Best Western eyeing return to Okotoks

A local developer is making a bid to build another hotel in Okotoks, which could help address what some consider to be a critical shortage of local accommodations.

Okotoks resident Roanne Bodnarchuk has submitted an application for a development permit to the Town of Okotoks for an 82-room Best Western hotel to be located in the Southbank Business Park.

The application has yet to be approved by the Town’s Municipal Planning Commission, but the hotel would feature meeting and banquet facilities, and a pool and waterslide. The application could go to the commission for approval as early as next week.

Bodnarchuk was not available for an interview by press time, but in an email, she said she was excited about the project and hoped to start construction next year.

There are currently three hotels in town with a total of 119 rooms. None of the existing hotels is full service including a restaurant and pool facility.

The Town of Okotoks’ economic development officer Shane Olson said for the past five and a half years they have been speaking about the need for more hotels at various economic development presentations, which didn’t net any results.

Now, about four or five interested parties have contacted the Town about hotel opportunities, he said.

“Our phone is just ringing. We actually haven’t gone out seeking them,” said Olson.

If the new hotel were to be approved, there would be a total of 201 rooms in town, which Olson said is still likely not enough to address the community’s needs.

“We’ve lost a lot of conference bids based on our lack of hotel space,” he said, explaining how 200 rooms would not be enough to host some conferences with 350 to 400 delegates, events the Town would like to host.

More hotels will allow the Town to expand its tourism industry, host more sporting events and weddings, and positively impact the restaurant and retail industry, he said, which will likely drive more business to the existing hotels.

“New hotel properties will allow us to host sporting events, for example, which will have a ripple effect and benefit all of the hotels with new business because this is business that we’re not already capturing to a large degree,” he said.

Maria Clarke, the general manager at Lakeview Inns and Suites Okotoks said the town needs a full service hotel with a pool and restaurant.

The hotel has 64 rooms and is often full in the summer, she said. There are times when staff must turn away big groups if there is something else going on in the area such as if a rig crew shuts down and comes to stay in town.

“I just feel sorry for the people when we have to turn them away,” she said.

However, Okotoks Country Inn operations manager Gord Callaghan said he didn’t think there was a need for another hotel in Okotoks, as the 40-room hotel is not busy all the time.

“I don’t think there’s a time where we’re really turning a lot of people away,” he said. “As Calgary encroaches further south, more and more people I think are staying in Calgary for events in Okotoks, whereas before, it was little bit farther away.”

He said he thinks some visitors to Okotoks stay in Calgary not because there is a shortage of accommodation in Okotoks, but because they want to be in the city.

For some big tournaments Okotoks Minor Hockey Association has hosted, visitors have had to stay in Calgary or High River because there were not enough rooms locally, said the organization’s operations coordinator Jamie Steer.

He said there are not any hotels in town suited for big events and a family-style hotel with a pool for children would be beneficial.

He noted how when a community puts in a bid to host an event, the committee usually considers the town’s accommodation as a deciding factor.

The Royal Duke Hotel Eatery and Pub, which recently underwent renovations, has 15 bedrooms. One of the partners, Barry McColl, said the hotel is at capacity about 60 per cent of the time, and has had to turn people away in the summer.

He said he was not aware if there was a hotel shortage in town, but the Royal Duke’s rooms will undergo further upgrades and they are planning to create a meeting room with the hope to accommodate small conferences.