Over the last 40 years years, Stein Group International has developed hotels and resorts in cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin and Paris.
Now the firm is gearing up for its next development: a full-service hotel in Mount Pearl.
“I think the opportunity of this particular site was interesting because we have a $65-million investment by the city in their sports and leisure complex,” Stein Group chairman David Stein told reporters following a news conference announcing the development.
“I think also it’s a great location close to businesses and also the community doesn’t have not only a hotel but a centre for commercial activity.”
“Beyond that, what became clear to us quickly is the city itself — the leadership, the vision and the support — is another asset for us and we believe we’ve worked with them really in a partnership relationship to make this dream a reality.”
It’s a dream that’s been alive, according to newly minted Mount Pearl Mayor Dave Aker, for the last 10 years.
While the city could have easily welcomed a “barebones hotel or motel” at any point in the last decade, councils over the years have held out for the right partner to bring the hotel of their dreams to life.
Another cog in the development wheel was marketing the 4 1/2 acres of land at 11-15 Olympic Drive next to the Glacier and opposite the town’s fire hall, that the city had set aside, a plot of land that served as the garbage dump during Mount Pearl’s formative years.
“It’s zoned commercial general, but it is a brownfield site, so I guess in some cases it takes quite a bit of marketing to ensure you’re going to attract that capital to build on the site,” Aker said.
Because the Stein group and its partner, Canadian-owned hotel management and development company Pacrim, will incur significant remediation costs, the city will eventually transfer ownership of the land for $1.
“It’s not your typical site where you can just go in, take off the surface layer and start laying down the foundation,” says Aker, noting the building won’t have a basement, but will sit on pylons that reach the bedrock.
“For those that thought the land was worthless … clearly this is a way of reclaiming some of that land to make it productive and useful, and there’ll be no environmental impact at the end of the day as a result.”
Stein says based on the current design, only the parking area at the rear of the facility should abut the former dump site.
“There’s been over $300,000 of exploration already done, but you never can tell,” says Stein. “When I say we’re out of the zone, we believe we are, but there could be surprises.”
As for the design of the hotel complex, the main four-storey building will have 130 guest rooms. A separate two-storey banquet centre will be able to accommodate up to 400 seated guests — 593 standing.
“We see meetings, banquets, charitable events, sporting events and in particular weddings are a great opportunity for us as a hotel, but really as a service to the community,” Stein says of the versatile banquet facility that will have a second-floor view of Mount Pearl and St. John’s all the way to Cabot Tower.
At the other end of the site will be a two-storey standalone 226-seat restaurant serving both hotel guests and the public.
The partnership between Stein and Pacrim is using the Lighthouse Hotel Inc. name, but the hotel will bear the brand of a known hotel chain. The list was recently narrowed down to two from five, but Stein isn’t ready to divulge the finalists.
“It’s interesting because with one we share a pie with other hotels here and the other is unique, but they are both from North America and they both have a presence in Canada.”
The restaurant, meanwhile, won’t be a franchise.
“If you have a branded restaurant, they know what’s best for the followers of their brand, which may not be (what we) want for our hotel guests and the community,” he says. “We feel we’ll know what’s best for the community and our guests.”
Construction is expected to begin in the spring of next year, with an anticipated opening sometime in 2020.
Roots on the rock
When firms from outside Newfoundland and Labrador come here to develop projects, it’s rare for anyone involved to have a connection to the province.
Rarer still is to have both partners in a major development with a connection to the island.
But that’s the case with Lighthouse Hotel Inc., the Stein Group International-Pacrim partnership team that is developing a full-service hotel in Mount Pearl.
David Stein, chairman of the Stein group, grew up in the United States, but his mother’s side of the family hails from Portugal Cove South on the Southern Shore, where today he maintains a home in Trepassey.
His uncle, David Power, was once the lighthouse keeper in Cape Race, where Stein spent many summers as a youth.
Meanwhile, Pacrim CEO Glenn Squires is a native of Mount Pearl. Ruth Avenue is named in honour of his grandmother.
Twitter: kennoliver79
