Over the past few years, we’ve heard a steady stream of questions from cottagers and local residents about the future of Clevelands House Minett redevelopment and the Minett resort lands on Lake Rosseau. Our Cottage in Muskoka Instagram and inbox fill up whenever there’s a new step in the process. To make it easier for people to follow along, we’re sharing the transcript of the December 14, 2023 virtual open house hosted by the Muskoka Lakes Association and Penguin Group of Companies, owners of the Clevelands House property in Minett.

Aerial view of Clevelands House on Lake Rosseau in Minett, Muskoka. Photo by Cottage in Muskoka.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability, corrected for place names (for example, Minett, Lake Rosseau, Clevelands House), and structured with headings. It is not an official record. There may still be errors, omissions, or spots where the audio was unclear. Nothing here should be taken as legal advice or as a substitute for the official planning documents, OPA policies, or Township / Ontario Land Tribunal materials.

The purpose of this post is simply to provide easier access to what was said during the virtual open house. In separate posts, we’ll dig into the Minett Official Plan Amendment (OPA), what has happened at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), and what upcoming Township meetings mean for cottagers, buyers, and the broader Muskoka community.

Below, you’ll find the full transcript of the December 14, 2023 Clevelands House Minett virtual open house.

Transcript: Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment Virtual Open House – December 14, 2023

Opening Remarks – Susan Eplett, President, Muskoka Lakes Association

Waiting for a few more minutes until more people have joined. We had over 450 people register for this event. So the numbers are climbing in the list of participants at the bottom of the screen. We’d like to give people just two more minutes before we start in and then we’ll get going. So hold tight, please. Thank you.

So we’re going to get going now. Hello, everyone, and welcome. My name is Susan Eplett. I’m president of the Muskoka Lakes Association. I’m one of the founding directors of Friends of Muskoka. The MLA is very happy to be facilitating this open house. It’s being conducted by Mitch Goldhar and his team at Penguin Group of Companies, who are the owners of the Clevelands House property in Minett.

I’d like to reinforce that this is not a township meeting, but it’s an information session being provided to the community at Mitch’s initiative. Mitch and his team will be presenting his plans for the Clevelands House property and then answering our questions. A team of people from the MLA have been working alongside Friends of Muskoka since 2017 to pause the development of the 4,000 units that had been approved many years earlier and reconsider what would be allowed.

It was a very happy day when we heard that Mitch Goldhar, Lake Rosseau cottager, had purchased the property. And in the years that followed, the MLA worked alongside his team, the township, Friends of Muskoka, and the community to significantly reduce what can be built. And tonight, we’ll finally be seeing what is being planned for this very special piece of property.

If you have questions, please type them into the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen. I’ll be going through them and asking Mitch and his team to answer them. When you click the Q&A icon, you’ll be able to see questions asked by others. Instead of repeating a question someone else has asked, please vote up a question you like by clicking on the thumbs up icon below it. I’ll do my best to ask as many questions as possible, and we’ll focus on the ones that are voted up to the top of the list. With over 450 people on this Zoom call, I doubt we’ll have time for all of your questions.

However, after this call, we’ll send all the questions to Mitch’s team. And by the end of this week, we’ll email you a link to the recording of this open house along with a copy of the presentation and the questions and answers. We’ll also be posting all of this material on the MLA’s website.

And now, over to Mitch and his team.

Presentation on Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment – Paula Bustard, Penguin Group of Companies

Paula: Thanks, Susan. Thank you, everyone. My name is Paula Bustard with the Penguin Group of Companies, and I’d very much like to welcome you here this evening. And I thank you for taking the time to join us this evening. We had the pleasure of being in Minett on Saturday for an in-person open house, and it was great to meet so many of the community members and to share the plans.

As Susan said, just a reminder that this is not a statutory public meeting and it’s not a formal meeting through the planning process. We just know there’s been a tremendous amount of interest in this property for the last couple of years, and we’re really excited to have the opportunity to share with you the vision and the plans for the site.

