Lac-Sainte-Marie’s hotel scene revives

Lac-Sainte-Marie’s hotel scene revives

The MSM Hotel is the catalyst for the year-round getaway destination

Lac-Sainte-Marie (QC), Tuesday, March 15 – After a 30-year absence of hotels in Lac-Sainte-Marie, local Ottawa hotel developer Activar Hôtels is excited to announce its partnership with Mont Ste-Marie for a ski-in ski-out hotel, a much-needed accommodation solution for the year-round getaway destination, to be built on the signature Dustin Cook Run, at the base of the Mountain. Construction is set to launch in 2023 and will be completed in two phases.



“Our team has been working on a remarkable and comprehensive hospitality concept for over two years. Launching the hotel is the first phase of this development that is set to revive Lac-Sainte-Marie’s legacy as the destination to reinvigorate your senses in a sublime natural setting,” enthusiastically expresses Mathieu Mault, CEO of Activar Hôtels. This hotel brings Activar Hôtels’ portfolio of managed properties up to six.

The hotel part of the concept represents an investment of $25M and is expected to create close to 50 jobs. "We are very supportive of Activar Hôtel’s plan to develop a lifestyle hotel in Lac-Sainte-Marie. We’re excited to collaborate on an initiative that sparks new economic activity in our community and creates an experience that gives people a new reason to explore our beautiful region,” shares Madam Mayor Cheryl Sage-Christensen.

The 80-room lifestyle ski-in ski-out hotel will feature bold and thought-out architecture and design, chic guest rooms, modern amenities, a restaurant and bar headed by a local chef, a pool and spa as well as creative remote working spaces. A space to experience, discover and connect, the MSM Hotel will be home to a new social club. The hotel is expected to open as early as 2024. Activar Hôtels has a track record of funding its hotel developments exclusively with local investors and intends on reproducing this model for the MSM Hotel. The owner of the Mont Ste-Marie ski resort and partner in the hotel, Bob Sudermann, expresses his enthusiasm for the hotel development: “Mont Ste-Marie has amazing skiing, mountain biking, hiking, swimming, golf, tennis, and other natural elements that will propel this hotel’s success. This, combined with its location on the Cheval Blanc hillside, makes it a desirable opportunity. The new hotel crystallizes the region’s full potential, year round.”

Activar Hôtels has partnered with forward-thinking architecture & design studio, Linebox, which is already active in Lac-Sainte-Marie. “What we love about this hotel development project is the vision to make it a community hub 12 months a year, allowing guests, local residents and nature’s elements to engage in a positive way, ” states Andrew Reeves, Architect and Founder of Linebox. The MSM Hotel is meant to be a seamless transition, between the inside and outside spaces, that celebrates nature and captures the light on the land through various openings and windows. The objective is to use sustainable building practices such as cross-laminated timber.

Much more than a one-night stay

Activar Hôtels’ roots started in smaller communities that didn’t have a hotel and has recently focused on lifestyle properties: “Having both economy hotels in suburban and rural communities and upscale lifestyle hotels in destination markets such as Lac-Sainte-Marie provides our portfolio with risk diversification, which is ever more important in a post-COVID world,” explains Mathieu Mault.

Activar Hôtels was created in 2019 and has since developed its managed portfolio of hotels from zero to six, through new constructions and acquisitions. The idea to launch a hotel development and management company came to Mathieu Mault and his wife, Jennifer Larocque, during a year spent travelling abroad, staying in over 100 hotels, where people came together, inspirational conversations happened and serendipitous discoveries were discussed. In hotels, people come and go, but the ideas born from their happy collisions stay and grow.