| The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto | |
|---|---|
 The Westin Harbour Castle | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Address | 1 Harbour Square Toronto, Ontario M5J 1A6 |
| Coordinates | 43°38′26″N79°22′33″W / 43.640641°N 79.375716°W |
| Opened | 1975 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 33 |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 977 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto is a large hotel opened in 1975 on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Westin Hotels chain within Marriott International.
The hotel was built by the Campeau Corporation, after Canadian real estate tycoon Robert Campeau was given permission by the city of Toronto in 1972 to turn industrial land on the city's waterfront into a 30-acre residential and commercial development. [1] The 38-story [2] twin-towered 963-room hotel opened in April 1975 [3] as the Harbour Castle Hotel. Cut off from the city by the Gardiner Expressway, [1] the hotel was at first unsuccessful, with an occupancy rate of only 46.2% in its first year and an even lower rate in its second. [4] Hilton International assumed management in 1977, and the hotel was renamed the Toronto Hilton Harbour Castle. [5]
Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-Shing purchased the hotel from Campeau in 1981. [6] In a complicated management swap in 1987, Hilton Hotels traded operation of the property for the Westin Hotel on University Avenue. The Harbour Castle became the Harbour Castle Westin, while the former Westin became the Hilton Toronto. [7] Li sold the property to Westin Hotels in 1990.
Westin sold the hotel to the Public Sector Pension Investment Board in 2005, as part of a portfolio of five Canadian Westin hotels in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. PSP resold the five hotels to Starwood Capital Group in 2013 for CA$765 Million, at which point the Harbour Castle was valued in land registry documents at CA$146 million. [8] Starwood Capital put the Harbour Castle up for sale in January 2016. [8] When they sold their remaining Canadian Westin properties in 2018, it was reported that the Harbour Castle had sold for nearly CA$400 million. [9]
The twin-towered 34-storey building sits along Toronto Harbour and now offers 977 rooms after a renovation in 2007. The hotel features three restaurants, including The Mizzen, Toula and The Chartroom. The hotel also features the Harbour coffee bar, and Savoury, a private chef's table. Toula, a rooftop restaurant located on the southeast tower, once revolved, but this ceased in 2001. [10] The restaurant offers a view of the lake; and, on a clear day, one can see Rochester, New York. [10]
A convention centre building is attached to the hotel on the north side of Queens Quay and is accessible via an elevated glass walkway. The convention centre offers 31 rooms, including the 24,990 square feet (2,322 m2) Metropolitan Ballroom. [11] The hotel is also connected to Harbour Square condos with a glass walkway.
The hotel is located along the Yonge Street slip and shares space with the semi-retired island ferry Trillium and is adjacent to the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal.
The Westin Harbour Castle Hotel has been used for several ceremonies, including the presenting of the 32nd Genie Awards. [12]
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton.
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Robert Joseph Antoine Campeau was a Canadian financier and real estate developer. Starting from a single house constructed in 1940 in the Alta Vista neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Campeau built a large land development corporation around the development of the suburb of Kanata. Expansion in the U.S. led Campeau to diversify into the ownership of retail department stores to anchor commercial development projects. The Campeau Corporation used leveraged buyouts to buy the department stores and went bankrupt when it could not maintain the debt payments, in the largest retailing bankruptcy at the time in U.S. history.
Queens Quay is a prominent street in the Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street was originally commercial in nature due to the many working piers along the waterfront; parts of it have been extensively rebuilt in since the 1970s with parks, condominiums, retail, as well as institutional and cultural development.
Queens Quay is an underground streetcar station of the Toronto streetcar system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Along with Spadina station and Union station, it is one of three stations open overnight to support late-night streetcar routes. It is the only underground streetcar station that is not part of or connected to a Toronto subway station. It was opened in 1990 as part of the former Harbourfront LRT route. The station is now served by the 509 Harbourfront, 510 Spadina daytime routes and the 310 Spadina night route.
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Campeau Corporation was a Canadian real estate development and investment company founded by entrepreneur Robert Campeau. It was infamous from its ultimately unsuccessful acquisitions of American department store holding companies Allied Stores in 1986 and Federated Department Stores in 1988. The whole organization soon was mired in bankruptcy and spurred the decline of the regional department store.
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Federated Hermes Tower is a 358-foot-tall (109 m) skyscraper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The building is part of Liberty Center, a two-building complex which also includes the Westin Convention Center Hotel. It was completed in 1986 and has 27 floors and 530,000 square feet (49,000 m2) of space. It is the 16th tallest building in the city and houses the corporate headquarters of Federated Hermes.
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South Core is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The South Core occupies the eastern portions of the Railway Lands. The remodeling and restoration of Union Station and the construction of a new wave of business and condominium towers is central to this area's forecast growth.
Forecasters expect the downtown population to grow 80 per cent to 130,000 by 2031. With the financial district just to the north and the new high-rise South Core on the other side, Union is right at the centre.
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The Jack Layton Ferry Terminal is the ferry slip for Toronto Island ferries operated by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division. Three ferry routes provide transportation between mainland Toronto and Centre Island, Hanlan's Point and Ward's Island in the Toronto Islands, with levels of service to each destination differing depending on time of year. The terminal is located in the Toronto Harbour, behind the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel and adjacent to Harbour Square Park. It is south of Bay Street and Queens Quay in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Harbour Square Park is a park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada right on the Toronto harbour. It is next to the Harbour Square condos, the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and the Westin Harbour Castle. It is south of Queens Quay and adjacent to the Queens Quay streetcar station. It contains a boardwalk and a permanent public art installation.
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