A Montreal firm says a mixed-use tower proposed for a coveted piece of downtown real estate will feature its third Ottawa hotel affiliated with the Marriott chain.
Rimap Hospitality says it’s signed an agreement with Marriott International to operate a 230-room lodging under the Maryland-based hotel giant’s Renaissance banner at 395 Slater St. The hotel will be part of a 35-storey highrise that will also feature 270 rental apartment units, a restaurant, bar and 6,000 square feet of meeting space.
Rimap Hospitality’s sister companies, Rimap Development and Rimap Construction, will oversee construction of the mixed-use project.
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For Ginger Bertrand, some of her earliest childhood memories in Ottawa are centred around healthcare. “I grew up across the street from what was originally the General Hospital,” she explains,
The proposal is just the latest in a series of hotel projects launched by the Rimap group of companies in Ottawa as it looks to add new inventory to what it feels is an underserved market.
Rimap already has two other hotels in the works in the capital – a 208-room AC Hotels by Marriott lodging at 201 Rideau St. it’s building in conjunction with sister company Prince Developments and a 222-room hotel it plans to open under Marriott’s Moxy banner in a converted heritage building at 126 York St. in the ByWard Market.
“We are thrilled to continue our development momentum with our third hotel with Marriott International in downtown Ottawa,” Rimap president Marc Varadi said in a news release.
Rimap bought the half-acre Slater Street property from Toronto-based developer Main and Main late last year. It’s part of a larger plot of land bordered by Bay, Albert, Lyon and Slater streets that Main and Main purchased in 2018 from Ottawa-based Manor Park Management.
The former site of the Alterna Savings and Credit Union is about 100 metres south of the Lyon LRT Station and is among the last significant vacant properties available for development in the downtown core.
Rimap has hired the Montreal-based architecture firm of GeigerHuot to design its building, which will feature shared amenities such as a pool, gym and yoga room for residents and hotel guests as well as a restaurant and bar in the hotel lobby at the corner of Slater and Bay streets.
An underground parkade will have spots for 172 vehicles, with 92 reserved for residents and the remaining 80 for hotel guests and employees.
The proposal already meets zoning requirements, and Varadi told OBJ in February the firm hopes to start construction by the end of the year if all goes according to plan. He said the hotel will be a higher-end property catering to government and business clients.
“It’s going to fit the area perfectly,” Varadi said.
Main and Main’s original proposal came more than two years after the previous owner of the property, Ottawa-based Manor Park Management, had submitted its own plan to build three mixed-use highrises at the site.
Manor Park’s project called for 368 rental apartments and 136 extended-stay hotel suites with underground parking for 365 vehicles. It was also slated to include nearly 30,000 square feet of retail and commercial space “to allow flexibility to attract an urban format grocery store,” according to a consultant’s report filed with the city in 2017.
Before that, Broccolini Construction had expressed interest in rebuilding a smaller portion of the property in 2015, proposing a single 27-storey tower to replace the two-storey credit union building.
City council approved that plan, which called for 300 rental apartments and street-level commercial space, later that same year, but the proposal ultimately fell through. Manor Park then came up with its plan after acquiring the site from Alterna early in 2016.