We’re also going to make this material available after the meeting through the MLA and Friends of Muskoka. And there’ll also be an information email that you can send any further questions or comments that you have, and we’d be happy to get back to you at that time.

Paula: Matt, if you want to start the presentation. Just as Matt’s pulling that up, I wanted to provide a very brief background and overview of the current planning permissions. You can go to the next slide.

When Mitchell Goldhar purchased Clevelands House, there were permissions for over 4,000 units on these lands. In fact, these permissions are still in effect today. The original approvals for the lands date back to 2008 when the lands were approved by the OMB as a resort village. It’s at that time that the Marriott was developed, and in fact, the Marriott was contemplated as phase one of a much larger master plan.

Mitch then purchased the property in 2019, and since that time has worked closely with the township, the district, Friends of Muskoka, Muskoka Lakes Association, and other key stakeholders on the policy directives for the site. We participated in the Minett Joint Policy Review Steering Committee and were fully supportive of the policy changes that reduce the development permissions on the site.

The revised policy document, which is before the tribunal at present time, limits permission on these lands to 1,700 units and includes other details such as heights, setbacks, and other policies. These were done over a long period of time and with all the stakeholders involved.

The team that we have put together over the course of this process has included Sasaki Associates, WSP engineers, Baird Marine Consultants, Arcadis, BA Group. And after interviewing many, many architects, we chose Neil McLaughlin to be our architect for the site. Neil is out of the UK and is a very highly respected architect and has great sensibilities that we thought would work well for this project. He’s known for great craftsmanship and very meaningful designs, and you’ll see some of his work in a moment.

As you may know, the total land holdings of this property are over 1,300 acres, including Clevelands House, the marina, The Rock Golf Course, and the surrounding lands. Now, Matt’s just going to click here. You’ll see that the area outlined in red, excuse me, represents our phase one. There are other phases depicted here for context, but they will be subject to further considerations and are not proceeding or proposed at this time.

Phase one is comprised of 37 acres and provides areas for cabins, retail, restaurants, gathering, the marina, boat storage, wellness, and activities such as tennis, pickleball, squash, paddle, and fitness.

Next slide, Matt. Just a zoom-in of the phase one lands here. Phase one represents a total square footage of 190,000 square feet, of which cabins comprise 46,000 square feet. The indoor courts are 21,000 square feet, retail and restaurants within the village 43,000 square feet, office 27,000 square feet, and wellness and fitness 30,000 square feet. And lastly, the marina building is 24,000 square feet.

Now I’m just going to briefly just go through some of the images so you can get a feel for, obviously, what is being proposed. This is a view actually from Wallace Bay looking at the village. Next slide, Matt.

Matt’s just going to flick through right now and just show you a lot of the different cabins that have been designed. The cabins are intended to be built out of wood, and for the most part, are individual cabins. And we feel they fit very well into the master plan and are dispersed throughout the site. In phase one, there are 48 cabins proposed. And as you will see, a variety of different types and styles have been designed to create a diversity. You can just see as much. And again, we will provide this material after the meeting.

As we move from the cabins into the village, the village is where wellness, fitness, recreation, and retail will be housed. There’ll be some offices within the village as well. There’ll be restaurants, an amphitheatre, and ample opportunity for community gathering spaces. And there’s obviously a lot of activities connected to the village as well, including indoor and outdoor tennis, paddle, pickleball courts, providing fitness and recreation.

Paula: So with that, I just want to pass it on to Mitch for any further comments before we open it up for questions. Thank you very much for your time.

Prepared Remarks on Clevelands House Minett  – Mitch Goldhar

Mitch: Thank you, Paula. And thanks, everybody, for joining us.

Mostly, I guess we’re here to just show you these images and answer questions. So I’ll just maybe say a couple of things before we go on to the question period.

Basically, I am not in the resort development or management business. As a matter of fact, you know I was not really looking to get into that business or acquire these lands. I think some of you at the time, when there was an application or, I’m sorry, there were rumours, I guess, of somebody acquiring this property to develop it—like many of you, I’m sure—I was also concerned about the OP, the official plan, being implemented here in anything remotely close to what was permitted and, quite frankly, is permitted.

