Future of Downtown: The hotel factor

Apr 04, 2023

The way people move and work in the core is changing. In our Spring/Summer 2023 issue, we explore the possibilities by talking to industry leaders and engaged residents about how to build a great downtown.

In this article, we look at the return of tourism following the pandemic. Expert opinion, statistics, and casual observations suggests the time is ripe for a hotel scene that embraces the city's unique charms.

For the past eight years, Steve Ball has been the president of the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association . Before that, he was on the board of Ottawa Tourism for over a decade — and if we go back to 1998, Ball was busy founding Ottawa Magazine.

When he left the publishing business in 2005, it was a no-brainer that he’d end up in tourism. "I was very connected to the hotel community," Ball says. For Ball, hotels are a part of the fabric of major communities — and for a government city like Ottawa, they become critical infrastructure. "You’ve got iconic properties like the Chateau Laurier that hosts a ton of corporate travel, [and] people coming here to do business with the government," he says, such as President Biden visiting town this spring.

Back in 2019, Ball says, 11 million tourists were flocking to Ottawa every year — roughly 10 times the population — resulting in $2.2 billion being spent on restaurants, shopping, attractions and more. Numbers like that are a boon to Ottawans. "The economic value helps reduce the cost burden of residents that live in Ottawa," Ball says. "Without this large influx of the visitor economy, our tax base would be higher."

During the pandemic, tourism tanked. Already-large gaps in social safety nets became wider, and issues surrounding homelessness were exacerbated. "Working together with the City and as a community, hotels can play a role in rebalancing what downtown cores need to look like," Ball says. For 21 years, OGHA has been running a program, Hoteliers Have Hearts; the program has donated close to 50 tonnes of food to the Shepherds of Good Hope since it began. "The industry is engaged in the community, and it really is an important part of the DNA of this town," he says.

It's an opinion he believes Mayor Sutcliffe and the new Council share. "We’re seeing that [belief] by the amount of investment made in our industry in Ottawa right now," Ball says.

Ball mentions the three Marriott hotel properties currently being built in downtown Ottawa: an AC, a Moxy, and a Renaissance, all brands that are new to the city. "It shows an incredible amount of confidence by the owners," Ball says. "It shows confidence in the future, and our ability to ensure that visitors who come to our community [are] safe and [able to] enjoy all of the important elements that a G7 capital needs to be able to project. "It's important that our community supports the investment being made to ensure that these new businesses thrive."

As co-owner of the new Metcalfe Hotel in downtown Ottawa, Dimitri Antonopoulos has a few ideas on just how the local community can show up for hotels.

"I was talking to my general manager and she was telling me that Jazz Fest [was cancelled during the pandemic], and that [it was] a big hit for the area," says Antonopoulos, who is still getting the lay of the land since coming to Ottawa last year. "It’d be good to have more [events like] that; it's important to keep developing commercial offers."

Antonopoulos adds that Ottawa has so much to give. "I feel like a lot of times, people outside of Ottawa think of it as Parliament and museums," he says. "With the Metcalfe, we’re trying to showcase everything else: good dining, fun destinations for couples and families." The Metcalfe opened its doors in September 2022,with its French bistro restaurant following suit the next month. "[With] six months of operation, we’re starting to slowly build up our clientele," Antonopoulos says.

While the Metcalfe is the Gray Collection's first Ottawa venture, the hotel industry is in the Antonopoulos family . His father and uncle started a hotel company 50years ago in Old Montréal. In early 2022, the business was split into two, and the Gray Collection was founded: a collection of restaurants and hotels, of which Antonopoulos is the president.

When Antonopoulos was first approached by his business partner for the Ottawa project, the city was still in lockdown; he had to show a letter to travel from Quebec to Ontario. But once he made it into the city, he fell in love with the building on Metcalfe Street — and the rest is history. His family brings years of experience to the Metcalfe, having opened their first hotel in Montréal. At the time, Montréal was "very touristy," Antonopoulos says. Slowly, residential buildings started to go up, and his family had to get creative to stay relevant to the local community.

It's something that Antonopoulos is hoping to replicate for the Metcalfe, especially as the city continues to recover from the pandemic. "We want locals to adopt the restaurant, the café, the lobby — make it a real destination for people in Ottawa," he says.

It seems to be working so far: despite offices still being mostly closed, Antonopoulos is seeing some traction and foot-traffic downtown. "People want to see other people," he says. "They don't want to be in a bubble."