Minaki: from the ashes

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This article was published 11/04/2016 (3084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three Steinbach developers have moved one step closer to obtaining the green light to redevelop the former Minaki Lodge site in northwestern Ontario into a combination of condominiums and cottages.

After more than half a decade of studies, hearings and negotiations, the Ontario government has approved a plan by developers Bob Schinkel and Bob and David Banman to redevelop 120 hotel rooms on the property into 56 apartment-style, seasonal condos, and to develop 82 lots into seasonal cottages.

The Minaki Cottagers Association and other opponents of the plan have until April 26 to appeal the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.

Association president David Hewlett said Monday his group hasn’t decided yet whether to appeal. If it does and loses, the project would be allowed to proceed, he said.

“I know there is no appeal after that. Their decision is final and binding.”

The association opposes the Steinbach developers’ proposal, called Minaki on the River, because its members believe it’s too big for the sewage plant on the property to handle. They’re concerned it would result in too much chlorine, phosphates and nitrates being discharged into the nearby Winnipeg River. They’re worried more cottages would result in too much boat traffic on the river.

“We’re not anti-development,” Hewlett said. “We would just like to see sustainable development and something that fits in with the scale of the community.”

He said something in the range of 20 cottages would be more suitable.

David Banman said he expects the cottagers association to appeal the government’s decision.

He said the appeal likely wouldn’t be heard until late summer, and a decision wouldn’t be handed down until the fall.

He said he and his partners are confident the board would also rule in their favour. If it does, they expect to begin pre-selling the condos and cottages next winter, with the goal of having the condos ready for occupancy by the spring of 2018.

He said the condos would be mostly one-bedroom units in the 600- to 700-square-foot range. They hope to keep the starting price in the $180,000 to $200,000 range.

While their preference would be to develop cottages on a central septic system, Banman said the 82 lots approved by the government are 20 fewer than they originally proposed. So they have to crunch some numbers to make sure the project is economically feasible at a reduced size.

Banman said if it isn’t feasible to develop just 82 cottages with a central septic system, there are two other options; one is to convert the 119 existing lots on the property into as many as 250 serviced lots that would be leased to owners of mobile homes; the other is to sell the lots as is and let the buyers build their own cottages with their own septic tanks.

He said they paid $1.2 million for the property in 2010, and have spent a “substantial” amount of money removing the rubble left from the 2003 fire that destroyed the original lodge, which was built by the Canadian National Railway in 1927.

Then there’s the cost of redeveloping the hotel and the cottage lots. That amount still must be determined.

He said both those options are less desirable because they would substantially change the look of the area.

The Steinbach developers are the latest in a long list of white knights who over the years have tried to save the former luxury resort property.

The others include the Ontario government, the Four Seasons Hotel chain, the White Dog First Nation, a Texas businessman, Winnipeg businessman Rod Carey and Alberta developer Phillip Archer and his company, Shire International.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca