Mohari Hospitality, the global investment company founded by entrepreneurial investor Mark Scheinberg, has today opened 1 Hotel Toronto in partnership with hotel management company, SH Hotels & Resorts. The redesigned hotel, which forms part of downtown Toronto’s recent urban regeneration, is the newest opening for the luxury hospitality brand 1 Hotels, and the first of its kind in Canada.
Mohari acquired the asset, located at 550 Wellington Street West, in 2017 and in 2019 announced it was partnering with SH Hotels & Resorts to transform and rebrand the hotel into a luxury and sustainable 1 Hotels retreat. Mohari Hospitality’s substantial investment completely renovated and reimagined the property, which had been operating as the Thompson Toronto hotel. The hotel closed in January 2020 to allow renovations to begin and although the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily delayed the reopening of the hotel, Mohari is delighted to now be welcoming guests to 1 Hotel Toronto.
To mark the opening of 1 Hotel Toronto, 2021 native trees will be physically planted in designated sites throughout the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) over the course of the next year, in partnership with the non-profit organization Tree Canada. This project has been funded by Mohari as part of its ongoing philanthropic activity in communities where it has investments, whilst 1 Hotel team members will volunteer to plant the trees in local communities.
Mark Scheinberg, Founder of Mohari Hospitality, said: “With the opening of 1 Hotel Toronto, Mohari has rooted itself deeper within the Toronto community. We are proud to bring a new level of service and luxury hospitality experience to the city, and through the planting of trees, mark our commitment to the local community and environment.”
As part of the property renovations, Mohari Hospitality has installed BlindSquare enabled iBeacons throughout the new hotel’s communal indoor and outdoor spaces as part of CNIB’s Accessible Neighbourhoods Project. The project aims to transform Canadian communities to make them more accessible and inclusive by improving access to areas of the city for anyone needing assistance navigating places on their own. Installing BlindSquare enabled iBeacon technology will make the hotel and the local area more inclusive for people living with sight-loss, and people living with mobility and cognitive disabilities, transforming 1 Hotel Toronto into one of the most inclusive hotels in the city.
Mohari Hospitality was also able to provide support to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic with a grant from the Scheinberg Relief Fund (SRF), a $50M philanthropic fund established by Mark Scheinberg and his family. In December 2020 Mohari Hospitality, SH Hotels & Resorts, and food rescue charity Second Harvest launched ‘1 Hotel Toronto Relief Kitchen’, using the hotel kitchen to prepare meals for the local community and provide employment and wages for hotel staff who were not working due to the pandemic. 1 Hotel Toronto Relief Kitchen prepared and delivered over 45,000 meals to 9 agencies across Toronto, donated over 6,000 hours of staff time to the two largest local food banks and brought 36 members of the team back to work to serve their community.
In addition to 1 Hotel Toronto, Mohari has invested in four other major hotels since the company was established in 2017. Other hotels in the portfolio include the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid located in Centro Canalejas, the Four Seasons and Andaz resorts at Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica, a 2,200-acre, sustainable luxury resort and master development and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Miami, which is currently in pre-development residential sales.
