Company struggles to keep project alive after disappointing bookings and rising expenses
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Vancouver Sun Files / A plan calls for the Norwegian Star to be docked in North Vancouver and used as a hotel. Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
A plan to berth an 1,100-room cruise ship in North Vancouver for use as a floating hotel during the Olympic Games appears dangerously close to sinking.
Newwest Special Projects — which has marketed the Norwegian Star to Games visitors for the past nine months — said in a statement over the weekend that sales have been disappointing while expenses have increased beyond expectations. It said it is negotiating with its partners to try to lower costs and keep the project alive.
Former Newwest Special Projects president Dennis Laliberte, who launched the project last year but resigned his position in August, said Monday he could not talk about the Olympic cruise ship project and referred inquiries to a company representative in Utah. “I’m not allowed to say anything about this project,” he said.
The possible cancellation of the Olympic floating hotel venture comes after Newwest twice slashed prices to try to boost sales. When it announced the project last May, the cost of a basic room was to be about $1,300 US a night but that was cut to $500 in October. The starting price was then lowered to $275 US a night last month, with the prospect of even lower prices as the Games neared.
Newwest paid more than $10 million to lease the cruise ship and had to spend a significant amount of money to renovate the Kinder Morgan industrial dock in North Vancouver for use as a temporary cruise ship terminal. The ship was to arrive in Vancouver on Feb. 10 and depart on March 2.
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