Rooms to grow

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This article was published 15/07/2023 (992 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba-grown developers are putting their money — and their hotels — in rural Manitoba.

Arborg, Niverville and Clear Lake are slated for new or revamped hotels this year, eliciting at least $23 million in construction, by developers’ estimates.

Clear Lake’s The Stowaway Inn opened over July long weekend.

“It’s a great feeling to see people coming and staying and enjoying themselves,” said Gillian Sullivan, The Stowaway Inn’s owner and operator.

She’d walk by the formerly derelict property at 119 Ta-Wa-Pit Dr. regularly. Squirrels and raccoons called the site home; otherwise, the then-Doners Buffalo Resort lodge was empty.

“Every time I walked by, I just dreamed of what it could be,” Sullivan, 42, said.

She grew up near Brandon, spending her summers vacationing and working in Clear Lake.

The owner of Buffalo Resorts — who still operates the motel at 116 Ta-Wa-Pit Dr. — was a familiar face.

“I had planted in his ear that I wanted to buy (the lodge) a few times,” Sullivan said.

Two years ago, he accepted. By January 2022, it was demolition time — or demolition “as needed.”

“It had great bones,” said Sullivan, who flipped the building with her construction company, Sullivan St. Pierre Construction. “It (has) a lot of charm and character. There’s not a single room in this place that’s the same — it’s got a lot of nooks and crannies.”

Her purchase came with partially eaten walls from wildlife visits. One wall on the building’s south side had rotted floor studs; stucco held it together, Sullivan explained.

The two-storey building underwent reframing and waterproofing. New electrical and plumbing were added; old fireplaces were converted to electric, windows replaced, antique dressers refinished.

The 15,000 sq. ft. building is nearly 100 years old — Sullivan wanted to keep as much as possible.

The old chairs received new coverings; some wall panelling has been reused for wainscoting and on ceilings.

Meantime, Sullivan’s team brought in quartz countertops, custom cabinets and books for a communal library.

She estimates she’ll have sunk $2.5 million into renovations once all is done.

“It definitely has been a labour of love,” Sullivan said, adding she’s had “an incredible amount of help.”

“It definitely feels like a community project,” she said. “The community around here has been so open and welcoming.”

They get swarms of vacationers. Riding Mountain National Park, which encompasses Clear Lake, saw 336,560 visits between April 2022 and March 2023, Parks Canada data show.

Parks Canada doesn’t track tourism dollars in Riding Mountain, spokesman Dameon Wall said.

A stay in one of The Stowaway Inn’s 24 units ranged from $170 to $350 per night the week of July 16 to 22, as of July 4, its website booking channel showed.

Sullivan is developing a 1,500-sq.-ft. restaurant at the inn, to open next summer. She hasn’t yet found a tenant.

More than 300 km east, Steel Creek Developers is preparing for shovels to hit Arborg’s grounds on a $7.5 million hotel.

The mayor of the 1,279-person town approached Steel Creek Developers about a project in 2021, after Steel Creek unveiled its 30-room Blue Crescent Hotel in Carman.

“It was relatively easy to raise the equity funds needed for the (Arborg) hotel,” said Trevor Rempel, co-owner of Steel Creek Developers.

Investors cover 50 per cent of the construction costs of Blue Crescent hotels; credit unions finance the other half. Arborg-based businesses had the desire to invest, Rempel said — after all, the community, which is roughly 110 km north of Winnipeg, is “a bit of a regional centre” for the Interlake.

“Without a modern hotel, people are leaving your community to stay elsewhere,” Rempel stated. “As soon as they leave the community, those are spending dollars that are driving out of town.”

He highlighted hockey tournaments: where families stay the night is where they spend money on dinner, snacks and fuel, he said.

Arborg’s Blue Crescent Hotel will mirror Carman’s, with a pool, waterslide and continental breakfast, Rempel said. He anticipates the new site opening late summer of 2024, after crews break ground near the intersection of highways 7 and 68 this fall.

“I expect this hotel (will) further inspire other investment in the community,” Peter Dueck, mayor of Arborg, wrote in an email.

Niverville’s Blue Crescent Hotel is another Rempel plans to open next year, though construction on the 74-unit facility might not begin until the end of 2023.

The hotel, set to cost between $13 million and $15 million, will be built with a new type of concrete panel an investor is producing. The material allows Steel Creek “to dramatically shorten our construction time,” Rempel said.

He hinted the company will open a Manitoba plant soon but declined to give further details.

“Our intent… is to create that hotel in Niverville as a bit of a destination,” Rempel added.

The town of at least 5,947 people — Manitoba’s fastest-growing, according to 2021 census data — caught Rempel’s eye with its new recreation centre and junior hockey team, movie studio and popular wedding venues.

“You have to be really careful on picking the right (rural) communities that have the right drivers,” he said.

Over the past five years, Steel Creek Developers has erected hotels in Souris, Rivers, Carman and Grenfell, Sask.

The clientele was “pretty pandemic resistant” — highway maintenance crews, construction workers and others deemed essential during COVID-19 lockdowns booked hotel stays, Rempel said.

“These small towns, they’re not ghost towns in the making,” said Rempel, who grew up on an Elm Creek farm. “There’s a lot of opportunity there… if you understand what you’re looking for.”

Stonewall and Deacons Corner are next on Steel Creek Developer’s list. First, the corporation needs to attract investors.

Rempel credits the provincial government’s small business venture capital tax credit, where investors receive a tax credit up to 45 per cent of their investment, as the reason Blue Crescent hotels have gotten off the ground.

He’s lobbying for a similar program in Saskatchewan, where he currently lives.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com