Travellers to Fort Frances looking for a place to stay will have a new option available to them soon, and it even comes with its own hockey rink.
The Studio 6 Extended Stay Fort Frances invited members of the public through their doors for the first time this past Saturday, November 15, 2025. The new hotel, located at 1108 Kings Highway next to Canadian Tire, is the result of a collaborative partnership between Mitaanjigamiing First Nation, who own the business, and Rideout Bay Developments, who have developed other Studio 6 properties in Sioux Lookout, Dryden and Hornepayne, Ontario, and who will be managing the new hotel through its sister company Rideout Bay Management.
The new hotel has 70 rooms designed around the “extended stay” concept, with each suite featuring a host of amenities aimed at longer stays like a larger sized fridge, hot plates, pots, pans, cutlery and even a cheese grater for those late night snack cravings. There are seven wheelchair accessible rooms built to United States standards, according to general manager Chris Martin, who said those rooms require five feet of clearance for wheelchair users. The hotel also features a 60-person conference room that will be available for rent for meetings or parties, as well as a special mini stick room where youth staying at the hotel can play indoor hockey, rather than knocking pucks down hallways and disturbing the hotel’s other guests.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony, Rideout Bay Management’s operations manager Jacqui Cohen said that the ethos behind the hotel’s design was always to reflect the community that is Fort Frances, hockey room included.
“Fort Frances is an incredible town, and truly, looking at all of you standing here today, you are what makes this community special,” Cohen said.
“This hotel was designed with that in mind. We didn’t just build rooms. We built a place that reflects the heart of Fort Frances. We have beautiful, modern rooms with cosy kitchenettes, a great meeting space, and, yes, a hockey room, because, let’s be honest, this is Fort Frances, and if there’s no hockey room, is it even a hotel? We want Studio 6 to be a place where guests come to relax, reconnect and feel at home, a place where our staff provides not just good service, but warm, welcoming, outstanding service.”
The hotel project had its groundbreaking back in October 2023, with representatives from Mitaanjigamiing First Nation, their economic development arm GOBE Corporation and Rideout Bay Developments Inc., and construction progressed through 2024 and into this year.
Fort Frances mayor Andrew Hallikas was also present at the groundbreaking, and spoke to the crowd assembled at the front doors of the hotel who were eagerly anticipating their chance to take a tour of the building on Saturday. Hallikas noted that though the Studio 6 is located within Fort Frances, he extended his congratulations to the community of Mitaanjigamiing First Nation who had the vision to invest in a project that would benefit not only their own community, but the entire region.
“It feel