WOODSTOCK
Renovations to the Mill River Experience resort complex are moving much faster than anticipated — so fast, in fact, that the provincial government has agreed to compress the payment schedule for the capital improvement grants it is providing.
As part of the agreement when Rambri Management Inc. and its owners, Don McDougall and Anne McDougall-Cooper, purchased the complex from the provincial government last winter, the province was to provide $6 million in grants over 12 years.
The grant total hasn’t changed, but the province, at the request of the developer, has agreed to spread the grant over five years, instead.
The developer is eligible for up to $500,000 from the provincial government for 2016-17, then $1.5 million in 2017-18, $2 million the following year before dropping back to $1.5 million and a half million in the last two years of the new schedule. To obtain the full grant amount each year, the developer needs to spend one dollar of its own money for every six the province contributes.
“This will better match provincial grants with the actual work taking place and will remove the province from financial obligations in a more timely fashion,” said Tourism Minister Heath MacDonald.
“I know, for sure, we have moved ahead a lot more quickly than we thought we could when we started,” McDougall said in a telephone interview from his home in Ontario. “What we thought was going to take three years is probably going to take a year and a half. We’re moving along really, really quickly.”
“I know, for sure, we have moved ahead a lot more quickly than we thought we could when we started. What we thought was going to take three years is probably going to take a year and a half. We’re moving along really, really quickly.”
-Don MacDougall
He said numerous local contractors are engaged in the facility’s revitalization.
“What we didn’t realize was we could get it planned and organized and executed quite as quickly as we did.”
Projects completed so far include a new conference facility, relocation of the golf pro shop and a completely redesigned and enlarged parking lot complete with parking for campground registration space for RVs.
A sports lounge is nearing completion.
A pit has been created in the lower level to accommodate a long-awaited elevator in the hotel.
Louise Arsenault, the facility’s general manager, estimates close to 85 per cent of guests have mentioned the lack of an elevator in the facility. The elevator will access all three levels.
The back deck is expected to be replaced, and the aquaplex will be renovated this fall.
McDougall said a busy winter is in store for the facility. Renovations to the front lobby, the restaurant and lounge and the guest rooms will commence in January. That work will run until around the end of April.
Plans are to have rooms available for guests throughout the process.
When the McDougalls took over the operation of the facility in 2016 in preparation for the purchase, they decided to keep the resort open year-round. Previously, it had closed in late October until mid-winter.
McDougall acknowledged it makes good business sense to get the work completed early. “The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can market it and the sooner we get the traffic; it’s in everybody’s interest for us to do it quickly.”
There have been minor changes to the golf course, including moving some tee boxes. Like the hotel, the pro shop is now open year-round.
Along with being pleased with the speed of the project, McDougall is excited with the development of walking and biking trails throughout the property. He said they hope to have 2.5 to three kilometres of new trail completed this fall and noted there is opportunity to add to them in the future.
