Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 20, 2007

IQALUIT - A new competitor entered the hotel market in Iqaluit when Nova Inn opened for business on July 4.

As of mid-August, each of the hotel's 76 rooms are available to rent and the restaurant will open soon.

Water's Edge, the former Wizard's Lounge, has relocated to Nova Inn and will soon serve up Northern fare, steak and seafood.

"Everything's going to be done with a bit of a twist," said executive chef Carl Butschler. "It will be something Iqaluit hasn't seen yet."

The 88-seat restaurant has already received its liquor license, and is set to open by the end of the month. Butschler describes it as "casual fine dining."

The liquor license for the lounge will go before Iqaluit city council this week, and management hopes to have it open shortly afterwards. The lounge will be able to accommodate 60 people.

"Service will be quick and attentive... The menu will have a lot of different things you don't see in town," said food and beverage manager Dave Dunham.

There will be 30 employees between the kitchen, bar and restaurant with 15 more working in housekeeping and at the hotel's front desk. Half of the staff will be local hires.

"We are trying to hire as many local people as possible," said Nova Inn general manager Kyle Ferguson. "We want to be active in the community."

Construction on the hotel began in July 2006 and finished this month. There were always 12 construction workers on site at any one time and each trade had apprentices.

"There were no challenges out of the ordinary for Iqaluit," Denis Simard, general manager of Nova's Nunavut operations said.

"We had the cold winter months to deal with and material shortages, but generally speaking it went well."

The hotel boasts three floors of rooms, with 76 in all. All rooms are equipped with a microwave, mini fridge, toaster, kettle, coffeemaker and dishes. Each room also comes with satellite TV and highspeed Internet.

"In comparison to other hotels in town, our rooms are slightly bigger," Ferguson said. He estimates that each room is 10 to 15 square feet larger than the competitors' rooms.

Nova Inn also has a business centre and exercise room. On the walls of each floor are black and white photographs from the NWT archives, depicting scenes from Baffin Island. Local artwork also adorns the establishment.

There are two conference rooms, the first is a 12-person boardroom and the second can hold approximately 100 people in theatre style seating. Each conference room has audio/video capabilities, Internet service and phone hookups.

"Government clientele are our bread and butter, and we want to work closely with Nunavut Tourism to get more tourists in the hotel," Ferguson said.

"We want our customers to feel comfortable. Like a home away from home," he said.

"We think we've achieved that."

Iqaluit's Nova Inn is Nova Hotel's 11 property and its first in Nunavut.