In going through the legislation governing this property and looking at the context and history, I guess I felt that I had exhausted that there were really no ways to oppose development of a substantial scale. And I had exhausted that. I had hired my own consultants to look at what the regulations and what the rights were at the time and had resolved that, I guess, the only way to do it would be to acquire it. And so I really acquired this property to stop something more so than to do something or to develop something.

But by ultimately entering into a contract and acquiring Clevelands House, you know I did, along with Paula and Matt and Leah and many, many other people, start to put our heads to what might be the appropriate development here in terms of scale, look, and feel. So what you’re seeing here today is the culmination of all of that time and energy in the form of a phase one on 37 of 1,300 acres, representing, I guess, a little under 200,000 square feet. The property is intended to permit 1.7 million square feet.

And I guess the phase two and the phase three will be to be determined. We will stay in touch and share, like tonight, the visions for phase two and phase three, if and when they do come about. There is no plan at the moment for phase two or phase three, but I fully expect there’ll certainly be a phase two.

I am excited about this plan, I think, as a cottager. I mean, I’ve looked at this from the point of view as a cottager. I think it does strike—or it’s an attempt at striking—a balance between having a place that serves us for all the various uses that will enhance our quality and enjoyment of Muskoka and our lake while not overstepping in terms of impact.

Maybe lastly, I’ll say I grew up with my siblings and my family on a lake in summers. And so I do think that it’s really at the end of the day, after everything we do and all the hard work we all put in to, you know, enjoy life… I think going to the cottage is probably ultimately what it comes down to, at least for a lot of us. And so I’m very, I guess, sensitive to protecting, as much as possible, the things—the ingredients—that go into us enjoying our times in the north.

So thank you all for joining us. And I guess maybe if it’s okay, we can turn it over to questions.

Question & Answer Period About the Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment

(Questions are submitted by the public; read by Susan; answers are by Mitch unless otherwise noted.)

Timing of Demolition & Ontario Land Tribunal Appeal

Question:
“To start with, can you please confirm when the demolition of the current Clevelands House will begin? It would be great to see some progress start happening with this exciting development.”

Mitch:
Yeah. I mean, believe me, no one would be more excited for that than me and, I guess, my colleagues on the line. So the answer is I don’t know. We’re really not in a position to start there.

Well, the truth is, I guess, if we wanted to bypass the new intended bylaw and regulations, we really could start, but the intention is to stick to everything that we’ve done together with the MLA and Friends and councils and many others and let these new bylaws and regulations and OP go through.

But the reason they’re not through and they’re not final and binding is because there’s an objection. There’s an appeal. So the appeal has to be heard by a tribunal, which, you know, in Ontario, it’s the process. So unfortunately, the timing is unknowable until the tribunal hears the appeal and, of course, then makes a decision—rules on the appeal.

But only then will we be able to start working there, and subject to what the tribunal says. I mean, it’s possible the tribunal could completely change what’s being approved. So subject to it being consistent with the vision here, and only then we’ll be able to start.

Sewage & Water Treatment

Question:
“What is your plan, Mitch, for sewage treatment, and how would this affect the surrounding area and lakes?”

Mitch:
It’s sort of funny that one of the things I’m most excited about is the sewage treatment and the water treatment, because I do feel that it would be appropriate here to have high standards with respect to sewage and water treatment. I think we would all agree.

And so the idea is—the intention is—to build a sewage treatment plant and a water treatment plant to municipal standards here, which will ultimately be turned over to the municipalities, you know, and operated by the municipality, at municipal standards, and by the municipality.

And the intention is, notwithstanding the phase one that you see here being pretty modest, if you will, in terms of overall permissions, that we would do the municipal services upfront. And over time, they would be expanded. So they’d be sized for phase one, probably a little bit more, and others who would be hooking up. And then if and when there’s additional phases, the sewage and water treatment plants would be expanded.

