The City of Winnipeg is hoping to turn a money-losing golf course into a little piece of profitable paradise.
Council has approved a proposal to sign a 25-year lease with Nordik Spa, a Quebec-based developer of Scandinavian spas, to overhaul everything except the fairways and greens on Crescent Drive's nine holes.
The initial blueprints include the construction of a new clubhouse, a day spa and therapeutic pools.
Guy Prefontaine, the project architect, said the facility will focus on the healing properties of water, steam and massage and won't offer the likes of facials, manicures and pedicures. He said the spa will be the only pure-Scandinavian spa in the province and one of the few across the country.
"The golf course had been losing more than half of its annual rounds played, it was a losing venture. They really needed to rehab the site," he said of the city-owned course.
Assuming the project emerges as expected from the approval process over the coming months, the hope is to put the shovel in the ground next spring with the first spa guests scheduled to arrive before the end of 2011. The total price tag is expected to ring in at around $6 million, $1 million of which will be invested in the pools alone.
from Western Investor, November 2010
