OPUS moves east
Montreal's Hotel Godin is about to brighten up
Laura Robin, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, October 27, 2007
John de C. Evans is acting not just like a kid in a candy store, but like a kid who has just bought the entire candy store. Which is pretty much the case for this ebullient Vancouver hotelier.
"Just the thought of opening in Montreal sent a tingling up my back," Evans, 58, said last Saturday as he showed off his new property, Montreal's former Hotel Godin, which he has rebranded OPUS Montreal.
OPUS Montreal is the second property in his grand scheme, "the ideal launching pad" for a new national chain of world-class boutique hotels under the OPUS banner.
Five years ago, Evans opened OPUS Vancouver, a 96-room boutique hotel that quickly became famous for its irreverent approach, colourful rooms and celebrities (everyone from Annie Leibovitz to Cher, Sarah McLachlan and the Red Hot Chili Peppers) who have stayed there. In July, he took over Montreal's severely stylish Hotel Godin, and last week, he was busy unveiling his colourful plans for it.
Hotel Godin had an impressive pedigree, but a problematic past. The old part of the hotel, built by Joseph-Arthur Godin in 1914, was the first poured-concrete building in North America -- an Art Nouveau beauty that adorns the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Laurent. In 2004, architect Dan Hanganu, who designed Montreal's striking archeology museum, added a steel-and-glass modern wing to the hotel. Toronto interior design firm Yabu Pushelberg finished the picture with a gun-metal-grey and brown decor, lots of exposed concrete and huge steel mirrors.
Trendsetters ate it up. Hotel Godin made Condé Nast Traveler magazine's annual Hot List just months after it opened. Soon it was getting attention from all over.
Behind the scenes, however, things were not going so well. The hotel's owners -- restaurateurs with hot properties such as Globe and Buonanotte further up St-Laurent -- couldn't get a liquor licence for the hotel. That meant room service couldn't deliver booze, the planned bar and restaurant never opened, and staff couldn't even put those tiny bottles of spirits and wine in the rooms' mini-bars. Publicity fizzled like flat champagne.
Last year, the property was taken over by its financial backer, Quebec's Caisse de depot, and offered for sale to buyers around the world.
"In a sense, it never really opened," says Evans. "You can't have a great hotel without a great restaurant. It's how you telegraph what you're all about to the world. People think, 'When I come back to this city, this is where I'll stay.'"
On July 9, the day Evans's protracted negotiations to buy Hotel Godin were finally completed, Evans hung the OPUS name on its front. He kept the existing management team, but immediately opened the doors to fresh, West Coast concepts. Already, James Blunt, Björk, the Beastie Boys and tennis player Rafael Nadal have checked in.
Evans is careful not to criticize the severely stylish decor he inherited -- "We really, truly like this in rooms with lots of light," he says of the dark palette -- but he has already transformed five of the 136 rooms and plans to do most of the rest by spring. He says he'll keep some rooms the same because they have a loyal following.
"We're not renovating, we're freshening, like putting on a new coat of makeup -- making things lighter and more playful."
In the Vancouver OPUS, the rooms are famous for their personalities -- literally. Each is designed for a fictitious character -- flamboyant DeeDee, businesswoman Susan and punk rocker Billy, for example -- and the decor, bedside books and online concierge recommendations all follow.
Evans says he is taking a more subtle and sophisticated approach with the concept in Montreal, but the Vancouver formula is so popular, he hasn't really been able to resist. OPUS has not only brought DeeDee and her white-shag-fur and gold-lamé cushions to Montreal, it has added Pierre for a nod to French culture. Some of the re-done rooms are orange, Susan's is periwinkle blue, and others are cherry pink. Vases, iPod docking stations and coffee makers have been added.
"All the bathrooms will be lightened up; they're just too dark," says Evans. "You can barely see yourself in the mirror."
He's also switching the toiletries from ones by Gilchrist & Soames to L'Occitane products ("that's what I use at home") and adding playful touches, such as snow globes and magnetic letters on the metal mirrors.
"I think one of the things that OPUS is great at -- and it's my goal -- is to make a hotel feel like a home. We have lots of guests in the entertainment industry who stay for more than 100 nights."
Evans believes his day-to-day presence in OPUS Vancouver has contributed to its success. "We've all stayed at the big, faceless hotels. This is another way."
Since he can't be in two places, he has set up his 27-year-old daughter Katherine with an office in Montreal's OPUS and given her responsibility for promotions and food and beverage management for marketing events.
The biggest addition to the hotel is expected in April. At the front of the building, in a dramatic, cavernous space that includes part of the old building and the new wing, is the room that was earmarked to be the Godin's restaurant. Instead, Evans plans to put a fine-dining restaurant further back in what was once the lounge, and make the space facing Sherbrooke Street into a bar that will also serve tapas and other small dishes. He's got design boards set up on the unfinished concrete floor and gleam in his eye. The drawings for the bar's bathroom involve a unisex sink area set into a round enclosure that juts into the room. He envisions a hopping outdoor area on the terrace behind.
"This is an incredible space," Evans says, whirling around to take in the view of Sherbrooke in front, the terrace behind and the historic building off to one side. "It's fun, it's playful, it's experiential.
"This is such an exciting time, a scary time. Right now, all the ideas are in people's heads, spilling out. But when you come back in April, the space will be all together."
And then he's off, with his daughter, to fly back to Whistler, B.C., where he has another hotel, the Adara. He was having a party to celebrate the 30th birthdays of his twin sons and, no doubt, the launch of his national dream.
Laura Robin is the Citizen's Travel editor.
IF YOU GO...:
Where: 10 Sherbrooke West (at St-Laurent), Montreal
Cost: Range from $229 for a standard room to $1,500 for the two-storey, loft-style presidential suite. Rates can be lower from December through February and higher in summer.
Contacts: 1-514-843-6000 or www.opushotel.com
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