Group that includes Ottawa Senators, Devcore owners loses bid for Château Montebello

A local investment group that includes the owners of the Ottawa Senators and Devcore Group will not be purchasing the Fairmont Chateau Montebello.

A group of local investors that includes Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer and Devcore Group CEO Jean-Pierre Poulin will not be purchasing the Fairmont Château Montbello, Poulin has announced.

The nearly 100-year-old resort in Montebello, Que. was put up for sale after its previous owner, a Chinese real estate firm, racked up significant debt and was ordered to liquidate. Originally built in 1930, the 210-room resort is located on approximately 925 acres along the Ottawa River and is recognized as the largest log structure in the world.

The group of local investors, which also includes Martin Paquette of Spa Nordik and Charles-Antoine Hallé and Edouard Wakim of Elevate Real Estate Properties, had promised to invest up to $150 million dollars into the property if their bid was successful. The plan would have included redeveloping the golf course, doubling the size of the marina, and bringing the number of rooms from 210 up to 350.

In a news conference Monday morning, Poulin said their bid was not successful.

“We just received a two-line letter that was saying, well, unfortunately, you haven’t been retained. You haven’t been selected. And send us your folio so we can return the 10 per cent deposit. That was about it,” Poulin told CTV News Ottawa.

Poulin said he believes the Château will still be in good hands.

“We’re not sure 100 per cent, but we believe that the winner is a very respected hotelier,” he said. “Like, they have 500-plus hotels in the world. And I’m sure they going to run the hotel in the proper way. We are a group of developer, promoter and builder. So, we would have redeveloped the entire site. That might be the difference between both bids.”

Hallé said their bid was being considered among two or three other bidders and suggested they were all close in price.

“It’s only a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably,” he said.

The court-appointed receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has yet to announce the winning bid.

Léo Lavallée, owner of Le Café Entre Amis in Montebello, said he was disappointed a Quebec-based group wouldn’t be taking over the famed hotel.

“We don’t know who it will be, but we’re hoping it’s somebody that’s got a footprint anyway,” he said. “We’re just hoping that it’s able to run as it has for years because it’s important in the community.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Marano

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