Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 18/00) - Super 8 Motel should be ready to unwrap by Christmas.

When it opens, Super 8 will be the first international hotel chain in Yellowknife, said Victoria Ganuelas, the property's acting general manager.

"My impression is that Yellowknife is quite an opportunity."

Ganuelas, who says a new hotel has not opened in Yellowknife for about 20 years, will oversee the motel as it moves through its final months of preparation. She is with First Lodging Corp., the Calgary-based management group of Super 8.

Royop Corp., which controls Super 8 franchises in Canada, has opted to take an ownership stake in the Yellowknife Super 8 Motel, located near Wal-Mart.

Asked about the implications of opening a new hotel at about the same time as another property prepares to open -- Mike Mrdjenovich's Chateau Nova on Franklin Avenue beside Lahm Ridge Tower is scheduled to open next month -- Ganuelas said the market appears to have enough demand for everybody to "prosper."

Among Super 8's potential business opportunities is the growing number of Japanese coming to Yellowknife to see the northern lights, she said.

The motel is offering a variety of business and other styles of suites. Every room is to have high-speed Internet access.

It cost $4.5 million to build the 66-room facility. If owners opt to expand, there is room for another 34 rooms.

Guest prices have not yet been determined but Ganuelas said they will be competitive.

The motel's majority shareholder is the Inuvialuit Development Corp. Other shareholders besides Royop, include Ile Royale, owned by Yellowknife resident David Connelly, and a numbered company owned by Dale Bowler. Bowler, a former Yellowknife resident and developer, now lives in Alberta.

Super 8, which has 1,900 properties across North America, will employ about 20 people in Yellowknife and is looking to hire a local general manager.

The construction is a joint venture between Dowland Contracting Ltd., headquartered in Inuvik., and Calgary-based Omni Construction. Dowland also has offices in Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Anchorage.

Debt financing for the property was provided by the Samson Cree Nation's Peace Hills Trust, a 100 per-cent aboriginal-owned financial institution.

It is believed the Yellowknife Super 8 is the first project in the NWT ever to be financed by Peace Hills Trust.

At last reporting, the trust, set up in 1981, had $45.7 million in shareholders' equity and $747.8 million in assets under administration.