Is Hotel X back on track?
Construction has gone through numerous delays but participants say it’s finally full speed ahead
The construction of Exhibition Place’s Hotel X has been long, complicated and riddled with problems. But those involved in the project say they’re back on track.
“May is the target date. We’re making pretty good progress,” Owen Whelan, president of McKay-Cocker, the construction manager for the project, said. “I would say at this point we’re full speed ahead.”
But a number of liens still remain in place against the property. Liens are typically placed against properties as a means to keep a right of possession until a debt is paid.
Government records show five companies certified liens between Oct. 2016 and Dec. 2016 that are still in place. They range from around $89,000 up to $32 million.
Multiplex Construction Canada Limited, the former construction manager of the project, took out the largest lien, at $32,573,260, on Oct. 19, 2016 and filed a second one for $17,618,739 on Nov. 28, 2016.
Jeffrey Burke, president of Lift All Crane Service Ltd., one of the companies with a lien against the property, said after Multiplex Construction Canada left the project, they left many companies “in the position where we had to put a lien on the project to ensure we were going to get paid.”
He said the new construction manager, McKay-Cocker, is working to resolve all of the liens.
Even though his company’s lien is still in place, he’s “hoping” it will be resolved soon.
In the meantime, Lift All Crane Service Ltd. is still working on the construction of the hotel.
“(McKay-Cocker) has contacted us and are trying to resolve it. They’re working with their lawyers to get all their liens resolved. Their intentions are good,” Burke said.
“Whether or not it will come to a resolve is yet to be determined though.”
Multiplex Construction Canada and Gemstar Canada Inc., who both have liens against the property, declined to comment.
The remaining two companies involved did not respond to phone and email inquires from the Star by press time.
The number of liens against the property was much higher previously and was cut down dramatically, according to Whelan.
The liens that remain are also “being dealt with and negotiations are ongoing,” he said.
“We’re gaining some ground on having those liens discharged so there’s been very good progress and a lot of success in that regard,” Whelan said. “It’s not getting uglier. It was uglier through November and December.”
The hotel, which appears to be near completion from the outside, still has some work remaining.
Councillor Jim Karygiannis, who was given a tour of the facility a few months ago, said he estimated the work to be “65-per-cent finished . . . maybe more” at that time.
The hotel was first granted approval to be built in Dec. 2009, with a projected finish date of May 2015. That completion date was later pushed back until July 2016, and the soft opening is currently set for May 2017.
Work began in January 2013 but about nine months later, it was discovered that the south portion of the site was on a 100-year-old landfill used to bury the shallows of Lake Ontario, and the soil was contaminated. The entirety of the property was also a parking lot for half a century.
The owner of Hotel X hired the current construction manager, McKay-Cocker, after their former builder, Multiplex, took out their first lien. McKay-Cocker has been on the job since the beginning of November.
“Since our previous general contractor left we are very pleased with the work of McKay-Cocker. They are doing a great job and work is progressing well,” Henry Kallan, president of the company that owns Hotel X, wrote in an email to the Star.
“We also are pleased that the trades who worked with us under the previous contractor are still with us on site now and weather conditions permitting we believe we have a good chance of opening on schedule.”
With this transition, however, Whelan said there have been some delays.
“When one contractor is terminated it does throw things into a little bit of a difficult process to try and iron out the differences. So it can’t all be done overnight,” Whelan said.
“It did take us about a month and a half to get everything organized and trades fully back up to speed again.”
For now, Exhibition Place CEO, Dianne Young, said Kallan and a representative from McKay-Cocker came to a Dec. 9 meeting with the city-appointed board of governors and spoke to them about the ongoing project.
The board can lease properties for business ventures with municipal approval as Exhibition Place is a publicly-owned area.
Councillor Karygiannis, a board member, said they were “assured that by the time May rolls around there’s going to be a soft opening.”
He added: “If I was a betting man, I’d say more than likely they’ll open up because they’re losing money.”