Traffic & Port Sandfield / Construction Impacts

Question:
“There’s a question about the impact of traffic and whether you’ve considered the impact to Port Sandfield of the traffic and whether you considered a bypass for residents to go around the development. And this is not just for traffic after the build, but also construction during the build.”

Mitch:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a good question. First of all, we’ve done extensive traffic studies. So, I mean, it’s available—the studies. But basically, bottom line is, I mean, it really doesn’t have very much of an effect on traffic.

It’s not a huge phase one. The original, well, the Clevelands House units were about 155 units. There’s actually fewer units day one here than the original Clevelands—original meaning the version of Clevelands House that existed when it was closed a few years ago.

But, you know, there is some traffic generated by any development, but it is really quite modest. You can read it in the study. But it doesn’t come anywhere close to straining the roads that are used. You know, Juddhaven Peninsula Road is very modestly increased by this development versus without it.

And with respect to Port Sandfield, again, we’re sensitive to all of these things. When it comes time to start construction, we will try to coordinate with the subcontractors to spread out, to minimize any additional or noticeable traffic through the bridge there. But we did study the bridge as well. So, you know, it’s all in the study and the impacts are negligible. But we are sensitive to it. And we’ll do everything we can certainly during construction to keep the roads clean and minimize truck traffic at inappropriate times.

Cabin Ownership Model

Question:
“A lot of people are wondering about the ownership of the cabins. Are they going to be condo, timeshare, rental? What will the ownership be?”

Mitch:
Yeah. Well, it’s my plan to just own them myself. I don’t plan on selling them or time-sharing them or anything like that. Just kind of keep it simple. They’ll just be for rent.

I mean, I’m hoping that some people will rent them for long periods of time and kind of make them their own, so to speak. But, you know, in terms of the minimum time period for renting them, I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to figure that out.

They’ll have kitchens. You know, they’ll be different sizes and different shapes. And I can go into that more if you want as we go. But they’ll be just rented—just like you go to a hotel or whatnot, except that these will be renting a cottage. But it’s unique. I mean, it’s not quite like renting a cottage, not quite like going to a hotel. But the intention is that you’re self-sufficient, you know, and you have your own space for the period of time that you rented.

At the moment, I have no intention of doing any condos, although you never know in the future. And I don’t have any intention of selling lots at the moment either. And these 48 cabins are definitely not condo or not for sale. They’ll all be just for rent.

Marina Operator & Boat Slips on Lake Rosseau

Question:
“A number of questions about the marina. Do you expect SWS will remain the marina operator for the long term?”

Mitch:
That’s a good question. Did Geordie ask that question? I know. Yeah. I mean, Geordie’s done a fantastic job. I think we all recognize that, and he’s a great guy, and really, really appreciate what he’s done long before I ever really even knew him that well, and his wife. So we’ve been very lucky that, you know, he’s continued to do what he can there. He’s done a lot of things there through thick and thin.

But the fact is that, you know, it is a redevelopment and it’s just not determined yet, you know, in terms of who’s going to ultimately run the marina. There’ll be a completely rebuilt marina—both the building and the docks and all the launching and whatnot. All the infrastructure around the marina will be rebuilt. I mean, the buildings are basically falling down. And so there’s no salvaging them. And it’s premature to determine exactly how and who is going to operate that. But stay tuned. Meet a few years from now.

Question:
“Now, there’s a number of questions about boats. How many boats do you expect this is going to be adding to Lake Rosseau? And, yeah, do we know the capacity for new boats at the marina and at the docks?”

Mitch:
Yeah, for sure. I mean, boats is a big thing. I don’t understand why boats still make as much noise as they do. Seems like we’ve been able to get pretty much every other machine to make less noise.

And we are increasing the number of boats, the number of docks, the slips. We’re adding slips. There’s 125 slips right now at Cleves. On completion of the nucleus, there’ll be 215. So it’s an increase. Though it’s actually not an increase over the previous approval. So it is what’s permitted there now. We’ll probably build them all and we’ll monitor, obviously, boat traffic.

