Oliver, the wine capital of Canada, gets its first full-service hotel

With the ribbon cutting complete, the Town of Oliver’s first full-service hotel is officially open.

Hospitality industry veteran Ron Mundi opened the 83-suite Coast Hotel after a push by Oliver town council to revitalize the downtown core.

“Councils have tried for years and years and years to attract a hotelier here, and so it was about 18 months we did just that again,” said Oliver mayor Ron Hovanes.

Mundi said the budget friendly, mid-scale hotel has been attracting tourists since it fully opened on August 1st.

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“Our occupancy is around 90 per cent and you look at the numbers, almost 200 people, tourists from everywhere in the world,” he said.

The four-storey building went up in just eight months, using modular construction.

Joseph Kiss, the senior vice-president of modular solutions for Horizon North, said the manufacturing method is more time efficient and cost effective.

“That technique essentially is building in blocks. In our factory in Kamloops, we build the modules,” Kiss said.

Hovanes said the small town of just under 5,000 people is becoming a tourism destination.

“There is so much other development happening in Oliver right now. The wineries that are being built, Area 27, the Osoyoos Indian Band, how economically driven they are, the time is just right,” he said.

The Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association said the hotel is a game-changer for the local economy.

“Oliver has really been a leader in the space of wine tourism and really carved out that niche in this region as the wine capital of Canada,” said president and CEO Glenn Mandziuk. “But without having a full service accommodation facility, it’s a very difficult thing to put yourself on the map.”

The hotel also created 30 jobs.