The faces behind the new hotel development came to Crowsnest Pass on Tuesday, February 12th to answer questions from local residents on the new development. From left to right, Luke Day, Darcy Durksen Al Fritz, from Medican, and Chris Vachon from Group|Vachon.
LINDSAY GOSS
Pass Herald Reporter
An open house hosted by Medican General Contractors regarding the hotel development was held and provided a long-awaited opportunity to answer the questions many concerned citizens had regarding the site.
The open house, which took place at Elks Hall on Tuesday, February 12th saw close to 120 people, including councilors, members of administration, residents and three representatives from Medican: Luke Day, Al Fritz and Darcy Durksen. Chris Vachon from Group | Vachon was also in attendance.
“One of the things we like to do when we launch a new project is come to the community, introduce ourselves and to listen,” said Day, General Contractor of Medican.
“We’re primarily here to listen,” said Day. “We want to present some of our ideas with the site but the goal of the night is to listen to you and to your thoughts and ideas for the project.”
On Tuesday, February 4th, it was announced that an agreement has been signed with the municipality to launch a 50-75-room hotel, to be located at the intersection of Highway 3 and 20th Avenue, formally where the Crowsnest Centre was situated.
In addition to the hotel, the development will also include a hot tub, pool, breakfast area, meeting rooms, restaurant and sports bar, fast food restaurant, an off-leash dog area, and a children’s playground.
Al Fritz, an architect with the project says that the project is divided into different zones, a municipal zone, a sporting zone a family zone and a hospitality zone.
The Municipal zone will include the children’s play area and fenced, off leash dog area. The sporting zone will include the restaurant and sports bar. The family one will include a fast food restaurant with a play area, and finally, the hospitality zone will include the hotel and small-scale convention centre.
Fritz stressed to audience members how important it is that a more luxurious brand of hotel is built, rather than a more inexpensive brand.
“We don’t want to have the bottom of the barrel on this one,” said Fritz.
Fritz also explained that that in addition to the luxury of the hotel brand, it is also important to have the architect of the structure reflect the personality of Crowsnest Pass. He showed audience members a development built in Canmore, Alberta, by Medican, which was focused on crafted logs, large-scale timbers and a mixture of rustic accents such as rock and stone, which tried to reflect the mountainous region in which Canmore rests.
Mayor Bruce Decoux was also at the open house.
“There was a lot of hair ripping to make this possible,” said Decoux. “But after we were elected, you made it clear to us that you wanted something done with the Crowsnest Centre site.”
Medican confirmed that they will be dealing with the deconstruction of the site, although they were unable to release the name of the company that they will hire to do that work.
Deconstruction will start by the summer of this year.
