January 21, 2021
As most Holiday Park residents and owners are aware, we lost our Sweetlife Centre building on September 7, 2020 to a fire. Apparently it started outside on the lower north-east corner and swept across the top of the building before it could be put out. Initially it was identified as suspicious but has now been ruled as accidental and no one is to blame or to be held responsible.
It was extremely unfortunate, as this building housed the much-loved Country Kitchen & Store, full of conveniences and a restaurant with fabulous home cooked meals. It also contained the Italian Kitchen, formerly Ricardo’s, an award-winning restaurant serving delicious meals six days a week for years. The upper level consisted of a well-appointed meeting/banquet room with a fully stocked kitchen facility, available to rent for socials, private parties and fully catered events. There was also a tremendous amount of storage space for the resort and restaurant.
Due to all the different uses and businesses involved, the ability to settle the insurance claim has taken significantly longer, however the building has now been demolished and the concrete foundation will be removed over the next several weeks. Once that is done, we can re-establish our perimeter fencing and secure the resort.
(Click image to enlarge)
Some residents are probably wondering what is going to happen next. Good question! The first step is to finalize all insurance issues and values for all the parties involved, and then ensure the area is cleaned up and a secured boundary is established. We will then explore various options and possibilities, considering what would make the most sense for the resort, with a strong focus on an economically viable opportunity going forward that will not be an expense to resort operations. We want to ensure that whatever we do with this area will be a direct benefit to the resort, its leaseholders, members and guests.
To summarize, the area will remain undeveloped for at least most of this year and possibly into next year, pending a decision on whether to rebuild. As a result of this, we have put both effort and resources into providing an on-site food and convenience store, the Blue Schooner, located in the Activity Centre. We hope that until there are other options, we can maintain and further enhance the services this new facility is able to provide. (Click here for Facebook link).
We appreciate all the support, suggestions and ideas that many leaseholders, members and guests have given and will be giving to us during this time. We have every confidence that with our combined input and everyone’s encouragement, we will determine the best outcome in the not-too-distant future.
Dan Sigal,
President & Team Coach