Hotel X proposes a 5,500-seat theatre and a 32-storey tower at Exhibition Place
Expect less empty parking lots, more concerts and luxury suites
A new destination may soon be coming to Exhibition Place. Luxury lodge Hotel X—home to the Departure Festival—is asking the city for permission to construct a huge expansion right next to its current site: a 32-storey, 370-room hotel plus a four-storey, 5,500-seat theatre for concerts, conventions and e-sports. If approved, the project would complete a mass-entertainment triangle of sorts, joining BMO Field to the west and the RBC Amphitheatre (formerly Budweiser Stage) to the south.
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The current plan revises a 2022 proposal that called for a slightly shorter, 30-storey hotel and a larger, 7,000-seat venue mostly for e-sports. Updated features include more greenery, a sunken plaza along Princes’ Boulevard and new pedestrian walkways.
All this is part of Exhibition Place’s broader revitalization strategy, which aims to make the site a go-to spot for entertainment and business 365 days a year. The new Hotel X would reduce parking capacity during the CNE, though it would not affect the CNE’s fairway footprint.
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This corner of town won’t be recognizable in a few years. Therme’s mega-spa and jumbo parking structure at Ontario Place is roaring to completion. A glowed-up BMO Field will host the FIFA World Cup this June. And the future Ontario Line interchange at Exhibition station is also under construction. Exhibition Place CEO Don Boyle has said that he would like Hotel X’s expansion to be complete by 2031—just in time to catch the new train.
Ali Amad is a Palestinian-Canadian journalist based in Toronto. His work has appeared in publications including Toronto Life, Maclean’s, Vice, Reader’s Digest and the Walrus, often exploring themes of identity, social justice and the immigrant experience.
