City staff received a site plan application for a six-storey hotel next to the Walmart plaza on Centennial Parkway, Chad Collins said.
The Ward 5 city councillor said Smart Centres has indicated Sandman Hotels will be the tenant in a six-storey, 206-room hotel with a Denny'SEND and Moxie's Bar and Grill restaurant in the hotel complex.
The development comes after bitter debate in 2009 about allowing for the employment lands on Centennial Parkway to be converted to commercial when Smart Centres indicated it wished to purchase the site at the corner of Centennial Parkway and South Service Road close to the QEW.
At the time, significant remediation work was required due to contamination on some of the property from the Waxman scrap yard.
Collins said the city tied the conversion of the lands to a requirement to build an office building or a hotel.
He said now the city is benefitting from that requirement.
"It took a lot of remediation work to get it to this point," said Collins. "(Smart Centres) spent millions upon millions to clean it up. Now this will act as a kind of gateway to the city.
"With that comes new tax assessment and jobs."
Last month, Smart Centres, a division of Walmart, had a building permit issued for a new Toys R Us and Subway, along with other stores and restaurants, including a U.S.-based chain, Buffalo Wild Wings, on Centennial Parkway North, with openings expected by summer.
Collins said Smart Centres expects to begin construction on the project this year, pending site plan approval.
http://www.thespec.com/news/business/article/878365--new-hotel-coming-to-centennial-parkway-site