Plans for posh ice hotel melt
What began with a massive publicity splash and much hoopla has ended up being "a shitty experience" for Kamloops developer Jeff Arnold, who said he'd rather forget he was ever involved.

Arnold was named as the main contractor for an ice hotel to be built at Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia earlier this year. He said he put seven months of work into the project when it was suddenly cancelled in early October.

Developers have disappeared
Attempts to contact Steeve Croteau, president of the Ice Palace Hotel Group, were fruitless. The company's website has a simple message under its logo: "The Ice Palace Hotel will not be opening at Sun Peaks Resort for the 2005-2006 season. The developers are looking for other locations for the 2006/2007 winter season."

There are no links on the site to any other projects. The toll-free Vancouver phone number associated with the Ice Palace Hotel Group has been disconnected.

When announced, the plans were to open the 26-room hotel in December and run it through April. Regular rooms were to cost up to $600 a night. It was to have included a wedding chapel, nightclub and bar. There are ice hotels in Iceland and Quebec (where these pics are from).


At least some workers were paid
Arnold said any contractor who worked on the project for him was paid. He wouldn't speculate on whether other people in the project were paid for their services, although he said he has heard many rumours about the situation.

Chris Nicholson, executive director of Tourism Sun Peaks, said he's also heard rumours that some groups working on the project didn't get paid, but not his organization. "They were coming in as a third party, with their own expenditures and investments," Nicholson said of the project's proponents. He has had no contact with Croteau or his business partner, Anne Wright, since October.

Gone like a snowman in June
"It was sudden, for sure," Nicholson said of the cancellation. "When it died, it died quick and our contact with them died quick." Nicholson said he had high hopes for the ice hotel, expecting it to attract a new market "other than the ski market."

He said he was sure it would be an economic boon not only to the resort, but to the region, creating jobs, drawing more flights to the Kamloops Airport and bringing in a new demographic.



[Source: KamloopsThisWeek.com]

[Ice-Hotel photos from Quebec's Ice-Hotel]