EDMONTON — Two new hotel developments are being planned for downtown Edmonton for the first time in decades, reports the Edmonton Journal.
Canada’s first Hyatt Place hotel, near Jasper Avenue, is scheduled to open next August. The 14-storey hotel will have underground parking and commercial space for businesses and restaurants. It will be aimed at business travellers, offering less than a full-service category hotel.
Edmonton’s Katz Group and Western Canada’s WAM Development Group recently announced the second hotel (not confirmed but rumoured to be a JW Marriott), will be built in the Edmonton Arena district. “Just look at the hotel vacancy and occupancy rates in Edmonton, and look at what the city needs — a hotel’s at the top of the list, in particular a hotel in this district with the people that are going to travel to Edmonton and frequent this district,” said Daryl Katz, chairman, the Katz Group, in an interview with the Edmonton Journal. The second hotel is expected to open at the end of 2017.
It’s been reported that the last hotel built in downtown Edmonton was in the late 1970s. [edmontonjournal.com]