There’ll be ways that we’ll be able to regulate boat traffic by not allowing, you know—or regulating—how many boats or if boats would be allowed by renters, for example. And there’s other ways to regulate it: reserving spots, and so on and so forth. So I’m very sensitive to boats and boat traffic. We need them. I mean, the place has to survive. There’s going to be many businesses there. We all like to go somewhere by boat. But at the same time, obviously, there’s people living around Cleves and on the approaches to Cleves. And so we’ll be very sensitive to respecting them as well. So that’s what the permissions are. And that’s how we’re planning to approach boat traffic.

Staff Housing

Question:
“Happy to see something great happening here. My dad would be thrilled. Will any staff accommodation be built as part of this phase one?”

Mitch:
You know, there will be staff housing with phase one in the form of some of the existing buildings and cabins. There’s some cabins there that are in pretty good shape. There’s way more that are in bad shape. But the ones that are in good shape, and some of the existing buildings where we have staff now, where we had staff there in the last year of operation, will be probably fixed up a bit for now.

But I do anticipate building staff housing from scratch probably pretty soon after phase one, maybe even during phase one—like before phase one ends. I really feel strongly about getting some good staff housing in there and updating it and having a nice place for staff to be. Something cool for everybody who works there and safe. It’s badly needed.

So it’s on this plan. I mean, you probably can’t see it. It’s on the other side of Juddhaven. It’s just not part of phase one. But it will be there and it’s a big priority.

Sports Facilities & Community Access to Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment

Question:
“And what are the intentions for the sports facilities? Will these be open to the public or on a membership basis to other cottages on the lake?”

Mitch:
I mean, I don’t know yet, actually. I mean, first of all, the phase one is tennis, pickle, and paddle, and then squash, which of course is indoors, and the golf with The Rock, which is already there. The Rock is obviously a public course.

I haven’t decided on the tennis. I mean, I just don’t know. I’ll see. I’m inclined that everyone can book. I would like it to be available for everybody and everything. I just need to think through all the implications of it being public versus being private. It could end up being sort of a little bit of both.

I would like the tennis to be a team. You know, ultimately, that there’s a Minett team. Maybe it’s a Clevelands team. Maybe it’s [another] team. I don’t know. And that we play against other clubs and things like that. So, you know, I’m not sure exactly how that will work out. But I do want it to be a really decent standard club and also good for exhibitions maybe a couple of times in the summer. I think pretty cool. I think it’s realistic. So everyone would be able to come. I haven’t completely resolved that, so I don’t want to say or commit to that yet.

Oh, I should add about that: I’m hoping that the phase two will have—again, it’s the intention, you know—that there’ll be a camp, a day camp with additional sports there for kids. So it has a lot of potential because, of course, the kids can use the courts and all the courts, as well as the golf. And we can add soccer and a bunch of other things because there’s plenty of land.

I think it’d be great for parents. I mean, you know, I could be wrong, but I think it’d be great for parents to be able to have the option of there being a camp with a lot of activities nearby. And then, of course, there’s the village. Maybe people will rent the cabins and put their kids in a camp for a week or two or whatnot. So there’s a lot of overlapping, I think, potentially, with a camp with additional sports.

Dark Sky & Lighting

Question:
“As a lifelong Muskoka resident, what type of impact will the lights from this community have on our now dark sky on Rosseau? Will the lights be turned off at a certain time or redirected to not affect the sky?”

Mitch:
I could have asked that same question. I could have written that question. I love the dark sky. I literally go out in the sky. When it’s clear, I’ll go out almost every single night to the darkest part of my property. I hope that, you know, there’ll be lots of spots here where people will be able to do that.

I’ll come back to potential phase two in that question, but, you know, we will do—you know, we have to have the lights. It has to be safe. But I mean, we will do everything… This is not going to be lit up like a Christmas tree. I mean, it’s going to have subdued lights and lights that are the most sensitive to the issue of lighting up in this area. So you can be sure that there will be the minimum amount of lighting that we can have but also be safe for people that are there.

