After less than two years as a homeless shelter, opened with the aim of moving people out of park encampments, the Novotel on the Esplanade is pivoting back to life as a tourist hub.
The shelter will shut its operations by year’s end, the city recently announced, as part of a gradual closure of 27 temporary shelter sites by the end of 2023. The hotel aims to resume life as a tourism destination in 2023, city hall says — as a development application has also been made with hopes of building two towers on the site with a hotel, retail and condos.
