In two years, there will be a Sheraton hotel attached to the Halifax International Airport.
The airport authority announced yesterday it’s signed on with Southwest Properties and New Castle Hotels to build a 175-room Sheraton attached to the terminal building.
The new hotel will feature a pool, gym, meeting rooms, restaurant and bar. Construction will begin in 2009.
It will cater to travellers facing a long drive to Halifax and an early morning flight, said Jerry Staples, vice-president of marketing and business development for the Halifax International Airport Authority.
It will be located next to the parking garage currently under construction, right across the street from the Air Canada terminal. Guests will be able to access both the parking garage and the hotel by pedway.
“The industry looked at Halifax as, pardon the pun, a sleeper market. The hotel chains just hadn’t made the investment here that they’d made in other cities,” Staples said.
Longtime Halifax residents may remember the last attempt to build a hotel attached to the airport, in the early 1990s ended with the wrecking ball, after the building’s skeleton stayed unfinished for years.
Staples said two feasibility studies, done in 2005 and 2006, showed the market can support another airport hotel.
–rachel.boomer@metronews.ca
