Brian Blackmere of Pearle Hospitality remains confident the north side buildings of the Elora Mill project should be open sometime in 2017.
“It’s been a journey, and we’re inching ever closer to eventual construction; in fact we’re so close it’s exciting for me right now,” Blackmere said at the Centre Wellington town hall meeting on Nov. 24.
He then echoed comments by Jonathan Laurencic, of the Elora Brewing Company, regarding the reception of the project by municipal staff.
“It’s been nothing short of spectacular,” said Blackmere.
He then spoke of the five buildings on the north side of the Grand River associated with the Elora Mill project.
Four of them are below the flood line of the Grand River, which Blackmere called “just a bit of an issue.”
As a result work needed to be done with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA). Although hydraulic modelling suggested the site could flood with three metres of water, Blackmere said “I’ve never found an instance of flooding on this site.”
He noted both the MNR and GRCA have separate modelling so “it became a fight you were never going to win because the solution was to build a three-metre high wall.
“Firstly it was ugly, it didn’t make any sense and it was very expensive.
“What we found out this past summer was that the GRCA has a policy which allows minor expansions to buildings below the floodline. That’s what we’ve gone with.” Even so, that policy does not allow large additions.
Blackmere first commented on the old stable at the back of the mill property, noting expansion to that building is compliant with GRCA policy.
“The building will be retrofitted to create a world-class spa,” he said.
While much of the exterior main mill building would remain the same, Blackmere noted a two-storey atrium on the back with a three-storey glazed atrium that will be accessible to the restaurant, the lounge and the third floor hotel rooms.
Blackmere said an addition to the front of the building would allow additional room needed for a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen.
“The James Ross house will stay pretty much as it is,” he said. “We’re going to use it for administrative offices after it is restored.”
Blackmere noted the granary building at the intersection of Mill and Price streets is not in the floodplain.
The mill cottage across the road from the granary building, contains three hotel rooms.
Because the GRCA policy allows for minor additions, the intent is to add an adjacent cottage unit to the west, adding three rooms at that site.
Blackmere said the banquet space was always a downfall of the Elora Mill, with a capacity of 60 to 70 people at best. With planned reconfigurations, hotel rooms will be more in line with the size people are expecting today, Blackmere added.
He estimated this would allow for 20 hotel rooms within the mill building, a high end restaurant, and a lounge and games room. This means a total of 26 hotel rooms on the north side of the river.
As for the granary building, he said the exterior stone walls would be retained, but a new building behind it will become banquet and event space on two floors with its own kitchen.
He said the next step for Pearle is dealing with the heritage report. A presentation was slated for the Dec. 8 heritage committee meeting and would head to council “in the fullness of time,” Blackmere added.
For site servicing, Blackmere said this will be a very busy location next year.
“For this operation to open appropriately, we have to tackle all five buildings at the same time (for servicing).”
The entire parking lot will be ripped up as oversize services are brought into the site. Blackmere said the good News is the township is reconstructing Price Street, which allows Pearle to dovetail its work with that of the township.
Work on Price Street is anticipated to begin next April and utility adjustments will remove overhead existing wiring on West Mill Street adjacent to the mill buildings.
Blackmere noted the mill building is currently gutted and exposes previous false ceiling height on every floor.
He also spoke on work on the south side of the river – the restoration of the mill race to take water to the new penstock to enter an electrical generating turbine. The plant will generate one megawatt of power and is anticipated to be operational next November.
One thing this does, he says, it cut into the hillside for the new community trail.
“Don’t pay attention to how it looks today, because it is a construction site. It’s going to be cleaned up and it will look magnificent,” he said.
Though there has been considerable rock removal, Blackmere said the good News is that the limestone is more fractured than anticipated.
“It is good News for the project in behind … because there is a lot of infrastructure to be installed.” He said if this can be dealt with by the heritage committee in December, it will likely be addressed by council in January or February.
Blackmere also spoke of the township’s community improvement plan and the need to have Wellington County involved in some aspects of it. He hoped it would be possible to apply for a building permit in March or April.
Blackmere said the project would take 12 to 18 months to complete. He admitted that could be optimistic, but remains hopeful for a 2017 opening for all five north buildings.
