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Council to consider Nita Lake Lodge and rail project

Economic study indicates project will inject millions into local economy A proposed passenger rail service between Whistler and Vancouver and a new 80-room lodge at Creekside will inject roughly $62 million into the local economy in its first year of

Economic study indicates project will inject millions into local economy

A proposed passenger rail service between Whistler and Vancouver and a new 80-room lodge at Creekside will inject roughly $62 million into the local economy in its first year of operation, according to a report prepared for proponents of the project, the Nita Lake Lodge Corporation.

In the first five years of operation, the project is estimated to spin off almost half a billion dollars to the Whistler economy, with positive benefits to the provincial economy too.

The Nita Lake Lodge Corporation, which has partnered with Whistler Rail Tours, is presenting their multi-faceted, multi-million dollar project to council on Monday night.

"From a straight economics point of view it has major implications," said David Ehrhardt, a local developer who is a principal in the Nita Lake Lodge Corporation.

The deal would see an upscale lodge at the end of Lake Placid Road as well as a new train station at Creekside. A new, privately operated tourist train would deposit travellers at the station, who would then be ensconced in the lodge or shuttled to the village.

"The whole business plan, the whole opportunity for the tourist train between Vancouver and Whistler is predicated on there being a station," said Ehrhardt.

"If council in its wisdom chooses to proceed with the lodge and train station, what comes with that is a regularly service scheduled tourist train coming from Vancouver to Whistler."

If the figures in the economic report are anything to go by, Whistler Rail Tours is set to revitalize rail travel in the Sea to Sky corridor by tapping into a burgeoning market in the city – the cruise ship industry.

In the 10 years from 1991 to 2000, the number of cruise ship passengers going through Vancouver increased 171 per cent, from 388,258 visitors to just over 1 million. The industry is expected to grow at around four per cent each year now. That means 1.5 million cruise ship visitors will be going through Vancouver by 2010.

Whistler Rail Tours wants to zero in on this market.

In the economic report the company projects that it could ferry more than 150,000 cruise ship passengers to Whistler in the year 2010, after just five years in operation.

"These are people you’d never get there otherwise," said John Haibeck, president of the Nita Lake Lodge Corporation.

And it’s not just the cruise ship market they’re tackling.

Both the Whistler Conference Centre and the Vancouver Convention Centre have undertaken major renovations, designed to expand their services. Whistler Rail Tours plans to capitalize on the growing conference/convention market, as well as working with tour operators and travel agencies.

Tourists will travel to Whistler in a luxury rail car for a two and a half hour scenic journey climbing up the Sea to Sky corridor.

Ehrhardt, speaking via cell phone from Colorado this week, was just firming up a deal to buy rail cars from Colorado Railcar. At roughly $3-million apiece, the domed, self-propelled DMU cars (Diesel Multiple Units) are faster and more environmentally friendly than their predecessors.

Whistler Rail Tours has met with Premier Gordon Campbell, along with other provincial government ministers and officials, who have expressed support for the project, said Haibeck.

Tourism Vancouver, Tourism British Columbia, Tourism Whistler, the Whistler Chamber of Commerce and Whistler-Blackcomb, among a host of others, have also offered their support for Whistler Rail Tours.

"We’re not just pipe dreaming here," said Haibeck.

In the future, there could be an opportunity to buy another DMU car and run a commuter service in the corridor.

"We build the business with the tourism market, make it profitable, and as it increases we can add another car to the DMU’s and that could be the commuter section with a different fare," said Hiabeck.

"It’s going to go through Squamish anyway."

But in order for the rail deal to come together, there must be a train station in Whistler to welcome the guests.

This is the second major facet of the Nita Lake Lodge Corporation’s deal.

The company proposes to build a state of the art train station in Creekside along with a full-service 80-room lodge, complete with a dining room, cocktail lounge and holistic mind and body rejuvenation centre.

Adjacent to the lodge, there are plans to build 11 single family homes of approximately 3,500 square feet each, as well as 100 employee beds in an employee housing project on that site.

But in order to build the project, the company needs more than 200 bed units.

In their last proposal to council, Nita Lake Lodge Corporation offered to buy John Zen’s 27 acres of sensitive wetlands, in between the north-end of Function Junction and Alta Lake Road, transfer the 214 bed units on those lands to Creekside, and give the $5 million wetlands to the municipality for preservation.

Alternatively, they considered a cash contribution of $6.5 million for community benefits in return for the bed units.

The new proposal coming before council has morphed as the proponents of the project try to understand what the community wants.

Now, the developers have chosen to go with one option only before council. They are proposing to buy the Zen lands and transfer the bed units to Creekside but they have sweetened the deal with other incentives.

Among those incentives are 221 much-needed employee beds – an increase of over 100 employee bed units from their original deal.

The bulk of the Zen lands will be preserved in a land trust.

However, on two acres of the Zen lands, which front Alta Lake Road, they will build 22 apartments for 88 employee beds. An environmental study from consultants has shown this part of the Zen lands is not as sensitive as the bulk of the property.

They will also increase the employee bed units on the 23-acre Creekside site.

The employee housing will be a mixture of rental and employee-owned residences. Some will be family-oriented and others will be geared to seasonal workers.

As promised in the previous proposal, the developers will also donate $1 million towards the enhancement of public health services in Whistler. More than half of that money will go to the Whistler Health Care Centre to buy a new high tech Tete-radiology unit, which will replace the aging X-ray equipment at the centre.

The remainder of the donation will go to the Community Foundation of Whistler to set up a new community health endowment fund.

The proposal has also taken a different spin with the part of the deal involving the 23-acres of land for development of single family homes.

The developers will be asking the municipality for residential tourist accommodation zoning. This means that the homes will be available for overnight rental. The homes will also be able to access all the facilities of the neighbouring lodge.

This new zoning is designed to promote sustainability and recognize concerns in the community about the increasing number of absentee trophy homeowners.

The revamped lodge package goes hand-in-hand with the rail proposal and as such, both will be presented to council on Monday night.

"(Council’s) decision, while on the surface it’s a land use issue, is really something much more than that," said Ehrhardt.

"It’s a decision about bringing in a whole other opportunity to the community to reinforce the existing economic driver."

Designed to be fully operational by 2005, the hotel and the rail development are expected to generate millions of dollars locally and province-wide.

The economic projections of the project as a whole from the Nita Lake Lodge Corporation are based on visitor spending. They used five major gauges to arrive at their figure of $62 million pumped into Whistler in 2005, the first year of business. Those gauges are transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, recreation and entertainment, and retail spending.

The total spending of the rail visitors is expected to be more than $37 million in Whistler in 2005.

Meanwhile, guest spending at the Nita Lake Lodge is expected to be more than $24 million in Whistler.

By 2010 the revenue generated by the proposal is expected to be almost $100 million a year in Whistler.

There will also be spin-offs worth millions of dollars for the province as a whole.

The proposal will go before council on Monday April 7. The meeting is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. with a general question and answer period from the public kicking off the first 30 minutes of the meeting.