The municipal board refuses: Dynamic duo are turned down to build a 10-story hotel

Two very enterprising the dream of Greenlandic business people about building a 10-storey hotel in the middle of Ilulissat won't happen anyway realized.

With a height of 35 metres, the new super hotel would become Greenland's highest hotel to date and have a great view of the ice fjord.

Two very enterprising the dream of Greenlandic business people about building a 10-storey hotel in the middle of Ilulissat won't happen anyway realized.

With a height of 35 metres, the new super hotel would become Greenland's highest hotel to date and have a great view of the ice fjord.

The municipal board of Avannaata Kommunia has on a meeting shortly before the New Year declined by giving land allocation to the ambitious and large-scale project, which the brothers Frank and Tommy Bagger are behind.

A disappointed Frank Bagger has this comment to the rejection:

- Min comment is simply that it is a pity, for the need for more hotel rooms in Ilulissat is big, he tells Sermitsiaq.

The hotel was to be located in an area between the retail shops Brugseni and Pisiffik, where the Bagger-owned company Tankeeraq's gas station at Kussangajaannuaq lies.

The municipal board: - Find an alternative solution

The municipal board discussed the application for land allocation to the new hotel at a meeting on Monday 29 December in the wake of a inquiry from the applicant Tankeeraq Ejendomme, owned by Frank and Tommy Bagger.

- The result is that the original decision from the meeting on 21 November is maintained 2025. The current physical conditions in sub-area 1200-C17 will be maintained, and therefore not change the framework laid down in the municipal plan.

- The municipal board has decided that new buildings of the size in question must be placed outside Ilulissat's city center. An alternative solution must therefore be found.

This is written by the urban planner in Avannaata Kommunia, architect Martin Viggo Meincke, in an email to Sermitsiaq.

Started with 12 floors

In the spring of 2025, Frank and Tommy Bagger applied to the municipality about the green light for a 12-storey hotel in the city center of Ilulissat. But they adjusted the project down to 10 floors. The goal was for the hotel to be completed about in 2028.

The original project application with the name "High North Ilulissat" was sent to Avannaata Kommunia by the developer Tankeeraq Ejendomme ApS, owned by the two brothers. Drawing studio Qarsoq has been hired as consultant on the hotel project.

Frank and Tommy Bagger own the investment company Ilu Invest together with the legendary businessman Jens Kristian Friis-Salling. The investment company is behind Best Western Hotel i Ilulissat. Jens Friis-Salling, who has been in business for almost 50 years, is one of the former major owners of Greenland's largest private company Polar Seafood.

Of the project application on it originally 12-storey hotel, which the design studio Qarsoq sent on behalf of Tankeraq Ejendomme to the municipality, it appeared that the client and thus the Bagger brothers wanted to build another hotel for the benefit of the community.

Socially sustainable workplaces

They have seen it as their duty to provide socially sustainable workplaces, so that more local people can be hired workforce.

- The goal is that the new hotel meets the latest standards for energy saving everything from optimal linen utilization to a sustainable kitchen in the restaurant with utilization of local raw materials. It must be a goal for the partnership behind it as well the hotel as for the professional actor who must run the hotel on a daily basis basis, it was called i.a. in the project application.

With the new international Atlantic airport in Ilulissat, which according to Greenland Airports is expected to open in October this year, sees Frank Backs the basis for charter flights to land in Ilulissat in addition to scheduled flights.

- Maybe will cruise lines also need rooms if we build the new hotel if the companies in the future choose to transfer passengers and crew to Ilulissat, he said in June 2025 to Sermitsiaq.

As mentioned, the brothers own together with Jens Friis-Salling investment company Ilu Invest, which owns Ilulissat Best Western Plus, colloquially Hotel Ilulissat. The hotel has 78 rooms. It opened in May 2021. The hotel has a nice view over the Ilulissat ice fjord and Kirkebugten.