Capital Suites. Creativity, Detail and Opportunity drive Newton Grey
By Bill Braden
Newton Grey has a Masters Degree in Tourism and Hotel Development but finds that running hotels across northern and eastern Canada demands creativity, attention to detail and a keen eye for opportunity. Grey is locally known as the manager of the Capital Suites apartment hotel, but in fact also has responsibility for properties in Inuvik, Iqaluit, and St. John’s, Newfoundland, as the Regional General Manager for the Northview Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust, Canada’s third-largest publicly traded REIT. Calgary-based Northview grew from the former Northern Property REIT, which was started in the 1990s by a group of northern investors, and now serves some 60 markets with 24,000 residential units in eight provinces, Nunavut and NWT. Its hotel division started in Yellowknife, says Grey, spurred by the bustling activity of the 1990s when business clients were renting conventional housing for stays of only a few weeks to several months. “That’s when another niche surfaced,” says Grey. Northview converted one of its own properties, formerly The Gardens on Franklin Avenue, in 1998. It is now in the final stages of a seven-figure, top-to-bottom renovation of its 78 units. The investment includes handy amenities like fully upgraded kitchens, a boardroom, a snack shop, and a patio. Tailored to the longer-stay business clients, a one-month stay in a one-bedroom unit with daily housekeeping is just over $3000.
The Jamaican-born Grey, who came to Canada with 18 years’ management experience with Sandals Resorts, knows his industry’s challenges. “Everybody who deals with tourism in the North has trouble with a very thin margin,” says Grey. “Any business working a tight margin has to be extremely creative, and has to be keen on details or you could lose your shirt!” To curb the costs of Inuvik’s surging power rates a few years ago, he invested in energy-saving technology and switched to cold-water laundry. To cope with chronic turnover among service industry staff, Grey saw that they were ready to work hard, but they also wanted to play hard. “I started to give them time off a little earlier [at six months rather than after one year’s employment]. By simply doing that, I found I retained more of them.”
Grey’s eyes light up when he talks about the tourism potential in Yellowknife’s future. “As ‘Destination Yellowknife’, shouldn’t we be coordinating our efforts to capitalize on it? I believe in constant improvement, to look at ourselves, and say how could we do this better?” Grey says. “I think we’re leaving a lot of money on the table.” He points to local festivals as attractions that have the potential for growth, and for new alliances with businesses that can benefit everyone. He wonders if restaurants could benefit from the Aurora business by adjusting hours to serve viewers before and after their night-time tours. He asks why merchants, airlines, and hotels aren’t putting on special rates to welcome, for instance, Sahtu or Kitikmeot residents for a weekend in the city? “There’s a wealth of opportunities ahead of us. There are so many things that we do very well in Yellowknife. We just need to connect them.” YKCI
