The O’Brien House has stood in Gatineau Park for nearly a century, but for the company that will be reopening it as a boutique hotel this spring, the heritage property represents an entirely new business opportunity.
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The O’Brien House has stood in Gatineau Park for nearly a century, but for the company that will be reopening it as a boutique hotel this spring, the heritage property represents an entirely new business opportunity.
The National Capital Commission announced last week that Square Old Chelsea would be the new tenant of the historic mansion, which was built by Montreal Canadiens founder John Ambrose O’Brien in 1930 and acquired by the NCC in 1964.
Square Old Chelsea is a group of businesses located in the village of Old Chelsea at the entrance to Gatineau Park. The businesses include: Chelsea Pub, Biscotti & Cie, Lofts du Village, Maison Bleue, Petite Grocerie, Distillerie du Square, La Cocktailerie, and Terrasse du Square.
CEO Manuela Teixeira told OBJ the O’Brien House — with its 11 guest rooms, an event space and an eatery that will open to the public on weekends — will provide an offering that Square Old Chelsea has been missing.
“We’re putting a lot of work into our marketing for corporate clients and outside visitors, so adding O’Brien House was so complementary,” she said. “It’s adding another, more high-end accommodation, close to the village.”
The Square Old Chelsea business model is unique, in that the company has created what Teixeira said is akin to a small resort village, with a cafe, pub, distillery and multiple accommodation options all clustered in the Old Chelsea area. The location at the entrance to Gatineau Park and the proximity to other businesses such as Nordik Spa Village have been factors in attracting visitors, Teixeira said.
The model, she said, is all about “creating synergies.”
“It’s about trying to keep people in the loop,” she said. “When we have clients booking the Lofts (accomodation), they can then go to our own businesses. They can go to our pub. The staff cross-promotes our other businesses. The strategy is really keeping people in here, going from one establishment to the other.”
O’Brien House, which overlooks Meech Lake, is a five-minute drive from the village and will be managed and run by the Square Old Chelsea team. Teixeira said it will be ideal for clients who weren’t as well-served by the group’s other accommodations.
“We get a lot of calls from clients that want to come during the week, during the weekend, for groups and events, either corporate or private,” she said. “The team here receives all of it, lots of calls per day. Now, they’ll be able to book O’Brien House.”
Because of its historic roots, she said O’Brien House is ideal for government retreats or meetings, which is another client the company wants to target.
She added, “What will make this work is the fact that we have an experienced team that will be able to redirect the clients to the right location. A big part of our strategy here is to be able to grab onto the clients that we could not usually serve because we did not have that more high-end service. Now we’ll be able to say, ‘If you want this kind of service, we can send you to O’Brien.’”
The five-year lease has an option to renew every five years until 2051. Teixeira said the agreement took about six months to negotiate with the NCC.
“I’ve been looking at this property for many, many years but the timing was never good,” she said. “Each year, we were renovating or adding or building something in the square, so it was just in the back of my head. Now, we still have work to do, but have more time for development. We were looking into acquisitions, diversification, and the O’Brien House came into the conversation.”
It won’t be the first time the property has operated as a hotel. After a $4-million facelift from the NCC, the house was opened as a hotel in 2018 by Quebec hoteliers Robert Milling and Lynn Berthiaume, but ended up closing the following year. The building has sat vacant since.
But this doesn’t faze Teixeira, who said the advantage for Square Old Chelsea is that O’Brien House is just one piece of a larger puzzle.
“For us, we don’t have to do much,” she said. “It’s not a big project. It’s just adding on another branch. The building is already there and there’s no big investment, in terms of building. The risk is not that big.”
While the property is aging, she said it doesn’t require much work. Outside of minor repairs, painting and furniture updates, Teixeira said the biggest change will be the addition of a spa and wellness area, which would include saunas, jacuzzis and pools.
The soft opening for the hotel is set for May, with the official opening scheduled for June 1.
