Chelsea Hotel, Toronto

The Chelsea Hotel, Toronto (formerly the Delta Chelsea Toronto and briefly the Eaton Chelsea) is the largest hotel in Canada, located in Toronto, Ontario.^[1] Located at 33 Gerrard Street West, it contains 1,591 guest rooms and suites on 26 floors with 5 basements and 18 elevators. It was planned as a residential condominium building by Toronto architectural firm Crang and Boake, but it opened as a hotel on October 15, 1975.^[2] The 26 floor 83.72 metres (274.7 ft) original single-tower structure was purchased by Great Eagle Hotels in 1996.^[3] It was part of the Delta Hotels chain from its opening until July 2013.

Location

The Chelsea Hotel is located within the Downtown Yonge area of downtown Toronto, and is situated between the College station and Dundas TTC subway stations on the Yonge-University-Spadina Line.

Ownership and management

On December 19, 2012, hotel owner Great Eagle Holdings Ltd. announced it would end its management agreement with Delta Hotels on July 1, 2013, and place the property under control of its own subsidiary, Langham Hospitality Group. It was reported that Great Eagle would not commit to renovations Delta sought to upgrade the facility. The hotel changed its name from the Delta Chelsea to the Eaton Chelsea on July 1, 2013.^[4][5] Ken Greene, president and CEO of Delta Hotels, stated that "It was a tough decision to part ways", adding, "This is symbolic of the repostioning that Delta is going through. It definitely shows that we are very serious about becoming the leading four-star brand."^[1] Delta had previously announced it was building a new flagship hotel in Toronto's South Core district, as part of a development led by its parent company, the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.^[1]

The Eaton chain also has hotels in Shanghai, Hong Kong and New Delhi. Although the Toronto hotel has a marketing partnership with the nearby Toronto Eaton Centre,^[6] it has no corporate relationship to the mall, nor does the hotel chain have any historical connection to the mall's namesake Timothy Eaton or the defunct department store chain he founded.

In early 2015, the hotel rebranded again as simply the Chelsea Hotel, while remaining under the control of the Langham group and retaining most other aspects of the Eaton Hotels branding. The reasons for this latest rebranding are not yet clear.

Amenities

In addition to the 1,590 guest rooms and suites and four restaurants, the hotel also has a full spa, meeting areas, conference rooms, an underground parking garage, a KidZone (as the hotel bills itself as a family-friendly destination), and an indoor swimming pool which has Toronto's only downtown, indoor water slide. A portion of the slide is visible over the Walton Street entrance.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Delta Chelsea.