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News: Radisson Peregrines

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The Peregrine Chick:
Raising the roost: Falcons move into new downtown digs
By: Alison Mayes, WFP - 8 May 2010

The peregrine falcons are incubating their four eggs in a sheltered wooden nest box on the edge of the Radisson Hotel’s roof.  The Radisson Hotel's peregrine falcons have moved on up -- as the Jeffersons would say -- to a deluxe apartment in the sky.  After two years of stubbornly nesting on a weather-battered ledge above Portage Avenue, the raptors are incubating four eggs in the peregrine penthouse -- a sheltered wooden nest box on the edge of the downtown hotel's roof. 

"It's wonderful," said a relieved Tracy Maconachie, the conservation biologist who co-ordinates Manitoba's Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project, aimed at re-establishing a wild population of the endangered birds.  The chicks are expected to start hatching between May 17 and 21, just before the long weekend.

The streaming CBC/Shaw "falcon cam" that lets fans around the world watch the nesting action online will go live this Wednesday morning (check www.species-at-risk.mb.ca/peregrines for links).  Last year's webcam page generated more than one million page views in its first month. Fans follow the birds' progress from as far away as China, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel, Norway and Saudi Arabia.  This year's camera is built into the half-covered nest box, which is 30 storeys up on the west side of the hotel. At least one additional camera will show the ledge area once the chicks get ready to fly.

The Radisson has been a peregrine nesting site since 1989. Last year's three chicks got a survival boost from a plastic nest tray, which helped keep them dry and less wind-battered on the exposed 13th-storey ledge.  They learned to fly and hunt, and were last seen heading for their first winter vacation, somewhere like Mexico or Cuba. They have leg bands and may be identified when they mate at the age of two or three.

In 2008, it was a much sadder story when three chicks died in a severe June rainstorm on the ledge.

What made the parents go for more shelter this spring? Like a hotelier upgrading to higher thread-count sheets, Maconachie changed the pea gravel in the nearly one-metre-by-one-metre box to a finer grade. That may have helped, but the key reason may be that Princess, the female, has a new guy.  It's unknown what happened to her mate of six years, Trey, although he could be taking a sabbatical from the territory, Maconachie said. In his place, Princess has hooked up with Ivy, a quiet male who has tried unsuccessfully to become a dad in west Winnipeg.  Ivy's ex, Jules, has a new beau, Maconachie said, and that pair is eyeing nest boxes on two buildings whose locations are kept secret in the western part of the city. So far, no west Winnipeg peregrine pair has succeeded in hatching a brood.  The province's third pair has also opted for the nest box at the longtime Brandon site, the McKenzie Seeds building. They're incubating four eggs, due to hatch by early June.  It's a year of three experienced falcon moms teaching three novice dads how this nesting business is done, said Maconachie, who is hoping for a baby boom to mark the 30th year for the recovery project.

It began in 1981 with the release of four captive-bred chicks. Since then, the project has seen 212 falcons released or hatched in the wild.

Maconachie has been getting a flood of calls about local peregrine sightings. She says many tundra peregrines are currently migrating through Manitoba. That subspecies winters in Chile and summers in the High Arctic. 

For those of you wanting to see some great photos, check out the WFP original = http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/raising-the-roost-93182899.html

The Peregrine Chick:
Canad Inns hotel chain purchases the Radisson
Winnipeg Free Press (Sept 2008)

Manitoba's biggest hotel chain has made its first foray into downtown Winnipeg -- but it likely won't be its last. Canad Inns has purchased the Radisson Hotel at the corner of Portage Avenue and Smith Street from the Paletta Group for an undisclosed sum and will take possession in the next few weeks.  But Leo Ledohowski, Canad Inns' CEO, said his people are also crunching the numbers on Winnipeg's premiere business hotel, The Fairmont, which is currently for sale.

"The Radisson came to us. It seemed like a good fit, so we made a deal," he said. "If the Fairmont is a good fit, we'll make a deal. If it's not, we won't. We're just beginning our due diligence. It all depends on conditions, price and profitability. It's a nice hotel. I've been through there for a lot of functions."  Ledohowski said his team's first order of business is turning the 263-room Radisson into a destination centre, just like it has done for the other 10 properties in its portfolio. He said it's too early to tell what combination of restaurants, entertainment concepts, night clubs or water parks will be launched at the hotel -- which will continue to fly the Radisson flag for the time being.

The Radisson isn't the first investment by Canad Inns in Winnipeg's central business district. The company is an investor in the MTS Centre and it operates the adjacent Tavern United Pub. It also recently bought the Metropolitan Theatre, which is scheduled to be turned into a shrine for Canada's rock and roll music scene. Canad Inns also plans to start construction early next year on a 200-room hotel at the Health Sciences Centre.

"(The Radisson) has a good location. I think the skill set we have fits very well with that. It's also very close to the Met, the MTS Centre and Tavern United. We have a pretty good cluster there. We believe it's a pretty good operation and we think we can improve it," he said.

Canad Inns is the third owner for the Radisson in the past month. The Paletta Group, which owns three hotels in the province, including the Clarion, bought half of the Radisson in November, 2005, partnering up with the Tribal Councils Investment Group, which bought the other half.  This spring, TCIG triggered a shotgun clause to buy out Paletta but before the offer's window closed, Paletta turned the tables and offered to take out TCIG.  Allan McLeod, president and CEO of the First Nations consortium, was happy to oblige.

"We put together a win-win proposal. The hotel is a great property, it has lots of potential and lots of upside. We doubled our money on it. Doing that has the equivalent upside and potential because that money can be used to invest in other things that will generate returns over the coming years," McLeod said.  Joe Paletta, CEO of the Paletta Group, said he flipped the property because the right opportunity came along. "For the right price, everything is for sale," he said.

Ledohowski said he's also considering possible options with two mothballed movie theatres -- formerly the Northstar Cinema 1 & 2 -- at the Radisson.

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