Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Best Western, New hotel in the Crowsnest Pass

I was just asked several questions about the hotel deal regarding the contract with Medican and the timelines laid out in the agreement and what repercussions are involved if the timelines are not followed.

You can see the contract for yourself by going to the following address: http://transparencycnp.shawwebspace.ca/blog/posts/2/5/

Included in the contract are the following conditions on page 7 of the agreement:

 1 (a) Be satisfied with the zoning of the lands and the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass new land use bylaw, on or before Febuary 15,2013
    (b) Completion of final engineering design on or before on March 29,2013
    (c) Apply for and or obtain a development permit respecting the development, on or before March 29,2013
    (d) Securing an agreement with a hotel chain for the development, on or before April 30, 2013
    (e) Obtain a council resolution approving the waive of off-site levies for the development, on or before April 30,2013.

Conditions B and C were extended for an additional thirty days with approval of the municipality, Condition D did that take place? I have not heard anything there is nothing that has been released by the municipality yet.

The agreement also states under section 13 that the clearing of the land including demolition of all the present structures shall take place on or before August 30,2013.

My opinion, there is a council meeting next week (May 7) I expect Bruce will want to receive the maximum exposure on this issue. He will release an announcement in the next couple of days which will allow him to walk in to council next week a hero. He will announce that an agreement has been reached between Medican and Hotel chain ?????? prior to April 30th. Which could not have been achieved without the massive support, guidance, direction and positive thoughts from Council and Administration.

If this does not happen can these deadlines be extended? of course the purchaser requests an extension then the municipality can either agree to the request or let the agreement die, the political repercussions of the latter? not good just months before an election.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you are right that there is a hotel deal.I hope you are wrong that a deal has been done and it is simply not been released to the public.From a council that preaches that they are great communicaters and open and transparent I would expect a press release the day it was signed.Leads to more bad feelings that insiders have information that the rest of us do not.
I also think you must have some inside information otherwise you would not speak like this.You would be saying they will kick the can down the road right up to election time and say that the deal is contingent on this council being reelected.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

No inside information just my feeling based on the way I have watched this guy operate over the last 30 months.
Keep in mind getting a contract signed, the money exchanged, and the building demolished are only the start of the process.
Finding $10-12 million, building a hotel and revitalizing that whole site will take a minimum of a couple of years after Oct 21st also keep in mind if you read the contract closely any of the time frames in that agreement can be extended by mutual agreement.

Anonymous said...

Anyone observing this council at work can see they are clueless when it comes to public relations. The well dressed PR consultant notwithstanding, things have gone from bad to worse with each PR effort. The Mayor may be more right than he realizes when he brought up the consultants suggestion of a CLUSTER. The only thing can be said is the CLUSTER appears to be of a different kind, to put it gently.

Anonymous said...

Just a quick read of the 80 plus creditors refusal to release Medican from bankruptcy in the hopes to recover just a few cents on the dollar would lead one to assume that no minor, let alone major hotel, chain would trust this bunch. The conditions imposed are really financially and long term punishing. What if they pull the plug after partial demolition/construction due to lack of investment?

Please put my wine and cheese back in the fridge Bruce. Then Google the word 'Delusional'.

Anonymous said...

Dean is absolutely right, inside information is not needed to see the Medican extension of buyer conditions did not cover all the conditions. So, either they have waved some conditions as per contract or they have obtained extensions which were not mentioned by the CAO, the only other alternative is the contract fell apart - and this is not very likely at this time.
The way this “non-announcement” is being handled is inviting unnecessary speculation. It looks like someone is saving some information for their own special and unnecessary PR reasons. -Very juvenile handling of an important matter.
Following this reasoning, we should be looking forward to a special press release or a spot on the radio, who knows?

Anonymous said...

Demolition will start prior to the election. The M7 can not allow this opportunity to slip away. After the dragged out hoopla over the Quebec manufacturer. With the slowing of the Chinese economy does anybody see a new coal mine happening in the next few years? If the hotel does not at least appear to be coming on paper it becomes a Hat trick of failures.

Say hello Best Western at what ever cost.

Cliff

Anonymous said...

We are in to May now I just can not see those buildings being gone by August 30. I guess if you throw lots of money at the demo anything is possible. Keep in mind Medican came out of CCAA court protection not that long a go. So the only way they will be throwing money at the demo is if it's somebody else's.

