A new hotel and conference centre under construction in Canmore this year has been touted as a big deal for the community according to tourism officials and the mayor.
The Malcolm Hotel and Conference Centre officially broke ground last Wednesday (June 1) in Spring Creek Mountain Village and Mayor John Borrowman was on hand to mark the occasion.
The mayor noted that to have a new traditional hotel go into construction here while the rest of the province struggles with an oil and gas related recession says a lot about Canmore’s current economic outlook.
“Honestly, Frank (Kernick) is a great developer in the Bow Valley and in Canmore particularly,” said the mayor. “As everybody knows, tourism is our industry. That is our economy and we have been talking for years about a conference centre and the need for more ability to bring visitors to Canmore off-season.
“We are pretty busy in the summer months, but in the slower season having a conference centre is exactly what is required and this location couldn’t be better in my opinion.”
The developer, Frank Kernick, said he specifically chose to reflect Canmore’s Scottish heritage with the name he chose for the hotel and conference centre. The Malcolm, he said, is not a traditional name for a hotel but instead a name that honours the namesake of the community.
King Malcolm III of Scotland was also known in Gaelic as Ceann Mór – or big head. David Alexander Smith, who also named Banff after Banffshire in Scotland, named Canmore after the Scottish king. Smith worked for the railway as it set its tracks westward across Canada.
“I love the history of Canmore and calling it the Malcolm is a great thing,” Kernick said. “To have that Scottish heritage, the heritage of the railway and Canmore’s history included in Spring Creek, I think is a real special thing.”
The hotel and conference centre represents a $37 million investment by Kernick and his development company Spring Creek Mountain Village. He said it has been almost 20 years since a traditional hotel has been built in Canmore.
That is compared to the condo-hotel developments that were abundant in Canmore up until 2008 when the recession and global economic downturn began. With 124 rooms, and 6,500 square feet of meeting space, the new development represents a strong local economy according to Canmore Business and Tourism president Andrew Nickerson.
“I wanted to say how excited we are about the first traditional full service hotel to be build here in Canmore in two decades,” he said, noting the location of SCMV close to the downtown core is critical as well. “This location is so perfect because it will give people the opportunity to stay a stone’s throw away from our vibrant downtown. Visitation in Canmore is growing and we are bucking the trend around the rest of the province.”
The hotel and conference centre was envisioned as part of the subdivision in its 2004 Area Redevelopment Plan approved by council. It was designed by Marshall Tittemore and SCMV has teamed up with Clique Hotels as the operator. It is expected to open in December 2017.
