By IAN ROSS
A pair of Sault entrepreneurs have brought the Marriott name to Northern Ontario with a new multi-million dollar hotel in Sudbury.
Through their property management company, Dynamic Hospitality, business partners David Hornstein and Robert Higgins recently expanded their accommodations portfolio to three properties.
Their latest addition is Sudbury’s new upscale Marriott Fairfield, the first new hotel built in that city in 20 years, and the first Marriott property north of the Muskokas.
Higgins, a well-known concrete contractor and home builder, handles the project management, while Hornstein, the company’s president, works the operations side at their Lake Street office in the Sault.
Hornstein, a former restaurateur, knows the housing and accommodations business well.
His father Serge began Hornstein Developments in the early 1960‘s as owner and operator of apartment buildings for many years in the Sault.
After graduating from law school, David came home to work for his dad and later teamed up with Higgins in the mid to late 1980’s on home building projects until the Sault’s economy tanked in the early 1990’s during an Algoma Steel restructuring period.
In searching for new opportunities, Hornstein discovered the city was in need of new hotel space while serving on a local tourism hospitality committee.
The provincial government in those days was helping build hotels in Northern Ontario through a financing program.
Hornstein was able to access government money to build their first hotel, a Sleep Inn on Bay Street in the Sault in 1996, followed by another in Bracebridge in 2000.
It was on those long drives between Bracebridge and the Sault, and those frequent passes through Sudbury, that got him thinking about taking an active look in the Nickel City.
The city offered a diversified economy as a regional government service centre for northeastern Ontario with a growing medical and education sector, and a booming mineral industry sector.
He scoped out and secured a prime spot in 2004, a two-acre parcel of vacant land in New Sudbury near the bustling intersection of Barrydowne Road and The Kingsway in Sudbury’s east end retail corridor. “Love the location, great exposure and visibility.
“It’s a major hub, underserviced as far as the hotel product that was there, and easily accessible to the rest of the city.”
Just to the east, the City is extending the Kingway’s four-laning to better tie into the Highway 17-69 bypass.
Hornstein says City of Greater Sudbury officials welcomed the investment in new accommodations which meshed with their tourism marketing plans to attract more visitors through sport tournaments, more commercial business as well as the overall service-sector orientation of the city.
“To bring a Marriott franchise to Sudbury was important as a demonstration of the strength and diversity of the Sudbury market.”
To Hornstein, the Marriott name is a standard bearer for quality and consistency.
As the holders of two gold awards for excellence by the Choice Hotel chain, the parent company of Sleep Inn, “I wanted to find a brand that put the same emphasis on those factors as I did as a hotel operator,” says Hornstein.
But it’s tough to get a franchise.
Becoming a Marriott franchisee not only takes a “considerable investment,” but applicants must have a good track record running hotels. Marriott officials came north from their Washington, D.C. headquarters to personally eyeball their hotel properties.
The construction fire and safety standards exceed Ontario Building Code requirements which factored into their business plan if the Sudbury market could support the room rates. The 81-rooms and suites range between $97 and $175, prices that Hornstein says are very comparable to other local chains.
“We definitely felt very comfortable that people would perceive a huge value to rooms with the Marriott new-build.”
Hornstein says the hotel, which opened Feb. 1, has had “huge demand” from nearby businesses for its 35 to 40-person fully A/V-equipped meeting space.
On any future plans, he says they’re always looking for new opportunities but can’t say if they’ve identified any locations yet. “We‘ve just opened in Sudbury and have focused their attention there for now. But are starting to turn to where our next project could be.”
Hornstein and Higgins are very selective in choosing sites and generally avoid rushing into emerging markets without careful analysis first.
“We like to go to the market, do the research, see the demand and fill it.”
In the Sault market, hotel occupancy rates are hard pressed to reach 60 per cent while Sudbury is much stronger because of its expanding economy, says Hornstein.
As the chairman of Tourism Sault Ste. Marie and a director on Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation’s board, he says the Sault’s economy is relatively strong but the community has not seen a big influx of population after major out-migration over the last decade.
The local housing market is good with several residential subdivisions on the drawing board. “There’s some good things happening, but challenge is trying to create higher paying jobs to sustain the population.”
