Marriott Hotel construction gets underway at Prince Arthur's Landing

Construction on the waterfront hotel in Thunder Bay, Ont., is moving forward and the developer in charge of the project has now committed to a completion date.

Gisele MacDonald, the president of ReSolve Group, made the announcement at a Tuesday luncheon at Mariner's Hall.

She acknowledged that the project has seen a number of delays, and that there have been many naysayers who have doubted the viability of the project.

"It's not the end [of construction], but it's definitely a start," she told the crowd of about 100 people.

"There are lots of rules and regulations and moving targets and moving dates," MacDonald said of the delays. "There are things that are in the bigger picture just, there's reasons that's it's impossible. There are 50 or 60 things that were going simultaneously." 

MacDonald told the media that about a year ago, she was becoming frustrated with delays in construction and was ready to "throw in the towel."

The contractor working on the hotel, Burmet Northern LTD, will complete the structure that has been sitting idle at the waterfront for a number of months.

Sam Romeo, of Burmet Northern, told the group that he finishes the projects he starts.

MacDonald said she is pleased to work with a local contractor, and said there were issues with the contractor that built the neighbouring condominium development.

"I think some things are better left unsaid, due to the fact that we've moved on, we're moving on, and today is a great day for all of us," she said.

"The journey has been long and hard. I can't really speak too much to it because I definitely am involved in litigation with the other construction company that was doing the condos. They were not part of the hotel," she added.

MacDonald said there were also liens registered against the hotel property, as well as issues with turning the parkland into private development space that held up construction.

She said a storey's worth of structural steel should be added to the hotel every ten days.

Concrete being poured

Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs said he's pleased to see the project coming to completion.

"Ups and downs. A lot of battles to get this project going. And, we will see it complete," he said. "It's nice to see, I was looking over there at the site today and they're doing the elevator shafts, they're pouring concrete, there's workers on site."

The hotel is scheduled for completion by summer 2018.

The $30-million building will have 150 guest rooms, including 18 penthouse suites, along with conference and meeting spaces.