Group Germain Hotels’ new hotel at the Ottawa International Airport is on track to be completed by the end of the year, a company spokesperson told OBJ on Monday.
“The project is moving along very well and is now in its final phase,” spokesperson France Savard said in an email to OBJ. “We are still aiming to deliver the building by the end of the year, and we look forward to opening the hotel as soon as possible afterwards. We will be pleased to share an official opening date once it is confirmed.”
According to the company’s website, the Alt Hotel Ottawa Airport, which will be attached to the airport terminal, will have seven storeys and 180 rooms. In 2023, the company said the project would cost an estimated $55 million.
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Last week, the Alt Hotel announced on its Instagram page that booking for the hotel is now available, with opening expected in 2026.
The new hotel, which will operate under the Alt banner, will be the company’s third property in the Ottawa area after its Alt Hotel on Slater Street and the recently opened Le Germain at the redeveloped Arts Court complex near the Rideau Centre.
It will be the third airport location for Group Germain Hotels, which also runs Alt-branded properties at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Similar to the buildings in Toronto and Halifax, the Ottawa hotel will offer direct entry to the terminal through an indoor skywalk.
“For us it’s extremely important because it’s a nice way to differentiate ourselves, to be able to have our guests stay in the hotel and basically pack their stuff and literally go to their plane in winter in their flip-flops and their shorts,” Hugo Germain, the family-owned firm’s director of development, told OBJ in 2023.
“For us to be able to be connected to a terminal like this is really a unique opportunity. Each airport probably has one terminal hotel, and after that usually it’s not something they develop anymore.”
Group Germain announced plans to build the hotel in early 2019 and initially hoped to complete the project by the end of the following year. However, the pandemic delayed construction.
As passenger volumes approach pre-pandemic levels, efforts are underway to increase the airport’s capacity. In addition to new international routes from Air Canada and Air France, as well as a push by Porter Airlines to grow its Ottawa presence, the airport has been working on a number of projects to expand its footprint and become “more of a hub,” airport authority president and CEO Susan Margles told OBJ last May.
Earlier this year, the airport’s LRT station opened, connecting passengers to the transit system via Line 4, a spur to the airport, which branches off from the re-opened and extended north-south Line 2 from South Keys station.
On the concession front, Starbucks reopened earlier this year. The existing D’Arcy McGee’s Irish Pub, located across from Starbucks, will be demolished to make way for a new Zak’s Diner.
With files from David Sali
