Clare Ogilvie
Sun
WHISTLER — A major West Coast hotel group plans to build a swank new resort in Squamish.
Executive Hotel and Resorts has awarded a franchise to Atlific Hotels and Resorts for a $23.3-million, 111-suite strata hotel at the junction of the 9th and 18th holes of the new Garibaldi Springs Golf Course.
“It is one of the projects that will set a new milestone for Squamish and a new standard for Squamish,” said Mayor Ian Sutherland.
“We are excited about the fact that a major hotel like this does see the benefit of doing business in Squamish.”
The population of the former forestry-dependent town is expected to grow from just under 15,000 to 20,000 by 2010 and 30,000 by 2030. A new private university is planned, Capilano College is looking to expand its campus and a 7,897-square-metre Wal-Mart is in the works.
The district is also involved in the development of the town’s oceanfront lands and is pursuing using wind as an alternate energy source.
Thirty-nine of the suites at the Executive Hotel have already been sold. Most have gone to Lower Mainland buyers, said Guy Young, president of ForSite Developments Inc., but people in Europe, the U.S. and Alberta have also bought units.
The units, designed by the group that produced the Whistler Four Seasons Resort and Spa, are selling for between $145,000 and $330,000.
© The Vancouver Province 2005
