The best of the best
Quality Inn Northern Grand wins redesign award
By Ryan Lux for Alaska Highway News, November 26, 2010
Renovations at the Quality Inn Northern Grand turned locals’ heads last fall once they installed their bright red façade and refinished their stonework, but Fort St. John residents weren’t the only ones who noticed.
Staff found out last week that they had won a national award for best renovation and redesign. The Quality Inn Northern Grand received the award from their head office, Choice Hotels, and was selected from among the company’s 248 hotels nationwide.
Staff at the hotel said they knew their redesign was a hit but did not see the award coming.
“Did I know that the award existed? No. Did I know we were even nominated? No. Is it an honour that the players at Choice saw the difference and automatically move to consider us? Of course!” said the hotel’s general manager Cheryl Erikson.
The ball started rolling when the hotel’s franchise contract with White Spot expired. Erikson said she knew that the hotel needed to change the restaurant because locals weren’t familiar enough with the franchise, so they opted for an Irish pub-styled restaurant.
Changing the restaurant’s theme from White Spot’s to an Irish pub required extensive renovations on the ground floor. Erikson explained that, while they were at it, the hotel’s owner Ralph Jordan decided to include the extensive renovations to the lobby and exterior.
“He really stepped up to the plate to support the community he enjoys doing business in,” said Erikson.
The total cost for renovating the lobby, restaurant and exterior was $5 million.
Timing was perfect, according to Erikson, because since the hotel’s last major renovation 10 years ago, new hotels have been built in the city and threatened what Erikson believes had been the Quality Inn Northern Grand’s reputation as Fort St. John’s ‘premier hotel’.
In the hotel business, Erikson said, first impressions are crucial.
“We obviously want to make a good impression on our guests, but we also want to give them a good first impression of Fort St. John. We want all the business and government people who stay here to go back to where they’ve from and spread the word,” said Erikson.
The award’s timing is appropriate because the new restaurant, the impetus for the whole project, is going to be celebrating its one year birthday this weekend.
J.D. Fitzgerald’s has really been embraced by the community said Erikson, in a way that White Spot never really was.
Fitzgerald’s general manager Darren Michael’s compared the White Spot to a Denny’s whereas he said the new restaurant has several different atmospheres which really appeals to people.
“There’s a family area, a quiet comfortable area where you can relax, there are intimate spaces near the fireplace and there are spaces where you can come have a few drinks with big groups of people and listen to live music,” said Michaels.
The restaurant alone cost $3 million, because they needed to completely gut the interior and start from scratch.
When people come into the restaurant, Michaels said, there usual reaction is “Oh wow! I can’t believe what you did with this space!”
Besides the great atmosphere, Michaels said the community has really responded to the new menu, which, he believes, is right up there with the restaurants in town.
“For a pub’s food to be compared to a restaurant is a serious compliment,” said Michaels.
The owner, Ralph Jordan, has been involved with the hotel since its construction in 1980 when it was a Holiday Inn. Over the years the hotel has undergone several name changes.
Until 1999 the hotel was called the Pioneer Hotel. Then, it was known as the Grand because head office types in Vancouver felt the old name evoked images of wagon wheels, barrels and hitching posts, according to Erikson.
Later still the hotel was re-re-Christened the Quality Inn Northern Grand, the name it bears today.