Construction issues keep Loden, Shangri-La from meeting scheduled deadlines
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Two new high-end downtown Vancouver hotel projects have delayed their opening dates because of construction issues and other factors.
The 77-room Loden hotel at 1177 Melville was supposed to open last fall but now expects to accept its first guests in March of this year.
The 119-room Shangri-La hotel at 1128 West Georgia was set to open in September this year but now has set an official opening date of Jan. 24, 2009. The hotel will occupy the first 15 floors of a 60-storey tower.
Loden hotel general manager Edel Forristal said project developer Amacon has several projects in place now and has moved workers to different developments to keep things moving forward as quickly as possible.
The hotel — which features an 80-seat restaurant headed by chef Marc-Andre Choquette — will accept bookings about a month before it opens.
The Loden was originally going to be a two-phase development with 130 hotel rooms and meeting space but the second phase has been postponed, leaving the property with 77 rooms and no meeting space at present.
Forristal said hotel officials have used the delay to “grow” the project and make it more interesting.
“There are certain things you can move ahead with conceptually,” she said. “But it’s still not the same as having the actual pieces in front of you and seeing how it all comes together.”
Shangri-La general manager Stephen Darling said the four-month delay at his boutique hotel has been caused mainly by a desire to avoid disrupting hotel guests by ensuring the project’s 216 condos get occupied before the hotel opens.
“We could have opened in November but didn’t feel that was the right time of year to open,” he said. “We want to take the extra eight weeks and get ourselves in order.”
Darling said most of the project’s construction delays occurred three years ago when builders discovered more bedrock than they expected during excavation work.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts regional vice-president Mark Andrew said the 415-room Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel near Canada Place is still on schedule for a mid-2009 opening.
He said hotel opening dates are often flexible and stressed it’s not a huge deal for new properties to fall a few months behind.
“The building might be finished by a certain time but hoteliers still need 12 to 16 weeks to train staff and make sure everything works properly,” Andrew said.
Hotel Georgia officials said they’re still on schedule to reopen the historic property at Georgia and Howe as a 168-room hotel by late 2009. The hotel had 313 rooms when it closed for extensive renovations a year ago.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
