Two very enterprising Greenlandic business people’s dream of building a 10-storey hotel in the middle of Ilulissat will not be realized anyway.
With a height of 35 metres, the new super hotel would be Greenland’s highest hotel to date and have a great view of the ice fjord.
Two very enterprising Greenlandic business people’s dream of building a 10-storey hotel in the middle of Ilulissat will not be realized anyway.
With a height of 35 metres, the new super hotel would be Greenland’s highest hotel to date and have a great view of the ice fjord.
At a meeting shortly before the New Year, the municipal board of Avannaata Kommunia has refused to grant land to the ambitious and large-scale project, which the brothers Frank and Tommy Bagger are behind.
A disappointed Frank Bagger has this comment on the rejection:
– My comment is simply that it is a shame, because the need for more hotel rooms in Ilulissat is great, he says to Sermitsiaq.
The hotel was to be located in an area between the Brugseni and Pisiffik retail stores, where the Bagger-owned company Tankeeraq’s gas station at Kussangajaannuaq is located.
The municipal board: – Find an alternative solution
The municipal board discussed the application for land allocation for the new hotel at a meeting on Monday 29 December following an 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 2025 is maintained. The current physical conditions in sub-area 1200-C17 will be maintained, and will therefore not change the framework set out in the municipal plan.
– The municipal board has decided that new buildings of the size in question must be located outside Ilulissat’s city centre. An alternative solution must therefore be found.
This is what urban planner in Avannaata Kommunia, architect Martin Viggo Meincke, writes in an email to Sermitsiaq.
Started with 12 floors
In the spring of 2025, Frank and Tommy Bagger applied to the municipality for the green light for a 12-storey hotel in the city center of Ilulissat. But they downgraded the project to 10 floors. The goal was for the hotel to be completed around 2028.
The original project application with the name “High North Ilulissat” was sent to Avannaata Kommunia by the developer Tankeeraq Ejendomme ApS, which is owned by the two brothers. Tegnestue Qarsoq has been hired as a 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 the Best Western Hotel in 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.
From the project application for the original 12-storey hotel, which the design studio Qarsoq sent to the municipality on behalf of Tankeraq Ejendomme, 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 labor can be employed.
– The goal is for the new hotel to meet the latest standards for energy saving with everything from optimal linen utilization to a sustainable kitchen in the restaurant using local ingredients. It must be a goal both for the partnership behind the hotel and for the professional actor who must run the hotel on a daily basis, it was said, among other things. 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, Frank Bagger sees the basis for charter flights landing in Ilulissat in addition to scheduled flights.
– Perhaps cruise companies will also need rooms if we build the new hotel, if in the future the companies choose to transfer passengers and crew to Ilulissat, he said in June 2025 to Sermitsiaq.
As mentioned, the brothers together with Jens Friis-Salling own the investment company Ilu Invest, which owns Ilulissat Best Western Plus, in everyday speech Hotel Ilulissat. The hotel has 78 rooms. It opened in May 2021. The hotel has a nice view of the Ilulissat ice fjord and Kirkebugten.
