Eugene Pechet (September 22, 1916 – August 23, 2008) was a Canadian hotelier and banker. He bought his first hotel in 1942 and went on to build and operate 25 hotels throughout Western Canada and the United States. Eugene's grandfather Mayer Pechet was born on September 6, 1877 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

and married Marie Weisler (1886–1972) in 1902. The couple moved to Saskatchewan in the same year, opening a tinsmith shop in town, and would have a total of eleven children. Eugene Pechet was born in Hirsch, Saskatchewan, on a Hirsch Jewish farming colony near Lipton, Saskatchewan. Following

Depression-era The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

economic hardships, the family moved to

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

in 1928. Eugene bought his first hotel, the Auditorium Hotel, in

North Battleford North Battleford is a city in west-central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is the seventh largest city in the province and is directly across the North Saskatchewan River from the town of Battleford. Together, the two communities are known as "The B ...

in 1942.

Hotels

The Mayfield Inn in

was built by Stage West, Pechet's hotel business, in 1972. During its existence it was one of Edmonton's most famous hotels, and was especially notable for its 100 square metre Thai sala, a style of

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

. The sala arrived in Edmonton for the 1987

K-Days K-Days, formerly known as the Edmonton Exhibition, Klondike Days, and Capital Ex, is an annual 10-day exhibition held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada mostly in late July. It runs in conjunction with the Taste of Edmonton, the Great Outdoors Comedy ...

exhibition, where it stood before the Kingdom of Thailand's trade exhibition. It took 12 Thai carpenters fifteen weeks to disassemble two old homes, harvest the

seasoned Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, and/or salts, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Salt may ...

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

, and re-assemble the sala in Edmonton - for a reported cost of $100,000. Due to high shipping costs, Pechet decided to buy the sala for $50,000, and installed it at the Mayfield Inn, covering a swimming pool to do so. Following the sale of the Mayfield Inn to SilverBirch hotels in 2007, it was then sold to and redeveloped by

DoubleTree DoubleTree by Hilton is an American hotel chain managed by Hilton Worldwide. DoubleTree has been the fastest growing Hilton brand by number of properties since 2007, and by number of rooms from 2007 to 2015. , it has 587 properties with 135,745 ...

Hilton. It reopened in 2014 after a $65 million construction phase, during which 200 employees of the hotel were laid off. Following a month-long closed-bid sale on

Kijiji Kijiji ( , ; ) is a Canadian online classified advertising website. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kijiji was launched in February 2005 as an eBay subsidiary under Marktplaats BV Marktplaats ...

, the sala was re-bought by Eugene Pechet for around $12,000, and was transported to

Vernon, British Columbia Vernon is a city in the Okanagan region of the British Columbia Interior, Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is northeast of Vancouver. Named after Forbes George Vernon, a former Member of the Legislative Assembly, MLA of British ...

to be re-assembled on the beach outside Pechet's cottage on

Okanagan Lake Okanagan Lake () is a lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The lake is long, between wide, and has a surface area of 348 km2 (135 sq. mi.). Hydrography Okanagan Lake is called a fjord lake as it has been carved o ...

. The Mayfield Dinner Theatre, a popular attraction at the hotel, continues to operate under the new hotel ownership.

Banking industry involvement

With

Charles Allard Charles Alexander Allard (November 19, 1919August 11, 1991) was a Canadian banker, broadcaster, businessman, and surgeon who set up the Canadian radio station CHQT and Edmonton's independent television station CITV-TV, and was the founder of t ...

, Pechet also founded the

Canadian Western Bank Canadian Western Bank (CWB; ), also operating as CWB Financial Group, was a Canadian bank based in Edmonton, Alberta. The bank serves clients both in Western Canada and in other provinces. It was announced on June 11, 2024 that it would be acqui ...

, formerly the Bank of Alberta. They started the bank with three employees working out of an office located in one of Mr. Pechet’s hotels. As of 2010, the CWB has total balance sheet assets of just under $12 billion, assets under administration of over $8 billion and assets under management approaching $1 billion.

References

External links

Stagewest Hospitality Corporate Website
2017 website via

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

Canadian Western Bank Group Corporate Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pechet, Eugene 1916 births 2008 deaths Businesspeople from Edmonton Canadian hoteliers Canadian bankers Romanian emigrants to Canada