ONroute
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ONroute Cambridge South location
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | develop and manage freeway rest areas |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Canada |
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Number of locations
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23 |
| Parent |
HMSHost Kilmer van Nostrand |
| Website | http://onroute.ca |
ONroute is the operating brand name of Host Kilmer Service Centres (HKSC), a Canadian service company which operates highway rest areas along Highway 400 and Highway 401 in the province of Ontario. The company is a joint venture between international hospitality company HMSHost (a subsidiary of Autogrill) and Canadian businessman Larry Tanenbaum's investment company Kilmer van Nostrand.
Construction of Ontario Highways 400 and 401 began in the early 1950s, with the last section of 401 completed in 1968. Both roads were intended as bypasses, going around populated areas instead of through them (the highways 11/27 and 2 which they replaced were Main Street in nearly every served community) and therefore initially had few services. A series of rest stops was constructed as part of the highway in the 1960s in rural areas to provide a full-service restaurant (later replaced with franchised fast food) and a service station (eventually curtailed to fuel only, no repair services). All but a few of these dated from the same era with strong similarity in design.
From the late 1980s to 2010, rest areas on the two highways were individually franchised to different fast food operators (mainly McDonald's) and gasoline distributors (mainly Esso and Petro Canada); however around the financial crisis of 2007–2008, many of the companies announced that they would not renew their leases once they expired.
The government of Ontario selected HKSC as the new franchisee for all of its rest areas in 2010. Since 2010-11, HKSC has demolished the 1960s-era rest stops, leaving most rest stops out of operation for a year or more, and used the sites to construct new ONroute service stations. Most of the remaining redevelopment projects were completed in 2013. Partners in the redevelopment projects included EllisDon Construction, Quadrangle Architects and Bruce Mau Design. All of the redeveloped locations were designed to meet the LEED certification standards of the Canadian Green Building Council, as well as current standards of accessibility for travellers with disabilities.
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