it would further boost Ottawa’s downtown-hotel inventory following a spate of new openings and planned developments expected to add hundreds of new rooms to the market. The current 17-storey Andaz Ottawa ByWard Market opened in August 2016 on the site of the former Union of Canada building, becoming the brand’s first Canadian location.
