From grand hotel to family-friendly resort to employee housing, the Bala Bay Inn has shifted through an array of identities since its opening in 1910. But after being closed to the public for years, the historic inn is set to reopen on June 28.
Greg Knight, the owner of nearby Muskoka BeerSpa and Clear Lake Brewing Co., took over the building on January 1, entering into a lease with an option to purchase agreement with current owner Niagara Resorts (Muskoka) Inc., the company that owns the JW Marriott hotel in Minett, 27 kilometres north of the Bala Bay Inn.
Niagara Resorts (Muskoka) Inc. purchased the Bala Bay Inn in 2016, outbidding Knight. Fuelled by the nostalgia of his younger days when he and friends used to party at the inn, Knight continued to pine after the property. “I called them every six months for seven years after that to see if they’d sell,” he says.
Rather than operate the property as an inn, Niagara Resorts (Muskoka) Inc. closed the Bala Bay Inn, using it for JW Marriott employee housing. The closure of the inn combined with the six prefabricated modular units the company installed in the inn’s parking lot for additional employee housing drew the ire of locals. Since the modular units had been installed without a permit, council voted to have them removed, but Niagara Resorts (Muskoka) Inc. appealed the decision to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal and received approval.
Last year, the owners of Niagara Resorts (Muskoka) Inc. approached Knight about taking over the inn. Knight says it was because the company found employee housing closer to the JW Marriott. The company did remove the modular units a year ago, but Knight says employees were still living in the inn up until two months before he took over.
Regardless of the circumstances, Knight was happy to accept the offer. “The big, old red brick building has always been interesting to me. I’ve always wanted to bring back some of its original features both inside and out,” he says.
The inn has been a staple on Bala Bay for 114 years. Journalist E.B. Sutton opened the hotel on July 17, 1910. Originally it was known as the Swastika Hotel (named for the symbol’s original meaning of good fortune), but the name changed in the 1930s during Hitler’s rise to power.
It’s also rumoured that the ghost of E.B. Sutton still haunts the inn. His body was laid out in the lounge for a number of days after his death in 1916. Rather than try to hide the property’s haunted history, Knight says he plans to lean into it: there will be Oujia boards in each room, placards about the ghost around the inn, and the restaurant has been dubbed the Ghost Kitchen.
“We haven’t gotten around to planning Halloween just yet, but I imagine October will be a bit of a paranormal wonderland up here,” he says.
Other renovations expected to wrap before the June 28 opening include modernizing the hotel rooms, updating the restaurant and bar, and opening a spa run by Wink and Wave. There will be a shuttle to the Muskoka BeerSpa, and a concert series with live music Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons.
Looking further down the road, Knight says he hopes to restore the inn’s exterior, install a beer garden, and redevelop the surrounding six acres to include some additional resort amenities and residential units.
“I’ve built a fair bit of affordable housing over the years, and the one thing that our community is lacking is small, energy-efficient, cost-effective, multi-residential housing,” he says. “We’ve been in consultation with community groups and the municipality about building multi-residential condominium products that tie into the trendy atmosphere of the hotel, using the hotel amenities as a driving reason for why somebody might want to live in a condominium there.”
But before any shovels hit the ground, Knight says he’s just hoping to get people to book stays at the inn. “We want to get tens of thousands of customers through the door, talk to everybody, hear what they have to say, and use that to drive our long-term decision making,” he says.
The Bala Bay Inn is now open for bookings after June 28.
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