Andrew A. Duffy
Sun
Wyndansea near Ucluelet is being billed as including the most environmentally sustainable five-star hotel in Canada
VICTORIA – The developers of a massive resort on Vancouver Island‘s west coast say the project will include the greenest five-star hotel in Canada, a sprawling $200-million facility that could use the area’s wind and tides to minimize its environmental impact.
Vancouver‘s Marine Drive Properties, the developers at the helm of the waterfront Wyndansea Ocean Front Golf Resort, say they’re building their 175-room hotel sustainably not because it’s the trendy thing to do, but rather because it’s the right thing to do considering its location.
“The site is really asking for environmental responsibility in terms of its natural environment. It’s pristine, a world attraction, and it is that way because it’s unspoiled,” said architect Ron Lea of Folio Architecture, who has drawn up the plans for Wyndansea’s strata hotel, noting the site itself dictates how the development takes shape.
“At this point to develop a building that doesn’t conform to some level of LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) is archaic.”
Wyndansea is a 150-hectare resort development with 5.6 kilometres of coastline surrounding a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course near Ucluelet.
The $650-million development promises a high-end residential component including 30 residential lots (half of which have already been purchased for an average of $2.2 million), waterfront villas, full-ownership hotel rooms, single-family homes, condominiums, commercial space and a deep-water marina.
The development is expected to break ground in the late fall, with the golf course to be completed in 2009.
Lea said the hotel, which will be built to LEED gold standards, is looking into using renewable energy systems such as seawater geo-thermal exchange, tidal and wind power, and using regional materials in the construction — that could mean an on-site quarry for rocks to be used in landscaping and road building, establishing an on-site cement plant to save them from trucking in material, and using local stone and wood for the finishing work.
“To introduce a hotel that would have some spoiling of the environment is not where the owners or we want to go,” said Lea. “We’re looking at something more integrated with the site.”
And the developers expect the sustainable elements of the project to be part of its attraction.
“We feel it’s really important and green is finally going mainstream,” said B.J. Turner, sales director for Wyndansea. “You just have to look across pop culture and everything it touches — cars, fashion, music and real estate.
“Our customers understand it’s not a trend or fad, but it’s really being woven into the social consciousness and buying decisions, and a lot of people are basing their buying decisions on sustainability.”
But not everyone’s convinced.
While the west coast of the Island is world-renowned for pristine scenery and tends to attract tourists and residents with a true affinity for nature, one tourism industry consultant wonders how big a market there is for a golf resort and coastal living in what can be a relatively harsh climate outside the peak of summer, not to mention how big a draw being considered environmentally sustainable really is.
“It’s becoming one of those monikers that some profess creates a market advantage,” said Frank Bourree of Chemistry Consulting in Victoria, who added being sustainable or green is nothing new in the hotel industry. “In environmentally sensitive areas like Vancouver Island it’s really mandatory that you do it to get community approvals and yes, increasingly the people who visit these high-end places have a social conscience and appreciate it, but they also have lots of other options.”
Bourree said weather could limit golfing at the resort and therefore limit returns for those individuals buying into the hotel, while those buying lots may be disappointed with just how often they get to hit the links.
“I’m fairly skeptical, the development is huge in scale, it’s far away and golf is not exactly year-round — the farther north on the Island you go the fewer days you have,” he said.
Turner said the draw at Wyndansea is not just golf — storm-watching has become a huge draw and will allow the resort to extend the tourism season into winter.
Wyndansea has recently opened its sales presentation centre, offering units in the hotel for just under $500,000.
