Mall eyes sky
Firm plans hotel on top of downtown shopping centre
By Ron Ryder
The Guardian -
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=5164&sc=1
A landmark Charlottetown business is looking toward the sky with plans to add as many as 60 hotel rooms to the Confederation Court Mall.
In a recent interview, Richard Homburg of Homburg Invest Inc., told Nova Scotia media that his company is looking at building a new hotel on top of the downtown shopping centre.
Mike Arnold, the businessman who helped build Confederation Court Mall, is now a vice-president of Homburg. He said the business is still a long way from announcing construction plans, but he said development and expansion of the mall property fits in with such other Homburg investments such as the renovated Dundee Arms Inn and the nearly completed Northumberland condominiums that have drawn people into the capital’s downtown.
“There’s a synergy that happens. We want to have people downtown and we want to have another hotel as a way to help the mall and the mall, in turn, helps the condominiums and the hotel,” Arnold said.
“We have been talking to some engineers and architects about the possibilities. Pretty soon we’re going to sit down and look at the business side to see if the numbers work out.”
Arnold said the company is planning a development that would go over top of the existing building, with a new entrance likely to be built in the currently vacant lot along the mall’s Queen Street façade.
If the construction were to proceed, Arnold said it would take between a year and 18 months to compete.
“If this happens we’ll have to do what we can to make sure that business can go on in the mall and in these office towers,” he said.
“We don’t want to interrupt things. But my prediction is that the construction will actually end up attracting people who want to see what’s going on.”
Arnold said a more immediate plan under consideration is the renovation of the Confederation Court Mall food court into a single-cash takeout that he envisions being run by a chef who can maintain the balance of nutrition, value and quality that downtown workers will pay for.
“A lot of what we are seeing happen now is the kind of development that I imagined when I first talked to downtown business owners about building this mall 35 years ago,” he said. “When I look at businesses like the new grocery store or the condos that Co-op is building down on Paoli’s Wharf, it’s exciting.
“People are coming to Charlottetown who are retiring after working out West or are moving into town when they decide they don’t want the big house anymore. They’ve got some money and they want quality and services.”