One of Waterloo’s landmark hotels will close its doors before the end of the year.
The Waterloo Inn Conference Hotel will close on Dec. 15, hotel president Mary D’Alton said Tuesday.
She said the hotel’s owners had decided that the only way to make the business economically sustainable was to invest a significant amount of money – or to find someone else who would take it off their hands and do just that.
She also touted the hotel’s location along the Ion light rail transit line as a benefit to the new owner.
“When the prospective buyers go public, I’m sure they’ll have all kinds of new vision for this property,” she said.
Events already booked at the hotel for dates until Dec. 15 will take place as expected.
The hotel employs 120 full-time and part-time staff, some of whom have been with it for decades.
It’s only been a year since Vanessa Lock was hired for the kitchen – but she says she understands why her coworkers might be feeling emotional about the closure.
“It’s just sad – (working) that hard for nothing,” she said.
Known for many years as the Waterloo Motor Inn, the King Street North hotel was built in 1972 with only 40 rooms.
It expanded several times over the years, and now features nearly 160 rooms.
D’Alton called its 19-acre property “under-utilized,” but said that she does not expect the property’s new owners to knock the building down.
