The Flin Flon Hotel redevelopment project is beginning to inch ahead once again following a long year of tumult and change.
City council members and executive staff gave an update from the municipal side at their June 18 meeting, saying that plans had changed with the project, while remaining hopeful the hotel redevelopment will move forward.
Last September, a pair of Winnipeg-based businessmen announced they had bought the long-vacant building and site from the City and had secured a franchise with Wyndham Ramada, planning to build an 80-to-100 room hotel with amenities. Representatives from the City and Wyndham Ramada were on hand for the announcement, with construction at the site originally slated to start this year. Since then though, the site has been mostly silent - the hanging-up of a Wyndham Ramada banner on the building’s facade the only visible sign to the outside of future plans.
The development group has since changed due to previously unthinkable tragedy. One of the two franchisees present at the announcement last fall was J.P. Shearer, who also operated a number of Winnipeg-based Tim Hortons franchises. Some time after the initial announcement, Shearer was diagnosed with cancer. He fought the disease, but died May 20 at the age of 47, according to an online obituary notice by Winnipeg-based Voyage Funeral Home.
Shearer and fellow franchisee Declan McDonald came forward with the project after the City announced plans to demolish the hotel building early last year, striking a deal with Wyndham Ramada. With one of the two main drivers of the hotel build now gone, the project has been delayed while all parties involved, including the City, try to chart a new path forward. The project is still green-lit, but the original plan has been delayed.
Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine and city councillor did not specifically refer to Shearer or his death during the council meeting, only saying that the makeup of the development group had changed.
“There had to be some reorganization and that takes time,” said Fontaine.
“The intent was the same and the intent was good. We had conversations.”
Fontaine said that conversations involving him over the past nine months were also affected by his own family health struggles - Fontaine was away from most mayoral duties during that time after his wife, Nora, suffered a stroke last October. Both George and Nora remained out of Flin Flon for several months while she received medical treatment, returning home in March. Councillor Steve Lytwyn sat in on Fontaine’s behalf as the City’s deputy mayor while he was away - the City granted Fontaine a series of short-term absences to allow him to return when the circumstances were right.
“It was really hard to be thinking about a business deal jumping ahead at that time,” said Fontaine.
“We’re doing the best we can and so is the other side - it’s one of those ‘stuff happens’ kind of a thing and we’re working on the best way to do it.”
The mayor is hopeful that the project will continue in spite of the tragedy, saying such a project would provide an economic benefit for Flin Flon.
“There are still people in the process of studying it and we’re waiting to have a plan in front of us,” said Fontaine.
“At this point, I’m going to say we’re extremely hopeful - but that’s the best I can say today. There’s still interest on our part for having a hotel and there’s still interest in the original developer’s part.”
With the upheaval, there is not currently a firm time or date when construction on the project may start - but while machines aren’t digging into the dirt and bulldozers aren’t knocking things down, there is still progress with the project, say City officials. An engineer was sent up last month by the development team to monitor the building for asbestos, according to senior City officials.
The developers’ initial plan was to make the new hotel a brand new build, which would not include a full demolition of the original hotel building but extensive renovation of it and its west side parking lot. During the plan’s unveiling, Shearer said the plan was to have “a brand-new build, basically, with a half brand-new built, half-renovated facility.”
The three buildings located immediately south of the hotel - the former locations of the Urban Tot and Edie’s Closet clothing stores and First Stop Computer Service, now all closed and vacant - were part of the deal and were supposed to be demolished last year. All three still stand, but according to councillor Alison Dallas-Funk, they shouldn’t be for much longer.
“I think it would be fair to say that the three buildings attached, that would be something that would progress this summer,” she said, adding the asbestos monitoring was a step ahead and she hoped major work could begin soon.
“For now, everybody’s kind of restructuring, but I think it’s safe to say that they’ll probably get the building ready, then start next year. We’re hopeful for that. The three buildings, for sure,” said Dallas-Funk.
The Flin Flon Hotel has been closed for most of the last three decades, shutting its doors for good in 1998. Since then, the building and the land it sits on have changed hands several times, with plans to redevelop it never coming to fruition. The building requires considerable work, including asbestos abatement and roof repair.
The purchase of the building and land came with conditions, said councillors, with one of those being that City officials receive full structural drawings for the future build, most likely from Wyndham Ramada - while the hotel chain won’t own the building, it was slated to oversee its design and rendering. That hasn’t happened yet, but those officials hope it will come soon.
“We still own the property and there are some conditions that have to be met before we can do any transferring. One of those is that we have to have the drawings for the hotel,” said City chief administrative officer Lyn Brown.
“We’re hoping that will come in a reasonable amount of time. I was also very hopeful to find out that they did have their asbestos personnel looking at the asbestos.”
In the meantime, while the deal still stands for the land and building buy, the City still owns both until the conditions are met.
“It really needs to be clarified that this is not sold to somebody and we’re crossing our fingers that they’ll do something with it,” said councillor Judy Eagle.
“Nobody owns that building or has that building except the City of Flin Flon. We are still hopeful that things are starting to move now.”
“We have conversations via email quite frequently, as well as phone calls. We haven’t had anyone up here in person other than the asbestos person - people from the developers themselves - since the fall,” said Brown.
“In the meantime, we’re going to keep our eyes on the target. We still are hopeful that there will be something and we’re not throwing this away,” said Fontaine.