So I can’t speak in terms of foot-candles and in terms of statistics or whatnot at the moment. But I can assure you that I’m very conscious of that. And if anyone has any complaints in the future about that, I will be responding to it. So we’ll try and strike that balance here.

Economic Impact & Year-Round Jobs Created by Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment

Question:
“What kind of economic impact will this have on Minett and the township? How many full-time, 12-month positions do you plan to offer? As you know, there’s a great deal of poverty in Muskoka Lakes and food bank use is high. Are you getting any advice that might help the ‘New Cleves’ business make life in Muskoka better?”

Mitch:
Yeah. I mean, we’re not going to be some panacea solution to the entire economic issues in the region. I mean, I think [it] will be positive. I mean, for starters, there’ll be a lot of construction jobs, and the intention is that we’ll be doing that locally. Certainly hoping that the materials will be local. And then, of course, to the extent that there’s appropriate labour, I mean, you know, it’s obviously better that it be local.

We’ll be paying taxes. And I can’t tell you how many businesses will be open there all year round. I think it’s going to be partly up to all of us, you know—how often we go up there and how often we actually patronize, you know, both the village and the cabins.

Not all the cabins are going to be winterized. I don’t think there’s going to be enough demand. I hope this is famous last words, but I don’t intend on winterizing all the cabins. I think there’ll be—well, there will be some winterized cabins. So I hope some people will like to come up there in the winter. But I really do think that there’ll be a lot of shops that won’t be open in the winter or in the off-seasons. But I actually think there will be quite a few that will be open, I’m hoping. And so it will create some additional jobs. It’s not knowable. But I hope more and more people will go there in the off-seasons and we’ll just create more jobs.

I mean, it’s all there to be had. And the more successful, I guess, it is, I mean, more jobs will be created.

Sustainability & Building Materials

Question:
“Nice low-style cabin styles. Any plans for seizing the opportunity to utilize sustainable and environmental-friendly products in the building, finishes, grounds, energy generation, etc.?”

Mitch:
Oh, yeah. I mean, the intention is that there’ll be a lot of wood in both the cabins and the village. You know, the intention is to be as close to net zero—I mean, it won’t be net zero; I don’t see it possible—but it’s definitely going to be top of mind in terms of lowest impact possible. Natural materials and local, which is very advantageous in terms of effects, you know, just getting materials there, effects on the environment.

And I actually am envisioning, you know, that the actual cabins will be wood structure. So more wood, the better as far as I’m concerned. So yes, it’s very much a theme here. And geothermal, likely, you know, for the systems, the M&E systems, the mechanical systems.

Shoreline & Naturalization

Question:
“Given your commitment to protect the environment, do you plan to do any shoreline naturalization?”

Mitch:
We have a consultant for the shoreline. It’s been very interesting, actually. So, you know, we’re still working through that, but by all means, we’ll be, you know, building near the shoreline. I mean, for sure, we’ll have a boardwalk systemthere. I mean, it’s nothing too much, but definitely very enhancing to the use of the village, the cabins, and connecting them, as well as just the overall use of the shoreline to protect it.

So in terms of planting and naturalizing it in this respect, you know, we don’t have any current plans to be planting necessarily on the shoreline, but, you know, obviously, very sensitive to the overall environment here and the impact. We’ll be planting enormous amounts of trees here because I would like these cabins ultimately to be, in a sense, in a bit of a forest environment. And otherwise, there’ll be a beach there where there is a beach now. And other than the docking system, [those are] the current intentions.

Historic Hotel, Boathouse & Cultural Heritage

Question:
“We understand from the Saturday meeting that this vision doesn’t see a future in the historic hotel and boathouse/dance hall. This saddens many of us to lose this culturally significant landmark. We understand these buildings are currently in a dilapidated state and not as attractive as they could be. Though demolition of this last remaining grand hotel would be a great cultural loss to the area. We feel the community in Muskoka would love you to reconsider saving the older historic sections while adapting them to modern-day use.”

