An ambitious plan to expand the Treasure Cove Hotel is close to getting off the ground.
Work on adding another 42 rooms to the 82 already in place should begin early this summer, West Coast Hospitality Group Ltd. president and CEO Craig Briere said this week.
The project comes as a handful of other hotel construction projects are either in the throes of completion or are on the books. The intention is to move the hotel, which now flies under the Prestige brand, into the resort category, according to Brier.
"We based our decision not on what everyone else is doing but on what we wanted to do," Briere said. "Our decision was based upon continuing to lead the market in Prince George and to really take the hotel to a different level."
Improvements will also be made to the existing rooms.
"We'll be adding balcony rooms, we'll be adding kitchenettes, we'll be adding one-bedroom suites," Briere said. A new Playgrounds Bistro is in the cards and a restaurant tenant is in the process of launching a new brand, he also noted.
"We're adding new amenities to the site, we're not just adding inventory."
The addition will occupy a 1,300-square-metre (14,000-square-foot) footprint out of the back of the existing hotel. It will rise six stories and be capped with a "best-in-class penthouse." Cost of the expansion is set at $6 million.
Financing for the project is in place, Briere said. The permit application process began this week, while the drawings are being completed and the contractors are being lined up.
Work on a $3-million expansion of the Treasure Cove Casino show lounge is now underway. It will triple the capacity to 600 seats and should be completed by spring 2019.
"From an overall site perspective, that really creates that entertainment destination for northern B.C. that has a multitude of options for guests when they're traveling here," Briere said.
In 2005, Treasure Cove Hotel won city council's approval to double the number of rooms to 160, but the project was never pursued.
The project, as it's now planned, will take about a year to complete once it's started.
