Plans for new hotel good news, airport authority says

Plans for a new hotel are good news for air travellers and the city, says a manager with the airport authority.

The proposed 75-room Hampton Inn by Hilton on Thunder Bay International Airports Authority land will help raise the community’s profile and generate tourism, business development manager Ed Schmidtke said Wednesday.

By leasing the two-acre property west of Landale Gardens on Arthur Street will also generate more revenue for the authority.

"We find this to be very good news on a number of levels," Schmidtke said. "Every time the airport authority improves its financial position it helps us continue as being the only airport that has abolished the airport improvement fee."

Jeff Crocco, the managing partner of the group proposing the hotel, said the mid-luxury business hotel would be a first for Thunder Bay. While there are several other hotels in the area, Crocco said customers of the proposed hotel probably wouldn’t be existing customers of those other establishments.

The group wants to attract business travellers who usually travel in and out of the city on the same day.

The $165 estimated room rate would be higher than other hotels in the city, he added. Two internationally recognized consultants and market research have shown that Thunder Bay needs a hotel of that stature.

Although the proposed site has a lot of vegetation, Crocco, a Thunder Bay native, said the site plans want to use the existing trees to make a more Northern Ontario feel than can be found at most other Canadian Hilton hotels.

"It’ll be the typical Hampton hotel brand but we’ve redesigned it to be more Northern Ontario and certainly more within the city of Thunder Bay," Crocco said. "When you arrive at the hotel it will be more of a park resort feel as opposed to two acres of asphalt and we park the hotel right in the middle of it."

The group is holding a public meeting Wednesday evening at the West Arthur Community Centre to show the proposed plan and get community feedback.