Mitch:
Yeah. Anyway, it’s not my intention. I’ve looked at it. Believe me, I love it too. And I feel, yeah, I mean, I get it, but it doesn’t work. The buildings are basically dilapidated, like you said, from top to bottom. I mean, the fact is that it is not the original building. I mean, everybody, I guess, thinks about it that way. The original buildings have been completely rebuilt, if you will.

I mean, you know, we might whitewash it a little bit. They’re nostalgic. I get it. But I mean, for example, the exterior of those buildings is plastic. It’s not original. And the vast majority of all of those buildings have been over time rebuilt with modern, if you will, at-the-time materials. Like the windows are not original. There’s very little actually in the buildings that are original. There’s nothing there that’s original. To say nothing of the fact that it’s barely standing up; it’s unsafe. To use it would be, you know, I mean, it would be an enormously expensive and almost impractical, if not close to impossible, thing to do.

I’ve looked at it. So it’s not going to be part of the development. But there will be some sort of references to the building in the new development. I haven’t completely got that for you yet, but it’s the intention to do something with some of the architecture to salute and honour the original, I guess, iconic shape of some of the original building. And I hope that we’ll all be able to accept that as the reality of this situation. And I hope, without going into the details, I hope you’ll be able to recognize what that salute is and appreciate it.

Tower Behind Abby’s Bakehouse & Village Landmark

Question:
“Next question relates to the tower. Please explain the purpose of the tower behind Abby’s in the marina.”

Mitch:
Yeah. I mean, towers—it’s really just meant to be sort of a bit of an iconic beacon, if you will, you know, kind of anchoring that there’s a settlement here. You know, it’s not uncommon. There’s something kind of basic and sort of primitive about doing that. I kind of like it. Maybe it just comes down to that. I kind of like it.

I think, like, a lot of communities have over the years done that. I think it’s very successful in showing pride. It also, I guess, adds interest and some scale. You know, it also makes the majority of the settlement sort of modest—sort of sits proud and says, you know, there’s a proud community here. In this case, a little village, a lakeside village, a waterfront village.

I think it’ll look cool. I mean, I think it has some gravitas, some interest, and people gather around those types of things. I think we all consciously or not consciously go out of our way to go to such a structure. Yet it will be back, you know, it’s going to be behind Abby’s. I want to restore Abby’s—people there and Abby’s in general. I call it Abby’s; it’s the name of the restaurant, but you know what I mean.

And so it’ll be quite a bit behind Abby’s. So I think it’ll look cool too. The light on the top will be really quite natural, I’m hoping, and low-level. So it’ll be kind of appealing, just dim light in the distance. And down at the ground level, there might be like a fire pit or fireplace. Again, all subject to the details, but I think that would be pretty cool and I think very nice for all of us to be able to gather and hang out there.

Future Hotel at Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment (Phase Two)

Question:
“Is there a plan to build a hotel at some point?”

Mitch:
Yes. That’s one thing I can say definitively about phase two—that at the moment, I definitely do intend on building a hotelthere. Just can’t get it together to do it with phase one. It’s just too much. I mean, kind of, I think, you know, would have done it in phase one. But I mean, with all the infrastructure, you know, all the issues with water and sewage treatment and, you know, all the other planning and architecture and whatnot, marina—it’s just too much to do all at once.

So right soon, I hope to start really focusing on that. And I do see that hotel as being, you know, again, it’s just subject to change. I mean, I don’t want to be held to this, but at the moment, I’m sort of picturing it to be quite a boutique kind of hotel. Hopefully, maybe a little bit, you know, on the upper scale and around where Cleves is—the original Cleves building is now—over there just up above where Pie was.

At the moment, thinking—I don’t know if it’ll end up being the case—but it’ll be… I’ll say 100 rooms because I don’t want, you know, people throwing tomatoes at me in a couple of years from now. But I’m sort of thinking something, you know, less than 100 rooms. So 50 to 100 rooms; we’ll see what an operator would want to do here.

