Despite some surprises, Queen’s Inn renovation continues unfettered and optimistic

The Queen’s Inn, located on the corner of Waterloo Street and Ontario Street, has been shuttered for a major renovation for nearly a year. As complications pop-up and the team continue their work, its expected to be closed for another 16 months.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Queen’s Inn, located on the corner of Ontario Street and Waterloo Street, has been shuttered for nearly a year now. While from the outside it may look like the same building as always, on the inside it has taken on a new life of its own.

Corey Durst, site superintendent for the Queen’s Inn renovation, has been working in construction for 27 years and has been involved with six major commercial renovations from coast to coast. As he said, some of what they uncovered in the bones of the downtown Stratford inn were a first for him.

Walking through the project with the Times, Durst pointed out some extensive challenges and surprises, from severely undulating floorboards and joists to eight inches of concrete in the bathroom floors on the second floor, bizarrely.

“You can see over the years how many layers of renovations they’ve had,” Durst said, pointing to an overhang from the second floor, where layers of different flooring stacked upon one another stick out. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine layers of renovations. One of the biggest challenges of this project has been, they never did any demolition. They just kept gluing on top, on top, and everything fell apart.”

Durst explained that BMI Group, the organization overseeing the project, expected to be surprised – given that it’s an old building with a storied past; however, what they found was truly startling. That being said, for Durst and the team, the hurdles are not project-ending and structurally the building was still okay. Despite the building’s quirks, they are continuing forward with the renovation, expecting to create a truly great finished project once complete.

The Queen’s Inn, when it is all said and done, will be reimagined as the Queen’s Cue, a 31-room hotel in the Mariott Tribute line that will pay homage to the queens of Shakespeare’s plays. As always, the Boar’s Head Pub will be nestled beside it, open and renovated alongside the hotel.

Originally, it was expected to open this summer; however, once the team got the Mariott spec book, a set of specifications for all Mariott hotels, they knew it would take much longer as they would have to replace all the plumbing, redo the mechanical systems, and gut every inch of drywall, lath and plaster in the building. The exterior, protected as a heritage feature, will remain the same but the interior, barring a few features like the grand staircase, will be completely new.

Now, Durst estimates that the project will take 16 months to complete.

When announced, Dan Mathieson of the BMI Group estimated the project would cost $5 million all said and done. With the deadline pushed back and problems popping up, BMI Group is not further commenting on the cost.

Built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1905 after a major fire, the Queen’s Inn and its iconic downtown dome has been a Stratford icon for nearly two centuries – and will continue to be once it opens its doors again.