Company building new downtown hotel looking for money to connect skywalk

The company building the Sutton Place Hotel is looking for funding to attach the skywalk to the new building.

The company building the new downtown hotel on Carlton Street is asking the city and province for some money to connect the skywalk to the building.

Northland Properties Inc. is the company in charge of building the new Sutton Place Hotel. It will be a 4.5 out of 5-star hotel, which will feature 352 rooms, costing a total of $140 million.

Construction was paused in 2018 due to the pandemic and the lot sat empty for years before work started again recently.

As part of the hotel, the public skywalk would connect to the building. Northland Properties is now asking for a total of $6 million from the city and province to construct and connect the skywalk.

The Public Service is recommending the city pay half of the amount at $3 million—$2 million coming from a grant approved by council in 2018 and $1 million from the tax increment financing grant.

“This will fund the skywalk only, not the hotel, and is conditional on matching support from the Province of Manitoba. This is consistent with the past practice of the city and province of funding the capital cost of public skywalk connections between downtown buildings,” a report on the project reads.

The city is projecting the hotel will create 220 full-time jobs and it’s expected to generate at least $340,000 a year in incremental property taxes and $500,000 in accommodation tax revenue.

It’s expected the project will finish in 2028.