Update on our Hotel Developer in the Crowsnest Pass

I was under the impression that Medican was already out of court ordered creditor protection:

Several interesting stories from the Medicine Hat News, Lethbridge Herald, Western Wheel:

Medican attempts to get back into the swing
Feb 16,2013

COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com Twitter: CollinGallant
A former pillar of the Medicine Hat construction community is poised to come out from under court-ordered creditor protection, according to Ty Schneider, the chief restructuring officer at Medican.
Court proceedings this week and next should be the final phase, said Schneider, before a new entity emerges from the tangled story of the collapse of the construction and development company in May 2010.
"Things have come along way from where it was, and 2013 and 2014 should be good years of building," said Schneider, who is confident that a Court of Queen's Bench judge will approve the final settlement. 
A settlement arrangement that was voted on and approved in January 2012 that would see unsecured creditors paid up to a guaranteed amount of $2,750 and then part of a $10-million fund built up by the company was approved by a majority of nearly 500 unsecured creditors who voted.
Creditors who spoke with the News this week say they have had no contact with the court-appointed monitor about possible payments. 
In August, officials with Ernst and Young said they were beginning the process of verifying claims. Interview requests with the monitor made this week were not returned.
According to court documents, the new company has three years from the time it emerges from court protection to disperse the funds after it initially builds up $1 million, then quarterly as funds become available.
"It's very clear in the court order, we've agreed as a company to pay $10 million. " said Schneider. "The jobs that we've got are good jobs, and providing that we can get financing, provided the market remains stable, we can do OK."
Frustrated creditors reacted poorly to the news this week that Medican is planning to build a new hotel and commercial development in the Crowsnest Pass but officials with the company emerging from court protection say new money coming in means debts will be settled sooner.
"How do you spend money that you don't even have to pay back money that you can't pay back? It's business backwards to me," said Dawn Cameron, whose company Budget Blinds was owed about $7,500 when the company filed for creditor protection.
Spider Electric of Medicine Hat was owed $1.3 million by Medican, and now the owner is resigned to the idea that no funds are forthcoming.
"Education costs money and we got schooled pretty hard," said company president Mark Simmons. "We prepared ourselves but we're not expecting a nickel."
The original unsecured creditors list shows that at least 66 local companies are owed more than $1,000, and 10 area firms are owed in excess of $100,000. 
During the first year of the court proceedings, unprofitable operations were closed and assets like unsold condo units and land were ordered sold to pay almost $110 million owed to secured creditors.
Schneider said that at least $1 million of unpaid secured debt remains.
Along with work in the profitable concrete pouring wing of the company, the courts have allowed Medican to move ahead with or complete projects deemed profitable in the interest of maximizing the value of assets for settlement.
Along with the Crowsnest development, the company has a new project to build a hotel in Okotoks and is completing work on condo projects in Red Deer begun in 2011. 
Most of the new investment has been made by individuals, said Schneider, though one chartered bank, ATB Financial, has extended terms to the company.


Medican looking to build hotel in the Crowsnest Pass

Feb 14,2013

Dave Mabell
Lethbridge Herald
LETHBRIDGE
Medicine Hat construction company Medican is planning to build an "internationally branded" hotel in Crowsnest Pass and could start work on the 50- to 75-room facility this year, an official with the company says.
It's a new direction for Medican, developer of hundreds of condominium units in Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Red Deer, Grande Prairie and other cities over recent years.
The company filed for court protection from its creditors in 2010 and is currently working towards meeting the terms of a settlement agreement reached in January 2012. 
Medican has been concentrating on its profitable concrete pouring business during court proceedings, according to legal documents, but a hotel is a departure from that plan. 
Bill Cooper, vice-president of sales and marketing for Medican, says the Crowsnest Pass is long overdue for greater choice in accommodation and dining.
"With its central location between Lethbridge and Fernie, the Crowsnest Centre site is perfectly located to become the destination stopping area for travellers through the southern Rocky Mountains," he said.
Medican has signed an agreement with the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass covering property at the western edge of Blairmore, Cooper reports. 
The hotel – with an indoor pool, restaurant, sports bar and meeting rooms – will be near Highway 3. Adjacent retail spaces are also planned.
"There are exciting things happening in the Crowsnest Pass and we are excited to be bringing forward this hotel and commercial development," Cooper says.
Lethbridge architect Alvin Reinhold Fritz is developing a design for the hotel, he adds. Alberta investors are backing the project.
Cooper said the company has no other projects currently in southern Alberta.
In Red Deer, however, it's developing an adults-only condominium complex adjacent to the 280-unit assisted living complex it built recently for Extendicare. 
Cooper says Medican is selling units in the final phase of a 148-unit condo unit aimed at spouses of seniors who've moved into the health-care facility.
A similar Medican project in Lethbridge was hit by a recession but Cooper says it could possibly be resurrected in improved market conditions.

Hotel construction to start this month

Business: 82-room Best Western project has been years in the making

March 6,2013

It’s been many years in the making, but work on an Okotoks Best Western hotel will finally get underway later this month.

The hotel’s owners have revealed they are planning to break ground on the project on March 20.

Hotel co-owner Roanne Bodnarchuk said there’s a great need for another hotel in town, particularly to support the growing “sports tourism” market in the area. As a regular billet for the Okotoks Dawgs, she has often heard about the need for another hotel.

“The feedback from the billets has been, ‘There’s nowhere for our parents and our families to stay,’” she said. “We started looking into it four years ago after we had our first billet.”

Located next to Costco on Okotoks’ east side, the full-service hotel will boast 82 rooms, a banquet facility, indoor pool, waterslide and meeting rooms. There will also be a restaurant in a separate building on the site and Bodnarchuk said they are working to attract an “upscale” restaurant name.

The Okotoks resident and her husband Greg own BWO Hospitality Inc., which is developing the project.

It has been a lengthy planning process that began several years ago.

The Okotoks Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) approved the proposed Best Western in November 2011.

The developers had one year to meet a number of conditions set out by the MPC and they received an extension in November 2012 giving them until the end of June 2013 to meet the conditions of the approval.

The developers still have a number of steps left to complete before they can break ground.

Okotoks planning officer Wendy Cardiff said a development permit will be issued once the development agreement for the hotel is submitted to the Town and executed.

Bodnarchuck said the final designs for the building have been completed and they are awaiting final approval from the Town on the development agreement.

Medican, the contractor hired to build the hotel, said they are ready to go when they get the signal.

“All of our ducks are lined up and waiting to go and we’re just waiting for that green light, which we know is coming,” said Bill Cooper, Medican vice-president of sales and marketing.

Shane Olson, Okotoks’ economic development team leader, said he believes there’s a strong need for another hotel in Okotoks and has been working to get a new hotel built in town for some time. There are only three hotels in Okotoks. The 64-room Lakeview Inn and Suites is the largest hotel while the smaller Okotoks Country Inn and the Royal Duke Hotel are the other options in town.

He said Okotoks has lost out on several opportunities to host events, major sports competitions and tournaments in particular because of a lack of hotel space in town.

“We believe the regional field house is a huge hook and huge anchor and a reason to build a full service hotel in that area,” said Olson.