For seven years, John Hawley and David Feldberg planned, redesigned, waited, built and kept going.
On Sept. 9, they finally stood inside the finished hotel.
The new four-storey hotel at Clayfield Commons in Niagara-on-the-Lake held its official ribbon-cutting Wednesday ahead of welcoming its first overnight guests Sept. 18. Rooms start at $429 per night.
Feldberg, founder of Stratus Vineyards, had long wanted to create a hotel inspired by the same design and hospitality principles behind the winery.
Across the road, Hawley and his family had spent years building the neighbourhood that would become Clayfield Commons.
When the two met in 2019, their visions merged.
Of the hotel’s 102 rooms, 60 are guestrooms and 42 are residential-style accommodations designed for longer stays. It also includes more than 5,400 square feet of meeting and event space.
Its food and beverage program includes Terrain on the ground level, a restaurant focused on Niagara produce, growers and wine, and the Rooftop at the Clayfield on the third floor.
The building’s curved exterior takes inspiration from the Niagara Escarpment, while vertical timber elements are meant to echo vineyard rows. It was designed by Montreal-based firm Sid Lee Architecture.
The hotel is also part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection, a group of independent hotels designed to keep their own look and character rather than follow one standard model.
At the ribbon-cutting, Hawley said the most exciting part was “today” — simply being there after years of work and sleepless nights.
“We were two guys with a dream and no experience building a hotel. How hard could it be?” he said during his remarks. “Good thing we didn’t have any idea.”
The most rewarding part has been seeing the community begin to make the space its own, particularly through the farmers’ market and public green, Hawley said.
The hotel itself was first proposed in 2018. That year, a 164-name petition was presented to council opposing the proposed hotel and assembly hall, with concerns including parking, increased height and the draw of more tourists to the neighbourhood, which residents feared would bring more traffic and congestion.
The Clayfield’s website says its parking area is accessed from Niven Road.
“We’ve got multiple access points all over the place,” Hawley told The Lake Report. “We haven’t been able to use them all because they’ve been in construction.”
Asked whether congestion could become a problem, he said he does not expect it to.
“I don’t think it will be,” he said. “We planned for it not to be.”
Hawley said they also tried to avoid building more parking than needed.
“We also don’t want to overbuild parking,” he said. “You go to places where there’s just hundreds of spots that sit empty all the time and that’s not good for the environment.”
The goal, he said, was to provide enough parking without paving more land than necessary.
Hyatt Canada’s regional vice president of franchise operations and sales, Don Lougheed, said the Clayfield fits Hyatt’s one-of-a-kind approach because of its ties to Niagara’s landscape, wine, food and community.
Kathy Weiss, CEO of Tourism Niagara-on-the-Lake, said the hotel could also help keep visitors in town longer.
“The longer our visitors stay, the more opportunity they have to discover wineries, restaurants, shops, theatre, heritage, and trails — all of the wonderful businesses and experience throughout our destination,” she said.
The years between the idea and opening were spent working through planning, design and construction — a process Hawley said came with “inevitable bumps and challenges.”
Feldberg summed up the process with a joke at the ribbon-cutting.
“We didn’t realize it would be as easy as it’s been,” he said, drawing laughter. “It’s never a straight road along the way, but we’re really really thrilled with the result.”
Hawley said he and his son Adam recently stood in the lobby, looked around and asked each other the same question.
“How did we get here?”
Earlier in his remarks, Hawley praised Adam as his “right hand,” saying “none have been more significant” than him.
