Ivanhoé Cambridge is closing Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth for a year starting next June and will invest $140M to transform the historic hotel, best known for hosting John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 Bed-in (and more recently where PM-designate Justin Trudeau just celebrated his election victory). All common areas and 500 guest rooms will be renovated in time to mark Montreal's 375th birthday and the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in summer 2017. The remainder of the rooms will be completed later that year.

The transformed Queen Elizabeth will include a business campus, with interconnected and accessible public meeting and multi-functional spaces “where business people will be able to engage in creative, collaborative and innovative experiences,” Ivanhoe said, a living environment oriented toward “stimulating creativity and promoting business ingenuity” (the rendering above shows what that might look like). The renovated hotel will also include new restaurants and bars, plus an urban market.