The new Best Western Premier hotel will take its first guests Thursday. (Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

new digs

P.A.’s newest hotel set to open

Feb 5, 2020 | 7:00 AM

It’s arrived about 15 months later than initially hoped, but Prince Albert’s newest hotel, the $15 million Best Western Premier, welcomes its first guests tomorrow.

The location on the south side of town – which the owners claim will offer a level of luxury accommodation, facilities and service not seen in the city – received final inspection this week.

“We’re definitely excited to finally open up,” general manager Faizan Hirani told paNOW. “It’s been a long journey, but I think people will be very happy with the product we’ve produced.”

That journey started in controversial fashion in the fall of 2017 when city council approved $700,000 in cash incentives for the 82-room build, in the form of new road construction and waived permit and levy charges. So, in some way P.A. taxpayers have a stake in the project and in its future success, and Hirani acknowledged that.

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The hotel’s extended stay rooms feature a full kitchen. (Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

“First of all, I say thank you [to the public]; I think we’ve taken the bar and moved it up a step,” he said. “We’ve brought a new product to the city…we’re excited for people to visit and we can show them we can do luxury in Prince Albert.”

In describing the hotel as a blend of boutique and luxury, Hirani said the majority of their rooms feature two queen beds with an emphasis on space because of the many sports teams that come to town. There are also some suites as well as what he calls ‘extended stay rooms’ with a full kitchen.

The bar opens in the evenings and is next to the breakfast/dinner section.(Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

The site offers a breakfast area that converts into a bar and restaurant at night and Hirani said part of their higher-end service offering was having a dedicated chef for dinner and functions.

The 50-seat conference room includes a collapsible lecturn. (Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

Among the other highlights are an indoor swimming pool and spa, gym, conference room, and lounge with business centre. There are even a couple of over-sized storerooms just for the hockey equipment they expect travelling teams to bring.

The hotel expects a lot of visiting sports teams to make their way through town and has dedicated over-sized storage areas. (Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

There are currently 20 employees on site and Hirani figured that number would grow by up to another 30 as they ramped up their operations.

Asked about the delay in completion he said that was largely due to the high-end finishes.

“Building it to perfection takes time. We didn’t want to rush it and have a product that wasn’t completely ready,” he explained .”The end product is absolutely beautiful, we have no regrets.”

While there were initial hopes from city officials the hotel could be built in time for the World Junior Baseball championships in the summer of 2018, and then again by the fall of that year, construction actually started in early 2018. Hirani said from ground-breaking to completion it was a 24 month process so they were six months behind their planned schedule.

The hotel’s pool and spa has a number of different floor and wall tiles and textures.The owners said these sorts of high-end finishes were part of the reason for the delays in completion. (Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

Bolstering the city tax base

The future economic health of the hotel and its accompanying beer store are important, for the owners as well as the city’s taxpayers. In 2017, when mayor Greg Dionne justified the cash incentive awarded by council he said that was the cost of bringing a project of this scale to Prince Albert. He also anticipated the return on the public’s investment would come back via taxes within three years, not the usual five year norm in the business world.

Times have been tough for P.A. in recent years and the anticipated tax revenue from the new venture will be much needed. And regarding the hospitality industry, the situation of the currently shuttered downtown Quality Inn hotel – which owes the city $700,000 in back taxes – will not to be lost on councillors.

Looking to the future, with a new $60 million arena set to come to the city in the coming years, the owners of the Best Western Premier will be banking on being best positioned to take advantage of all that extra sporting traffic and will hope those fancy new hockey storerooms stay full.

Editor’s note: this story was amended to make clear the construction of the hotel took 24 months from ground-breaking which the owners said put them six months behind their schedule.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princeabertnow