Surrey, Squamish vie for Pattison resort site
The Jim Pattison Group is developing plans to build a 400-room hotel and indoor waterpark resort in B.C. with potential sites identified in both Surrey and Squamish.
“We still need to see if this is a project that will work in Surrey and we’ve publicly pursued a site in Squamish as well,” said Michael Lee, vice-president of Jim Pattison Developments. “Both of those are a possibility.”
And they may not be the only locations under consideration.
“Jim Pattison Group sees great potential for a resort in B.C. and we are looking at locations all over the province,” said Keith Simmonds, vice-president and general manager at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Ont. He didn’t disclose the other potential locations.
JPG owns the franchise rights for Great Wolf Lodge hotels and resorts and operates a hotel and 100,000-square-foot waterpark in Niagara Falls. Great Wolf Lodge waterparks are open only to overnight guests of the hotel, not the public.
Nonetheless, the City of Surrey is rolling out a red carpet for the development. Mayor Linda Hepner listed fast-tracking the project as a priority in a state-of-the city address in May and hosted a meeting with the resort proponents in July.
According to email correspondence obtained from the city by the Peace Arch News, “Jim Pattison Developments is currently in discussions with (Surrey City Development Corp.) and city staff about plans to develop a 400room, waterpark-themed family resort in South Surrey.
“The resort would bring more than 600 jobs to a South Surrey location, as well as a two-year, $150-million construction, if final approval is given,” reads the statement attributed to Hepner.
The site is rumoured to be a property held by the city near 192nd Street and 16th Avenue.
Pattison has also pitched Squamish council on an identically sized resort on a site the company owns on Aspen Road, which would require buying some adjacent land.
“Pattison Group made a pitch to council about a year ago and they thought (Squamish) was a good location for the resort and they were pretty committed to the area,” said acting mayor Doug Race.
The project would require Pattison to acquire a district road rightof-way and provincial Crown land to complete the parcel, Race said.
While the resort would double the number of hotel rooms in Squamish, it would also require hundreds of employees in a town already hit by labour shortages.
“Great Wolf Lodge doesn’t really provide much as a public amenity,” said Race. “They made it very clear this would not be a place you could drop the kids off for an hour to swim. They operate on a cruise-ship model where they get their guests in and keep them there spending money.”