By Andrew Macdonald
Jim Spatz’s Southwest Properties has had offers from business operators to buy out Premier Executive Suites, but his CEO Gordon Laing tells The Notebook the 20-year-old company is not for sale.
Jim Spatz in front of a poster depicting the Maple rental on Hollis Street. The Notebook photo.
Premiere Suites is Canada’s largest provider of fully furnished temporary residences. Founded in 1999, it now operates in every Canadian province, and has its corporate head office in Toronto
“We’ve had some high level discussions with a couple of people, but as of this point we have never had it under agreement, and we don’t have it listed today,” Laing tells me. “One of the things today is that we are focussed on growing the business, not so much in Nova Scotia but across the country. We want to add more staff to see how we can take the business to the next level.
“But it’s not for sale,” he repeats, before adding: “At the end of the day, I suppose everything is for sale at the right price.”
Laing says Premiere Suites was listed for sale at one point, “and we had some high level discussions, but we decided we liked the business a lot and we tested the waters, and now we think there is more value in us keeping it and growing it.”
Premier Suites has 1,500 units across Canada and its current business model is not to own condos, but to rent them from other landlords.
“Our model is that we tend to rent properties from other people and then furnish them and lease them. We own a little bit of real estate, but out of the 1,500 units, we’d own fewer than 100 units,” says Laing.
In Nova Scotia, Premier Suites has 150 units available for short stays — its prices offer rates up to 30-day extended stays — and guests include corporate accounts, and folk with loved ones in hospitals. In Halifax, guests also sometimes include movie industry folk.