Anonymous said...

We know it's going to be a "Best Western" that's who Medican is working with in Okotoks it would be a natural fit. Anybody hear how that is going it was suppose to have started in March?

Anonymous said...

Your readers should check out the following articles.

http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20111123/WHE0801/311239998/0/WHE

http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20130306/WHE0801/303069968/0/WHE

Two years from municipal planning approval to actually starting the project. Let a lone completing it. If it did indeed start in March.
Looks like the next council will be getting all the credit for the hotel.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Mayor is looking to bring us a PR cluster.

Anonymous said...

It would be really good to see the old hospital gone. My prediction is that the demolition will begin just prior to October 21. No brainer, this time next year the old hospital (eyesore) will be gone which I see has a plus even without a new hotel.

Anonymous said...

We can use a new hotel, this is no brainer. But why all the drama? In the contract our Municipality has with the Medican there is a buyer condition which was to be satisfied and waived by the buyer by April 30, 2013. This condition reads: 1.d. “securing an agreement with a hotel chain for the Development, on or before April 30, 2013.” This condition was not extended at the last council meeting when they extended two other conditions.”
This means that the developer must have satisfied this condition and they have a deal with a hotel chain. Hopefully, this also means that they have a commitment from a developer who will pay for this hotel, otherwise what is the point?
By the time our Mayor will see fit to share this good news with the rest of us, this will be an old story. No need to speculate whether it is a Best Western because we will be happy with any good brand. But Best Western would be a good fit if, in fact, this is the flag.
Perhaps they need a few days to sit on this story to polish it up and to get the PR Consultant up to speed?

Anonymous said...

What drama.If there was an extension to the deadline let us know.If they have signed a hotel chain to a contract,let us know.If the deal is dead in the water,let us know.Council is not being transparent!
Those other 2 conditions that were extended actually had a deadline of March 29th.We just found out about them a week ago.
Personally I do not think we are getting a hotel any time soon.I hope I am wrong.

Anonymous said...

Getting a name is the simple part of the process finding the $12 million investor will be a little bit more complicated.


Anonymous said...

The Mayor is trying to figure out how to break the news and get the maximum amount of credit. This was not as hard as putting together an international mining deal, but it required a lot of work all the same. The people here are so ungrateful.

Anonymous said...

9:13 or should I say Misty you usually sign your name. Why not this time?

One of the ungrateful

Anonymous said...

International mining deal, talk about full of themselves. There is no deal at present and any mining promoters like are supposed to be involved in that so called project can easely recognize a lame duck mayor trying to take credit for anything to look good. The people are not ungreatfull just sick too death of a former mid leval bueracrat that took an ax to the municipality then expecting people to be greatfull. October is coming and the ship will be set on a proper course again

Anonymous said...

Yes, cleaning up is good.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:13 Here is a fact.Council did very very little in putting together the "international mining deal". These people approached council not the other way around.These people found the area to be mined without any imput from council.These people lined up there own investors without any imput from council.Council said they tried to help them with finding some office space and set up a open house, thats it.
As for the hotel, the previous council did all of the hard work.All this council had to do was sell it.And I am not to sure that they even have done that.
I will be thankful if we have a hotel, but I am already pissed off that the general public is being kept in the dark.We are past the deadline in the contract, so they should be telling us what the situation is.Transparent?

Anonymous said...

8:41 Your right previous council did do all the hard work. I wonder in 3-4 years when there is something actually built there. Will the next council be willing to share the credit for the development and recognize the years of hard work done by others. Or will we hear speeches about how previous councils did squat and the council of the day made it all happen.

Just wondering

Anonymous said...

They are sitting on the news of the new hotel until proper PR advice arrives from the well dressed and well paid Consultant. Please be patient and let them figure it out for us. We should be grateful to have such visionary and spendthrift leadership.

Anonymous said...

I think they have lined up a major, world wide, chain and are just putting the the polish on the PR and maybe a few more bucks towards branding.

'International Youth Hostel' ?

Anonymous said...

My money is on Best Western. Just finished reading the articles from the Okotoks paper Medican, Group Vachon, Best Western is obviously the natural fit.

Good luck Crowsnest Pass