The Ramada Inn will become the Days Inn after it was purchased last Friday by a Canadian company familiar with operating hotels in the North.

Holloway Lodging Corp. of Halifax announced Monday it’s buying the Ramada for $8.2 million.

Michael Rapps, chair of the board of directors for Holloway, said this morning from his office in Toronto the Ramada is an attractive investment, particularly because of Holloway’s experience working in the North.

“We are not anticipating any changes in employees or employment levels at the hotel,” he said.

Rapps said the Ramada was not on the open market, and that the opportunity to purchase the 99-room hotel at the corner of Second and Fourth avenues was brought to them.

The deal closed last Friday.

Rapps said they chose to go with the Days Inn franchise because they like the direction the international hotel chain is moving in.

The new sign will be going up soon, he said.

“It came together quite quickly,” Rapps said of the purchase. “It came together in just over a month, the whole deal, from start to finish.”

Holloway is not anticipating any changes in hotel operations, such as the restaurant leased by Ricky’s All Day Grill, he said.

Rapps said Holloway, a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, paid cash for the Ramada.

It was formerly the Westmark Klondike Inn, which was sold 2 1/2 years ago by Holland America to the Winnterfells Group in Nevada.

Though Holland America closed the hotel during the winters, it will continue to operate year-round.

Holloway is expecting an 11.5 per cent return on its investment in the first year, it announced in a press release filed with the stock exchange on Monday.

Melanie Bricker, controller for Winnterfell’s accounting department, said this morning the sale of the Ramada simply came down to a business case.

“We are an American company based in Nevada,” she pointed out in an interview from Nevada.

“Most of our property is in Alaska, and the Ramada was the only Canadian hotel.

“It was exciting, but we felt a little stretched to do the international thing. It’s a really good property, and we had some buyers so we moved forward with it,”

There are approximately 20 full-time employees, she said.

Rapp said Holloway owns 35 hotels across the country, including 10 in Alberta and two in B.C.: the Super 8 in Fort Nelson and the Super 8 in Fort St. John.

It also owns the Super 8 in Yellowknife, along with the Yellowknife Inn.

“We understand this market because we have operated in the North and Northwest,” he said. “We have additional hotels in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.”

The former Klondike Inn was built in 1972, with additions added in 1976 and 1988, Holloway pointed out in its announcement.

Holloway purchased its first hotel, a Super 8 in Truro, N.S., in 2006. Its shares were trading this morning for $5.40. In addition to its Canadian hote