The sod was turned Thursday to officially kickstart construction on Niverville's first hotel.

In the spring of 2021, Steel Creek Developers announced the new Blue Crescent Hotel would be built near the golf course along Old Drovers Run. Nearly two years later, dignitaries were on hand to throw the first shovels of dirt.

"We know residents have been asking when construction will begin on this newest Blue Crescent location and we are so excited to finally be moving ahead with this project," says Trevor Rempel with Steel Creek Developers. 

Blue Crescent Hotel will have 73 rooms and also feature an indoor waterpark. At the time of the announcement in 2021, Rempel said the indoor pool will have more to offer than any hotel in Winnipeg. 

Though the sod turning is now in the rearview mirror, construction itself is not expected to start for a few months yet. Construction on the $13 million project is slated to start in June, helping create up to 25 jobs in the area. 

According to Town of Niverville Chief Administrative Officer Eric King, the hope is still for construction to be completed before the end of this year. 

Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck says the hotel will provide a number of benefits for the community. He notes the obvious advantage is that this will give out-of-town players and families a place to spend the night during sports tournaments. It also provides a place to stay for business people. 

"But it's also an opportunity for families to come together, celebrate children with parents and grandchildren and just have more connecting points and building of memories," says Dyck. 

He notes building community is about creating connection points for relationships to grow and memories to be made.

Rempel says the Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit program has been an invaluable tool as they try to help progressive communities, like Niverville, experience growth. He notes it is there to stimulate investment in order to create new small businesses around the province. 

"We've utilized the tool for seven communities and out of five of those projects, we've already had tax credits issued to the local investors in those projects," he explains. "It's critical to allow us to get local investment, local business people from the area, Niverville here included. A large contingent of the investment in this hotel comes locally and a big reason for that is the tax credit program."

Rempel says the new hotel in Niverville, will not only help the local economy, but will also allow visitors to interact with residents and get a sense of what small town hospitality really is. 

"So being the only hotel, the first hotel of maybe several in the future, in this community is a unique position to foster that relationship to help endear the town of Niverville to people who are coming to visit, which also then presents the opportunities for those visitors to maybe make a decision to come and live here," says Rempel.

The sod turning for the hotel happened on the same day that a state-of-the-art film and television studio was announced for the west end of Niverville. Construction of the studio is expected to be completed in two phases, beginning this summer. In order to help with the anticipated increase in traffic flow from these two projects, the province has announced that PR 311 will be twinned west from the train tracks to Wallace Road, that a traffic circle will be constructed between Wallace and Krahn Roads and that the Krahn Road intersection will be controlled by signals. 

 

With files from Adi Loewen