Pincher Creek developer restoring historic hotels

By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on January 14, 2025.

Herald photo by Alexandra Noad Mark Maunsell stands in front of the Alberta Hotel which he recently bought and has plans to renovate the upstairs into apartment style rooms.

A Pincher Creek man is hoping to bring new life to the downtown by refurbishing and rebuilding two iconic hotels for the town.

Mark Maunsell, a long-time resident of Pincher Creek, remembers the King Edward Hotel and what a significant structure it was to the town.

Pincher Creek is also home to the Alberta Hotel, which is the oldest standing hotel in Alberta and was recently acquired by Maunsell, who hopes by reconstructing both hotels will breathe new life in the current dwindling downtown.

“Our commercial development now is primarily on the north side of town, behind the Walmart, or around it,” says Maunsell. “Downtown has been struggling and it’s slowly dying off.”

Maunsell hopes to renovate the Alberta Hotel to have a kitchen space in the rooms he can rent to long term tenants shorter term Air B&B style renters. He says Pincher Creek has lost many of its rental units since 2020 and he would like to help those who either want to downsize or just move to the town without the price tag of purchasing a home.

“Right now, we are super short on rentals,” he says. “During covid and the remote work is where I started to see some more people moving out of the city and into the smaller towns and that really drove up home prices.”

He added because of the good return, many people chose to sell their rentals, causing there to be very few rentals in the town.

While he is aware it won’t be an ideal location for renters, as it is above a bar, he believes that it’s better than not having a place to stay.

Maunsell is also in the process of rebuilding the King Edward Hotel, which burnt down in early 2020.

He wants to make commercial spaces on the bottom level, for local businesses to have a space downtown. On the second level he wants to have hotel rooms for tourists and then apartments on the third floor for long-term rentals.

With the current state of downtown and the lack of rental units available to people who want to live in Pincher Creek, Maunsell has hopes that while it is a slow process, the downtown of his hometown has a bright future.