Hotel X Toronto is a hotel and sports club complex on the grounds of Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The hotel, part of the Library Hotel Collection, is intended to serve visitors attending conventions, meetings, and trade shows booked at the adjacent Enercare Centre and the Beanfield Centre. Hotel X Toronto is divided into three parts: the hotel tower, the Ten X Toronto (10XTO) athletic facility and the historic Stanley Barracks Officers' Quarters and foundations.
Description
The hotel complex is composed of two buildings: a thirty-storey main tower and a five-storey sports club building. The overall design was done by NORR Architects of Toronto, with architecture and interior design services provided by Stephen B. Jacobs Group and Andi Pepper Interior Design of New York. The original design of the building, then known as "Hotel in the Garden", was by Toronto architect Rocco Maragna. It was completely redesigned by NORR to garner the approval of the City of Toronto government's Design Review Panel in 2012.[1] The main entrance is located at the corner of Newfoundland Road and Lake Shore Boulevard West.
The Ten X Toronto athletic club building is just north of the tower, situated alongside Newfoundland Road north to Princes' Boulevard. It has a total of 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) space for recreation, including squash courts, indoor tennis courts, fitness studios, and a gym with Technogym machines. In 2019, the athletic club plans to open a 25-metre FINA-approved rooftop pool for lane swimming, relaxation and aquafit classes.
Hotel X Toronto is also home to Guerlain Spa; the first of its kind in Canada for the renowned French luxury perfume, cosmetics & skincare house.
To the west of the two buildings, the complex includes the revealed foundations of several of the original barracks buildings, and a landscaped plaza/garden area north and south of the Officers' Quarters.
Project history
The site was forested land when settlement by the British began around 1800. After the War of 1812, the land was cleared by the British military as a "Garrison Reserve" to support the garrison known today as Fort York. The site was used for marching, target practice, horse training and temporary campgrounds. As the 1810s era Fort York buildings aged, new facilities were built outside the fort on the Garrison Reserve. The New Fort York, known now as the Stanley Barracks, was built on the current hotel site. During the 1800s, as Toronto grew, sections of the Garrison Reserve were transferred to other uses. The northern section became the site for a jail and an asylum. In the 1850s, a new east-west rail line was constructed along the northern boundary. The western half of the reserve became the new Exhibition Grounds for the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (the future Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)). The Canadian military would use the Exhibition Grounds for various purposes during World War I and World War II and then vacated the site, turning it over entirely to the City of Toronto. One building, the former Officers' Quarters building, continues to exist and is next to the hotel. The other military buildings on the site were all demolished. The Officers' Quarters was used as the Toronto Maritime Museum for several decades. The area was used for surface parking, outdoor exhibit space and midway during the CNE.
After the Direct Energy Centre (now known as "Enercare Centre") opened in 1997, Exhibition Place management sought to build facilities complementary to its large exhibitions space: meeting rooms and accommodations, that would make the facility more attractive to convention planners. A hotel was first proposed for the site in 1999, but three attempts to get the project started failed.[2] While the hotel project failed to get off the ground, meeting rooms were added with the installation of the Allstream Centre meeting facility in the Automotive Building, adjacent to the Direct Energy Centre. In 2008, HK Hotels (later becoming Library Hotel Collection) won the bid to build and operate a hotel on the site.[2] Final agreement on a 49-year lease between HK and the City came in 2009, after issues surrounding archaeological issues and the Stanley Barracks were sorted out.[2] Ownership changed when Library Hotels sold a stake in the project to billionaire Alexander Rovt for US$50 million.[3]
Construction began in 2013.[4] Contaminated soil was found on the site, which delayed construction as it was identified and removed[5] at a cost of CA$5 million, paid for by the City.[6] Colder than normal winters also slowed construction, as the building was hoped to be complete in time for the 2015 Pan American Games.[4] The building was topped off on April 23, 2015.[7] In 2016, construction was halted by contractors who placed liens on the building. This included a CA$32 million lien and a CA$17 million lien by Multiplex Construction who was replaced by McKay-Cocker Construction Limited.[8][9] The hotel eventually opened in March 2018.[10]
There is a proposal to build an above-ground pedestrian bridge between the Hotel X and the second floor of the Automotive Building. It may begin construction in 2020.[11]
