Horizon North has picked up the torch from where Bryton Group began last year to develop a hotel and work camp in the area near the Kitimat Chamber of Commerce.
Horizon North, whose website describes them as a “remote resource development service company,” is aiming to develop a hotel and work camp, which room for approximately 1,000 beds.
And as with them, the development of any work camp comes with the stipulation that they must build a hotel as well.
Rod Graham, Horizon North CEO, said Kitimat is poised for a lot of growth which has attracted the company.
“Kitimat is critically important for the growth of our business,” he said. “We believe LNG will be a business [in Kitimat].”
He said company-wide they do business with the LNG proponents eyeing up Kitimat.
Warren Murray, senior vice president fo camps and catering, said they also work closely with First Nations and boast a notable percentage of their entire workforce as having Aboriginal descent. They have been talking with the Haisla about opportunities as well.
Horizon North, which handles the worker accommodation side of the business is working with Pomeroy Lodging, which will handle the development of the hotel.
“We’re going through our conceptual planning now,” said Ryan Pomeroy, president of Pomeroy Lodging. “We have our site laid out in a couple of different ways.”
He said the concept right now is to potentially build two hotels. One, an extended stay hotel under their Pomeroy Inn and Suites brand, another under a “limited service” brand called
Hotel O.
Most of their existing hotels have between 80 to 100 rooms, he said.
Right now he said they’re basically working with Horizon North to get the land cleared and he is looking for a construction start for the hotels in 2015.
