Atlific Hotels & Resorts

A place to stay ÔÇö for 50 yearsPhilippe Gadbois of Atlific Hotels & Resorts tells Ruari McCallion about new ideas after the firmÔÇÖs 50 years in the hotel business in Canada. ItÔÇÖs just coming up to half a century since Holiday Inn awarded its first franchises in Canada. One of the two companies selected was Atlific Hotels & Resorts, founded in 1959 and based in Montreal. The company is now a multimillion-dollar firm, with 400 employees and a portfolio of hotel brands and locations ranging from Stephenville, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. The year 2009 will be important not just for Atlific itself but also for one of its brands. Westin will be returning to Montreal in the first quarter of the year, after an absence of 25 years, when it opens a transformed landmark building in the center.ÔÇ£The Westin Montreal will be opening in what was once the Montreal Gazette building,ÔÇØ says Philippe Gadbois, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Atlific. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs a pretty unusual project for North America; youÔÇÖre more likely to find this kind of endeavor in Europe. The City of Montreal went to public tender four years ago with the offer of an area equivalent to two city blocks at the entry to Old Montreal, the original settlement area. There are three buildings on the landÔÇöthe original, 1930s Art Deco Gazette building; and two further buildings to the south, which date back to the late 19th century. Part of the tender was the requirement to retain those buildings. We added a new tower, so the complex is made up of four buildings, which are all quite different.ÔÇØ There have been a few challenges along the way, and Atlific has been quick to turn them to advantage.┬á ÔÇ£The Art Deco style means the building looks great, but the long and somewhat narrow design didnÔÇÖt lend itself to typical bedrooms. We gutted the interior, brought it right down to the studs and converted four floors to commercial office space,ÔÇØ says Gadbois. The design may have presented challenges, but the availability of 25,000 square feet per floor, with total flexibility from the open space, is very unusualÔÇöand attractive, even in todayÔÇÖs market. The commercial space is well on the way to being fully leased, months before opening. With a location across the street from the Palais des Congr├¿s, it offers a very attractive address to business tenants, who will have their own entrance, away from the hotel lobby.ÔÇ£Entrance to the hotel is through either the north or the south side, and thereÔÇÖs a 30-foot difference in elevation. You either go up or down, right down to enter the Montreal underground system,ÔÇØ he says. ÔÇ£The difference in grade means we canÔÇÖt directly link floor to floorÔÇöthe common access is at the third level on the north side, ground level on the south. There are a couple of other links, at floors 7 and 16. But apart from the primary lobby of the hotel, within the original Gazette building, thereÔÇÖs no need. WeÔÇÖre constructing the ballrooms and main meeting areas on three stories above the old building. The design allows us to go column-free, which gives us a lot of space. The Junior Ballroom is on the equivalent of the ninth floor, with the 10,000-square-foot Main Ballroom farther up; we have high-speed, high-capacity elevators to lift people to them.ÔÇØ Large-capacity ballrooms with rapid access; views over the old city; outstanding accommodations for conferences, conventions, banquets and large-scale meetings; a delight for evening functions and weddings; and 453 bedrooms and suites right on the premisesÔÇöwhatÔÇÖs not to like?Converting the Gazette building wasnÔÇÖt cheap, or even less expensive than a ground-up greenfield project. A lot of interior walls were lined with asbestos, which has to be removed with the greatest care, but the end result is a very clean building, with proven infrastructure and completely rehabilitated with the most modern HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. But Atlific is unlikely to make a habit of converting large former industrial buildings into premier-grade hotels. While it was originally a franchisee, its business model is now based on third-party management. As well as Holiday Inn and Westin, it runs properties for Marriott, Best Western, Comfort Inn and Quality Inn. The market is changing, and hotel management has to adapt accordingly.ÔÇ£It has become more common for owners to select brands based on the particular space they want to occupy. ItÔÇÖs up to third-party managers like us to adapt to the requirements of any brands,ÔÇØ Gadbois says. ÔÇ£The current trend in North America is to focus a lot of attention on developing products like Courtyard by Marriott. ItÔÇÖs aimed at suburban or outside of downtown locations. The bedrooms are exactly the same in every respect, but the public areas are scaled down.ÔÇØ They will feature breakfast bars rather than full-service dining rooms and are unlikely to have extensive meeting areas; theyÔÇÖre short-term-stay oriented. At the other end of the scale are the extended-stay hotels. ÔÇ£TheyÔÇÖre more suite-driven, with kitchens, for example, and aimed at, say, families that have been transferred, consultants on extended stay, that kind of market.ÔÇØ What we are seeing is market segmentation; the traditional hotel would have sought to cater to all, but that isnÔÇÖt particularly efficient. At any one time, or part of the market cycle, entire sections of the hotel would be underutilized.ÔÇ£They are all traditional hotels but scaled up or down, depending on market conditions,ÔÇØ says Gadbois. ÔÇ£Brands give comfort in an alien environment, and we only work with brands that have a strong position in the marketplace. On behalf of our business owners, we suggest the highest and best branding for their particular asset. ItÔÇÖs then our job to deliver on the promises.ÔÇØ With 28 hotels in its portfolioÔÇöand more to come, in Ottawa, Fort McMurray (Alberta) and around WhistlerÔÇöit would appear that the delivery is something special.┬á