Duane Hicks
Bill Krag has big plans for the former White Pine Inn here.
“I’ve been chasing a dream of owning a multiplex building in town,” said Krag, who took over ownership of the inn after buying it last month.
Krag, who owns other rental properties, said he’s looked at several buildings over the years and found the White Pine to be the perfect fit.
The first order of business for Krag is setting up his Lake Services tool and equipment rental company in the building.
“I’ve sort of advanced that in the last year. I’ve stepped it up,” he said of Lake Services, which also does contracting and barging.
“I’m going to operate out of that little garage over there [in the rear of the building],” he remarked.
“I’m going to put an office in here for it.
“My main focus is going to be the tool and equipment rental out of this part here,” Krag said.
In the meantime, Krag will be having a crew renovating the inn’s rooms into apartments.
They will start on them right away, fixing them up a few at a time, while Krag supervises and runs the tool and equipment rental end of things.
He hopes to have a couple of apartments ready by mid-summer.
“The sooner we have some ready, the sooner we generate revenue, which is good,” he added.
The inn’s layout currently consists of small rooms and community bathrooms for women and men.
Krag plans to combine several rooms into individual one- and two-bedroom apartments, each with their own kitchen and bathroom.
He figures he should end up with about a dozen in total.
Krag is hopeful he can provide apartments for a sector of the community that really needs it, such as Community Living clients.
“If a special group comes and says, ‘Okay, we’re looking for this,’ we’ll cater to that,” he stressed.
“If you want us to do something, what do you want? I’ll build to suit.”
Krag noted there’s even a yard area behind the inn that he’ll clear our to create greenspace.
“It’ll be a nice place for whatever group we cater to,” he reasoned.
“We’ll make it comfortable for them, that’s for sure.”
While Krag is not interested in running a restaurant or bar himself, he would like to see someone else do so in his building.
As such, he will renovate and equip the existing bar and restaurant so that someone else can own it and run it—he’ll just rent them the space.
“We’ve really been approached by a lot of people who want to see the bar and the restaurant open,” he noted.
And being so close to the Memorial Sports Centre, the location is perfect—especially during hockey season.
“I’d like to get that part going again,” Krag said. “I think it would be good for the town.”
One question on many people’s minds is what is the condition of the White Pine Inn?
“I was pursued by a few people to buy this place, and I thought, ‘No. I know the place. It’s run-down,’” Krag recalled.
“I thought, like everybody else, it’s just too run-down.
“And I didn’t think it was shut down properly so there would be water damage.”
Eventually he contacted the town’s building inspector and toured the building for himself.
“When I started looking at it, I thought, ‘All there is is superficial damage,’” Krag said.
“In behind that falling down plaster is wood like it was the day it was put on there. And structurally, it’s fine,” he added.
“After I looked at it, I thought, ‘Jeez, I’d be crazy not to [buy it].’”
Taking a tour of the building Monday morning, Krag noted: “There’s a lot less work than I thought there was going to be.”
Krag said there is water damage to the bar area, which will require the most work to fix up.
That part of the inn has a separate roof, which seems to have only been patched with tar over the years.
He plans to put tin on the roof and repair the damage.
The White Pine Inn, which closed in March, 2011, is nearly 100 years old.
