Prospective owners of the Château Montebello have been asked to “put their best foot forward” to potentially revise and improve their offers to purchase the iconic resort.
Qualified bidders had until May 13 to submit binding offers to purchase the hotel and the 21-hectare property that includes an 18-hole golf course, skiing and hiking trails, indoor and outdoor pools, skating, curling and tennis facilities.
The announcement of the winning bid was originally expected on June 9, but that window was extended to June 22 . The deadline extension came shortly after news leaked that Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer and Devcore Group CEO Jean-Pierre Poulin had formed a local “all-star” group bidding for the hotel .
A letter from court-appointed receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers sent to bidders on June 19 said that, “after review and consideration of the binding offers … no binding offer has been selected at this time.”
“All phase 2 qualified bidders are being provided with a last and final opportunity to put their best foot forward and submit a binding offer or revise and/or improve their binding offer,” the letter stated.
The deadline for “phase 3” of the bidding process is now 12 noon on June 26, according to the letter. The selection of the final successful bid will be made “by no later than” July 10 at 5 p.m., according to a revised timeline.
It is not known how many prospective ownership groups have submitted bids for the resort, which was put up for sale in 2024 after Hong Kong-based real-estate conglomerate China Evergrande was ordered to liquidate $245 billion in worldwide assets as part of bankruptcy proceedings.
Evergrande had purchased the 211-room Château Montebello in 2014 as its first major investment in the Canadian real-estate market.
In an interview earlier in June, Poulin said it made “perfect sense” for Andlauer and the local ownership group to purchase the hotel and resort.
“This makes perfect sense to make sure that we step up and we don’t let this beautiful asset go to a U.S. potential buyer or another Chinese buyer who never even visit the property ever,” Poulin said at the time.
“I hope that they’re going think it through and that, if it’s not us, it’s a group like us that are doing this for the right reasons, and that’s going to celebrate this place, that’s going to keep Fairmont there,” Poulin said. “Fairmont is an amazing banner for this site and they’ve done a great job for the last few decades, the employees are used to that. So you don’t want to come in and rock the boat.”
Poulin is part of a group with Andlauer and Le Nordik spa founder and CEO Martin Paquette, along with two unnamed real-estate entrepreneurs who secured a bid for the historic hotel and property on the north shore of the Ottawa River in Montebello, Que.
Known as the world’s largest log cabin and one of Canada’s most storied hotels, Château Montebello was built in four months by a team of 3,500 people at the peak of construction and opened on July 1, 1930. It has hosted major international event, including a NATO conference, a Bilderberg congress and the 1981 meeting of the G7.
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