By Dominic Abassi

Nanaimo sees ‘good range’ of proposals for conference centre hotel site

Mar 1, 2017 | 5:15 PM

NANAIMO — Six “high-quality” proposals came in for development on a key piece of property in downtown Nanaimo, according to the city’s chief administrative officer.

Tracy Samra told NanaimoNewsNOW the expressions of interest for projects on the vacant lot behind the conference centre are a “good range” of proposals from known, successful developers. She said the basic information was presented to council earlier this week.

“I think we’re going to circle back after the referendum, because if we’re building an events centre the economics may be very different than if we’re not building one,” Samra said.

She would not disclose if any hotels were proposed.

Council directed staff to issue a request for offers for the 0.4 acre, development-ready lot in December of last year. The bid window closed on Jan. 24, however the City has been quiet on what kind of proposals came in until now.

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In the past, the focus had been solely on a hotel to compliment the conference centre. Samra said a different approach was taken this time around, which seemed to be effective.

“I think what council wanted to do was not be prescriptive…letting the developers come forward and say ‘hey, in this economy, this is what makes sense, this is what we’d like to build,’” she said. “I think it’s a much better approach and I think it’s yielded very good results.”

“While a hotel is still a goal of Council, other uses contemplated for the site are welcome to be identified through this process. Council is keen to see the 100 Gordon Street property redeveloped in a timely manner,” stated the City’s online bid posting.

The site has been the home of several unsuccessful hotel bids and has long been blamed for a perceived lack of success for the Vancouver Island Conference Centre.

In 2013, Chinese travel agent SSS Manhao proposed a 21-storey, $50 million hotel. The city sold the property to Manhao for $565,000 in November 2013. However, several construction deadlines were missed and Council denied a request for an extension. Eventually staff were directed to buy back the property for the same price in July 2015.

The City’s real estate manager Bill Corsan said another Chinese company had expressed interest in 2011 but negotiations never materialized.

In 2009, Millenium Development Corp., the same company behind Vancouver’s troubled 2010 Olympic village project, was forced to pull the plug on their proposed hotel due to a lack of financing.

A key pillar of the conference centre’s original business plan was having a hotel as part of the development.

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi