This week, owners and developers of the 267-room hotel, which include Cadillac Fairview and Marriott Hotels and Resorts, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring a musical performance, champagne and tours of the new property, located at Wellington and Simcoe Street.
The hotel is part of a mixed-use development, which features condos, starting at $1.6 million. Condo owners will have access to several services and amenities, including a stunning new restaurant called TOCA (an acronym for Toronto, Canada), which is helmed by Tom Brody, formerly of Canoe Restaurant.
The restaurant’s decor showcases the chef’s local mandate with an impressive cheese cave in a glass-enclosed area at the entrance, which can stock more than 200 varieties of cheese. Meanwhile, 5,000 bottles of wine is displayed nearby in a wine cellar.
“We started talking about this project in 2004,” recalled Michael Beckley, vice-president of Marriott Hotels, at the official opening. Admittedly, there were a host of issues management had to overcome, and “we quietly worked through them in good Canadian fashion,” added the VP, who quipped that his retirement had been delayed as a result.
