OPUS DEUX

Malcolm Parry
Vancouver Sun

Thurs. July 12th - Trilogy Properties Corp. president-CEO John Evans will front the fifth annual Yaletown street party outside his group's 96-room Opus Hotel July 27. But his mind may be far away from Davie and Mainland Street. Since November 2006, it's often been at Sherbrooke and St. Laurent in Montreal, where efforts to acquire the 136-room Hotel Godin ended with a deal -- likely in the mid-$30-million range -- Monday.

The vendors were the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, which handles some $200 billion in pension funds and other depositor assets, and Hotels Incognita. But the Godin, which never offered full service after its completion on a former Greek Orthodox church site in 2004, won't be incognito. It'll be renamed Opus.

It will also be liquor-licensed -- finally -- for 1,000 seats, the first 350 of which should begin serving cocktails and tapas dishes in August. By March 2008, a 4,000-square-foot licensed terrace and 5,000 square feet of designated food and beverage space will be added at a cost of more than $3 million, Evans said.

Trilogy would not have built a new facility in Montreal, even one so close to the Old Montreal district, said Evans. But the Godin presented "a brilliant opportunity" to extend the Opus brand.