A new Holiday Inn and Suites hotel is potentially coming to the corner of 114th Street and Pioneer Avenue.
Monday night, council voted to accept an offer by Gary Brar to sell the northwest portion of that parcel of land for an amount of $1 million. As part of the resolution, council also provided authorization to proceed with preparation of an agreement of sale.
Brar is owner of Western Star Group of Hotels based out of Carlyle, Saskatchewan, that has recently been involved with creating a chain of hotels in southeast Saskatchewan.
His stated objective, according to the proposal distributed to councillors Monday night, is to “provide a brand new facility largely based on servicing families and providing accommodations for teams that participate in tournaments and games in town.”
It also stated that the idea has been presented to a representative from Holiday Inn and “they are extremely interested in entering your market.”
There were not a lot of details provided about how many rooms or amenities the hotel would have, but a pool is to be included.
The sale to Brar means all of the lots on that entire parcel of land between 114th Street and Territorial Drive south of Pioneer Street are now sold.
New developments already there include a strip mall.
According to director of planning and development Jennifer Niesink, the potential hotel development “fits well with what our plan for the area was.”
Because of the development of the other portions of the land, a significant easement is required on the parcel Brar is purchasing. According to Niesink, the buyer is aware of it and plans to work around it.
The payment terms include $10,000 with an offer to purchase, $90,000 provided with removal of due diligence conditions, and the remainder to be provided in trust to city lawyers upon removal of due diligence conditions and held in trust until the transfer of title.
This latest hotel news comes on the heels of the build of a new Comfort Inn and Suites hotel, which is currently under construction on Carlton Trail north of the Frontier Centre mall.
Councillors welcomed the news of another hotel coming to the city.
“It’s awesome” was the reaction from Councillor Don Buglas.
Mayor Ryan Bater noted that this highlighted the need to do the master plan for the southeast quadrant, because many of the lots that were vacant “aren’t going to be vacant much longer.”
