Corporate Office 1165 Leslie Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3C 2K8 T. 1 (416) 449-1750 F. 1 (416) 441-4374
Isadore (Issy) Sharp had no plans to enter the hotel business on a grand scale when the young architect and builder – working with his contractor father, Max Sharp – constructed his first hotel. Over the course of this decade, he opened three Four Seasons hotels. Sharp’s experience would pave the way for the creation of a new kind of hotel, one focused solely on the guest.
1961
The first Four Seasons hotel opened on the first day of spring in 1961 on an unlikely downtown site in Toronto, Canada. It had taken over five years for Issy Sharp, still in his 20s, to convince backers of his vision. Yet, from the start, the 125-room motor hotel showed the hallmark of Four Seasons – a more personal style of service. “We opened our first hotel with a simple principle: treating every customer as a special guest.” Issy Sharp was both the developer and the builder of the hotel, with his original partners, Murray Koffler, Max Sharp, Eddie Creed and Fred Eisen.
1963
In 1963,
Towards the end of the decade the company opened a third hotel, leading to more significant expansion in the 1970s.