Calling all commercial developers with a desire to build a hotel: Riverview could be the community you’ve been looking for.
A study has found that a hotel would be viable for the Town.
“We’ve been working on the study since late last year, and it’s something that really came out of our commercial market threshold study that was completed earlier in 2023. It identified the tourism accommodations sector as an area of opportunity for the town. When we saw that, we knew that we had to dig a little deeper to find out why haven’t we had a hotel set up shop,” Economic Development Manager Shanel Akerley says
She adds that research showed Riverview could support an economy to mid-scale hotel brand that would target price-sensitive leisure travellers, families and sports teams.
“So a limited service hotel. They’re recommending approximately 60 rooms, offering complimentary breakfast, having a market pantry set up for quick convenience, a fitness room, guest laundry, and then some other amenities that are typical for hotels,” Akerley stated.
The study looked at Riverview’s strategic positioning as the gateway to Fundy National Park and Hopewell Rocks, and the fact that the Town has companies including NAV Canada, call centres, IT Logistics, amongst others that operate within its boundaries. The study found they would generate substantial business travel demand.
With a new recreation centre coming in the next couple of years, Mill Creek Park and the Moncton Golf Club are also strong demand generators in Riverview.
The expectation is that a hotel in Riverview would attract business, leisure and recreational travellers, but Akerley feels it’s important they aren’t competing with neighbouring municipalities.
“We really want to make sure that the hotel, if attracted, is set up with the right segment in mind, and that it’s looking to benefit the amenities that we already have,” Akerely adds.
She says the work has already begun to hopefully attract interested developers.
“We’re putting together a package with an executive summary of all the findings, and we’re actually providing it to local commercial developers in review already. We want to make sure that they’re aware of the opportunity at hand for land that they might already own that’s zoned commercially and that could be a viable property for this type of project. We’re also doing some outreach and trying to find contacts for some of the hotel brands that were recommended as part of the study to see if we can have them sit with us, go over the findings and maybe consider Riverview for any expansion plans,” Akerley expressed.
You can read a summary of the hotel study results HERE.
