Postmark Hotel general manager Avi Wulfand is feeling ecstatic.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he told NewmarketToday of the pending opening of a portion of the much-delayed and much-anticipated boutique hotel on Main Street Newmarket.
With previous opening date targets come and gone, construction has continued at the transformed historical building, and while some work remains, many spaces are at or nearing completion after months of effort.
Postmark Hotel is opening the doors to the lobby restaurant space on July 8. The hotel rooms and rooftop event space are not yet open to the public, but Wulfand said that should happen later this summer.
Wulfand said his team is biting at the bit to open. “I wish it had been open a while ago, but you know, it takes time.”
The hotel will feature 55 rooms of several different types, including accessible suites, five suites with terraces, and rooms with one and two beds. There will also be a lounge area and exercise room for guests, while the lobby and rooftop restaurants will be open to the public.
The space is adorned with references to the building’s beginnings as a post office, with artwork of stamps and even some of the original post office boxes in the lobby bar area.
Curator for Archive Hospitality Group Lee Petrie said as with the group’s other properties, the Gladstone and Broadview Hotels in Toronto, they wanted to breathe new life into the old building. She said they wanted to pay tribute to the post office history of the building.
“It’s a lot easier to bulldoze and start fresh, but we feel really committed to taking these gems and revitalizing them,” Petrie said, “making it into a space that the community can enjoy, which I think is a nice tie into the postal history because this would have been a major hub in the community.”
The building has a storied history in Newmarket. Once slated to become a condo tower, the town eventually rejected that proposal. Streetcar Developments came into the fold in November 2021, announcing a purchase of the property to make it a luxury hotel.
Decorating the walls are a mixture of enlargements of stamps, artwork from around Newmarket and the GTA, as well as vintage postcards.
The artwork in the building “represents more than a year of work,” Petrie said, adding they seek to "ensure that everything is harmonious and it sends a really welcoming and warm message to our guests.”
Another part of the building’s history will be represented in the Margaret Davis Fitness Centre within the hotel, named after the Newmarket icon who worked to stop the clock tower from being demolished for the condo development.
The rooftop area is still under construction but will include a bar, restaurant and private event space, along with spectacular views of downtown Newmarket.
Wulfand said they want to be a complement to Main Street, rather than compete with the other food offerings in the area.
“We want to contribute, we don’t want to take away,” Wulfand said. "We need a burger and whatnot for our menu, but we’re not going to be specializing in pizza like Joia (on Main) or tacos like Made in Mexico or Ghost Taco. It’s more of a new Canadian cuisine.”
“There’s space for everyone,” Petrie added. “I think there’s a real sense of collaboration rather than competition amongst the businesses.”
Construction has been years in the making, with hopes of opening in 2023 long passed. But Postmark representatives said good things take time.
“Anytime you work with an old building, you find surprises,” Petrie said. “And those surprises never take less time to mitigate, they always take more time.”
Parking has been an ongoing concern with the project, particularly with the previous expectation that added downtown parking would not be online when the building opened. However, the town has demolished the downtown tennis facility to make way for additional parking now available, though construction is still to come for a more fulsome parking facility in the future.
Still, Wulfand said though parking is a challenge, they feel confident. The hotel plans to use a valet service to help manage it.
“We are looking at other options outside the box,” he said. “With the spots underground (on the property) and we have some aligned or some marked out for us on that back parking lot, I’m very confident that should be fine.”
Wulfand said that the guests of the Postmark Hotel will be in for a treat and it’s unlike anything in York Region.
“Something that they’ve never experienced before," he said.
“The esthetic feels very welcoming and comfortable,” Petrie said. “It’s elevated, without feeling like, ‘Oh, do I belong here?’ It’s like that idea of welcoming is really, really important and I think you get that feeling as soon as you come in the lobby … We want people to feel welcome and comfortable the minute they walk in. It is for everybody.”
