The groundbreaking ceremony for the $23-million Marriott hotel downtown took place on Jan. 29.  (Spencer Sterritt)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

groundbreaking

Construction officially underway on long-promised downtown Nanaimo hotel

Jan 29, 2020 | 2:52 AM

NANAIMO — A major milestone finally happened in the journey of bringing a hotel to the conference centre in downtown Nanaimo.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Wednesday, Jan. 29 at the site of the $23-million, 172-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel across from the conference centre. The project, developed and funded by PEG Developments, is expected to be finished in 18 months.

Bill Corsan, director of community development with the City of Nanaimo, said he’s thrilled construction is expected to begin next week.

“Once the project starts to rise out of the ground, it starts to become a reality. I know there’s skeptical people in the community but we’re really looking forward to the hotel coming out of the ground and people visualizing how significant this hotel is going to be for downtown.”

I think it’s going to give more of a buzz to downtown and make it a place to invest. _{Bill Corsan}

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It was a day which to many seemed like it would never come.

A building permit was issued in late February, 2019 with work expected to start several months later. However, the date to start construction was continually pushed back to the point where the City of Nanaimo had the option to repurchase the land at 100 Gordon St.

Under tight deadlines, crews arrived at the site before the end of 2019 and the building permit for the site did not lapse.

Numerous projects were promised and developed for the downtown site in an effort to boost tourism and commerce at the conference centre.

The closest was by the Chinese company SS Manhoe, who applied for a building permit but never finished the process.

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