A new hotel coming soon to Stonewall will open doors for everything ranging from sports groups to staycations.
Steel Creek Developers announced last week that a new 30-room hotel will be coming to town, operating under its Blue Crescent Hotel brand. Construction is expected to begin this summer on the hotel, which will be located in the west end of the planned age-in-place campus along Highway 236.
The hotel will include a pool and waterslide, a meeting room for local business and community use, a fitness room, guest laundry facilities and a free continental breakfast for guests.
Trevor Rempel, CEO of Steel Creek Developers and Blue Crescent Hotels, expressed enthusiasm for the project.
“We had a really good push of local community support from the investment side of things. Ultimately, that’s what determines whether a project like this can move forward in a rural town,” he said.
“It’s all private investment — the town has no stake in it. We’ve got a really good group of owners, mostly local business people, and we have some returning shareholders as well from previous projects. We’re happy that we’re finally in a position to move forward on it.”
He noted the positive impact of the provincial government’s small business venture capital tax credit, which has been a risk reduction factor and a tool that has allowed the company to develop in rural Manitoba.
Steel Creek Developers has been building hotels since 2015, although not all of them fall under the Blue Crescent brand. Currently, Blue Crescent hotels are operating in Carman and Arborg, with projects in the works for Deacon’s Corner and Stonewall.
To start, Stonewall’s hotel will feature 30 rooms with eight different room types, and the company bought enough land for future expansion.
The Blue Crescent brand is known for its split-room design, which has the bathroom located in the middle of the room.
“We split the two beds and there’s a TV on each side. That allows our guests to have a lot more flexibility and value in their stay, whether they’re a young family or coworkers whose company is pairing them up in rooms,” Rempel said. “We’ve had great feedback with the split room design and it’s been our signature and a differentiating factor for us.”
Several options are available in this design, including the double room with a queen bed on each side or the single room with a queen bed on one side and sofa bed on the other side. The king executive rooms will have a king bed on one side, queen bed on the other plus additional seating area.
For larger families, the one-bedroom suite offers accommodations for six with a queen bed on one side, a sofa bed on the other plus a separate bedroom with a king bed. Another option is a two-bedroom kitchenette suite, which is similar to a small apartment.
“Our most popular room is our family room. The middle of our hotel and front sticks out a little bit to give some architectural esthetic, so those rooms in the middle are an extra two feet long,” Rempel said.
“Instead of just wasting the space in having a standard room, we’re able to fit two sets of bunk beds in there. So we have a queen bed with a TV on one side for the parents and then we have two sets of bunk beds and a TV for the kids.”
In the Arborg and Carman locations, the pool and waterslide have proven to be a big attraction, and Rempel anticipates the same will be true in Stonewall.
“It’s going to be a great addition to the town. Carman was the first location that we did a pool and waterslide, and we were unsure whether it would make enough of an impact to pay for the extra investment in a smaller town,” he said.
“We’ve seen great response because of the pool — lots of staycations. It drives additional stays for sports and tournaments. There are even people selecting hockey tournaments based on the hotel having a pool and waterslide. We saw really good success with the pool in Carman, so we felt it was a good fit for Arborg — and we feel it will be a fit for Stonewall as well.”
The build time for the 30-room hotel will be about 12 months, he added.
“We’re just closing our investment round. We’ve secured our builder and our lending. We’ve started the process of our site layout. We’ve done a land deal already, so we’re just looking at clearing some of the conditions on that land and we’re waiting for the subdivision to go through,” he said.
“We can’t start building until there’s a new land title created and it’s subdivided, but we expect it will probably be starting in early summer. If we could get started at the beginning of summer, it’s great timing for next year because we could be open for the summer season so we could catch all the soccer and baseball tournaments, as well as any of the summer tourism events at Quarry Park.”
For Rempel, one of the main benefits of the hotel is the ability to attract events to town.
“There are certain events that you cannot attract to your community until you have a place to stay. One example is teacher conferences. The education system in the province likes to move their teacher conferences around to all sorts of communities. They like going to rural communities, but one of the conditions is that there be hotel rooms available in town. So usually those teacher conferences aren’t available to come to a community such as Stonewall until there’s something like this in place,” he said.
“And smaller sports events can maybe expand into larger sports events. A one-day tournament might turn into a full weekend tournament because you can invite more teams now. When people have family weddings, socials or funerals, you can keep those stays local as well.”
As a result, the community is able to retain revenue when visitors stay in town.
“Without modern hotel facilities, at the end of the day anybody that would stay in town is driving out of town and taking their spending dollars with them. People will normally have dinner in restaurants, do their shopping, buy gas in the community that they’re staying in for the night. So if you can’t retain those vehicles in town for the night, those dollars that would be spent in the community are driving out of town and being spent somewhere else,” Rempel said.
“In all the communities where we’ve put hotels, we’ve seen that they have a beneficial impact on the surrounding businesses, particularly the ones that rely on the people that come and stay in town — gas stations, stores, restaurants. Stonewall is seeing good growth, and a hotel is generally a critical tipping point for taking a rural community to another level of development. I have no doubt that this is going to spur on future development that will continue to help grow the community at a faster route.”
Robert Price-Lewis, president of the Stonewall and District Chamber of Commerce, said the proposed hotel will be an exciting and practical addition that fills a need in the community.
“Stonewall regularly hosts hockey, baseball and other sporting events, yet visiting teams often have limited accommodation options locally and end up staying in Winnipeg. That means families and teams are spending their money outside our community during tournaments and events. A new hotel will help keep those visitors in Stonewall — supporting our restaurants, shops and local businesses while strengthening our overall economy,” he said.
“This addition comes at a particularly exciting time, with the Veterans Memorial Sports Complex set for renovation and revitalization over the coming years. As those improvements take shape, Stonewall is well positioned to become an even stronger hub for regional tournaments and sporting events. Having quality accommodations nearby makes that growth possible and sustainable.”
At the same time, Price-Lewis said it’s also encouraging to see the proposed age-in-place campus located close to the new hotel.
“This reflects thoughtful planning that supports residents at every stage of life — particularly seniors who want to remain in Stonewall while accessing appropriate housing and services,” he said.
“In my opinion, the hotel represents more than a building — it represents infrastructure that supports tourism, recreation and long-term community growth, and I see it as a very positive step forward for Stonewall.”
