Algonquin | Clients on big-time broker’s buyers list checking out resort

The provincial government has selected a multinational real-estate firm to represent the province in the sale of the Algonquin Properties.

CB Richard Ellis broker and Toronto office executive vice-president Bill Stone said considerable interest in the 122-year-old seaside hotel and golf course has already been shown from the corporation’s private international buyers list.

Infrastructure Minister Claude Williams has also confirmed that the St. Andrews resort will remain open even if its sale isn’t complete before Dec. 31, when Fairmont’s management contract expires.

The Algonquin is being put up for sale after the Fairmont hotel chain announced it won’t renew its management contract at the end of the year.

“We have had considerable interest at this stage in the process … We have gone to a broad base of investors worldwide and generated a lot of interest, largely North American,” Stone said.

“We’re dealing with lots of inquiries; we have been well received by the market place.”

He said it was difficult to forecast whether a sale would be made before the end of the year.

“We’re running a process, and it is hard to commit to timing at this stage,” he said.

Williams said the sale isn’t contingent on the hotel remaining open.

“The Algonquin will continue to operate when the current contract with Fairmont expires at the end of the year,” Williams said.

“If a buyer is not found by the end of the year, an interim management company would be hired to operate the Algonquin on behalf of the province.”

The Algonquin isn’t listed on the CB Richard Ellis website, although several other privately owned New Brunswick properties are.

A two-storey office building located in downtown Bathurst is listed for $1.5 million. A 10-acre lot for commercial development in Moncton is priced at $6 million.

An industrial building in Saint John’s McAllister Industrial Park is listed for $2.15 million.

The site also has several properties similar to the Algonquin listed.

“The Rise,” a proposed 294.5-hectare resort community in Vernon, B.C., already complete with a Fred Couples signature-designed golf course, is among the firms listings. No price is listed.

The proposed Wyndansea Oceanfront Resort site in Ucluelet, B.C., is listed at an asking price of $26 million.

The 145.7-hectare site features waterfront frontage to both the Pacific Ocean and inlet sides of the Ucluelet peninsula in an area where high-end restaurants draw 800,000 tourists annually, according to the listing.

Stone said the Algonquin doesn’t appear on the website, but that the corporation’s private international buyers list is being used to solicit a sale.

Williams said the resort, one of New Brunswick’s most iconic tourism destinations, will remain an economic engine for southwestern New Brunswick.

“CBRE has received a number of inquiries about the property, and we are encouraged by the level of interest being expressed,” Williams said.

“The Algonquin Hotel and Resort is very valuable to our tourism industry and a major economic engine for St. Andrews and Charlotte County … Government is committed to exploring all options for its continued operation.”