Southway Hotel to transform into retirement residence
For nearly 60 years, the Zlepnig family passed on the Southway Hotel from generation to generation, eventually becoming a namesake among visitors from Canada’s Far North.
But in January, the family’s legacy in Ottawa’s south end at Bank and Hunt Club will come to an end.
The inn will soon become the third branch of the family’s newer Waterford Retirement Residences, following a $6-million conversion set to begin in July.
It marks a new era in the family business, several decades after Peter and Theresia Zlepnig built a seven-unit motel next to their home in 1958. Later, the couple passed the property on to their son Bill and his wife, Louisa, who guided its expansion into the 170-room hotel that stands today.
Now, passed on once more to their sons, Fred and Stephen, it will be converted to a 115-suite retirement residence. Fred’s son, Adam, the fourth generation, is working on the design of the new home.
The Southway leaves behind a 25-year history as a “home away from home” for visitors from Nunavut and other areas of Northern Canada. The relationship began when crews from First Air, an airline that serves the North, began staying at the Southway. That led to an invitation to attend a business fair in Iqaluit. The Southway has had a booth at the event every year since, said Stephen Zlepnig.
It was the first and only hotel in the area until the turn of the millennium, said Jo-Anne Saikaley Sparkes, director of sales and marketing, and its proximity to the airport and a shopping mall made it especially attractive to northern visitors. The hotel recognized one of the special needs for northern guests was a place to store fresh produce they bought in “the south,” because of the high costs of groceries in Nunavut. “The northern community has expressed their sadness. We’ve been receiving tons of overwhelming expressions and media from the North and all over,” she said.
Famous guests include actor Jason Priestley, of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, who stayed at the Southway on his way North to film a television program, and Jordin Tootoo, the first Inuk player in the National Hockey League, and countless politicians.
Fred Zlepnig says the hotel’s tradition of hospitality will continue.
“I don’t see it as coming to an end,” he said. “I see it as a transition. The building will still be there.”
He said an elderly couple that has signed up to move into the home at the end of the year came to the Southway in 1958, when they first arrived to Canada. The then seven-room hotel was sold out, but his grandparents invited the new arrivals to stay in the basement of the Zlepnig family home until they settled.
The Southway will continue to book hotel guests until December.