Proven by the pandemic, businessman Jean-Guy Sylvain sells the Delta hotel to a Toronto firm for $ 20 million, learned The newspaper. “We wanted to keep it, but the governments are not helping us, it’s bullshit ! »
In recent months, Mr. Sylvain has decided to sell three hotels to prevent and maintain the financial health of his group, he reports to Journal. For the Delta, this was a last resort option.
The two other hotel establishments that changed owners in March are located in Rimouski and Rivière-du-Loup. Sylvain explains that he made this decision when he feared a crisis like in 2008.
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Jean-Guy Sylvain. Hotel owner
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“We don’t have money from governments. I’m not going to wait until I have lost everything, ”he laments in a brief interview.
“Yes, it’s a big disappointment. When you have nine hotels and the governments don’t help you, you have to organize yourself to keep your liquidity, ”he continues.
According to public documents, the transaction for the Delta was formalized on July 6.
Remember that Mr. Sylvain and his associates acquired the 14-storey building on René-Lévesque Boulevard in 2018.
The owners had since carried out several works in the building.
Financial losses
“This will help for our finances,” he said, adding that Le Concorde, in Quebec, is not on the market “for the moment”.
“However, it will have to be replaced. Months ago we lost over a million [pour l’ensemble de nos propriétés] “, He adds.
The latter concedes that he did not obtain fair value, in his view, for his establishment due to the impacts of COVID-19. He notes that the Delta, which was built in 1974, is losing $ 400,000 a month.
Sylvain would like governments to pay more attention to his industry, which generates billions of dollars a year.
“They don’t give us a penny. They prefer to give this to Cirque du Soleil and to companies that do not pay taxes in Quebec ”, he digests badly.
The new buyers are the SAGEBLAN Investments group which now owns four hotel establishments in Quebec, according to their website. It is a firm headed by Gaurav Gupta.
Last year, this group acquired the Place Dupuis Hotel in Montreal. It was not possible to speak with a manager yesterday.
Unsuitable loan formula
In June, Quebec announced a $ 446 million loan program to support the tourism industry.
According to our information, several hoteliers consider that the loan formula is not adequate for their financial situation.
On the Ottawa side, there was also the emergency subsidy to cover part of the employees’ salaries.
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