Islander Access & Dock Use During and After Construction

Question:
“As an existing boat slip renter who depends on Minett for island access, are you guaranteeing continuing access? Will we be able to access docks with our cars to drop off personal belongings?”

Mitch:
Well, I mean, using the word guarantee, you know, I’m not going to guarantee, but it’s certainly the intention to continue to make the docking system here available to islanders. So I would say, you know, islanders have nothing to worry about. You know, it’s all part of it. And it’s great to have the islanders use Minett. And we would never shut them out. I mean, it’s just completely at odds with everything that we’re doing.

So yeah, we have to build something here. And there’s logistics involved and timing. And it’s going to be just a huge mess there, I mean, for a while. So I haven’t completely figured out how we’re going to keep them going during construction, but we’ll try. So we’ll keep you posted. But regardless, I think once it’s all done, you can have a high degree of confidence that, you know, if you’ve been using Minett as your launching point, you’ll be able to continue using that as your launching point in the future.

Ownership Structure (Penguin vs SmartCentres)

Question:
“What is the ownership of the project? Penguin, other corporation, Mitch personally? If personally, what’s the long-term vision for the ownership or control of the development?”

Mitch:
I’m going to ask some of these questions, I think, “Oh, who’s asking that question?” But the simple answer is I just own it. Basically, for all intents and purposes, I just own it myself privately. I don’t have any partners. It’s not part of a public company called SmartCentres. That has absolutely nothing whatsoever legally to do with Clevelands House.

Penguin Group of Companies is just the name that I use for a number of properties that I, I guess, own and operate privately because I have a private business and I have, I guess, a public business. And so for the private business, it’s just called the Penguin Group of Companies. And Clevelands House falls under that umbrella.

Demolition Artifacts & Supporting Local Charities

Question:
“In the demolition of Clevelands House, would you consider auctioning or selling off some of the artifacts to support local charities? I believe there would be great interest, and this would be an amazing thing to do.”

Mitch:
That’s a great idea. I love it. I mean, that’s great. We’ll look at it. I mean, what a great idea. I love it. I don’t know. We’ll look at it. I don’t know really how much, as I said before, is original. There may be some old beams, you know, still there. But we’ll look at it. And I guess, yeah, if there’s something worthwhile and worthy of that, I think [we’ll] take that under advisement. So great suggestion.

Emergency Services, Wellness & Medical Uses

Question:
“Are there plans for increasing the emergency services in Minett?”

Mitch:
I’m not sure what they mean by that, but what I think of when you say that—as I get older—I think we do need… well, I think it would be great if we had more medical, dental, certainly in peak season, closer to a lot of us, because it’s a long way. And veterinarian, for that matter.

So, I mean, I’m hoping that some of the tenants in the village will be, you know—and I’ll come back to that in a second—will be medical, dental, and maybe veterinarian. I should have mentioned before that I’m in discussions with some people to do wellness there and also really hoping that we’ll have physio there, you know, in peak season. So for active people, you know, we can have access to physio.

In terms of, I mean, fire—I mean, there’s a fire hall across the road. You know, we’re on the lake. And in terms of ambulances or whatnot, I mean, we don’t have any plans whatsoever to build any more ambulance facilities. I mean, it’s not that big. Phase one is not that big. So I’d assume it wouldn’t justify or warrant adding an ambulatory service because of this development.

Long-Term Ownership Vision & Potential Future Phases of Clevelands House Minett Redevelopment

Question:
“Developers sometimes build phase one and possibly phase two and then sell the project knowing that there are still approvals for many more units. What is your take on the long-term vision, your long-term vision, and commitment to the project?”

Mitch:
Yeah. I mean, it’s true. I mean, but I guess for good or ill, I’m a bit of a long-term kind of person in terms of my business. I mean, my history, I think, is that I developed things to hold them.

On the first property I developed—I mean, some of you would drive by it on your way up if you’re from Toronto and Barrie—[it’s] there on the highway at Molson Park. You know, it opened in 1994. So I’m not a big seller. I guess maybe also I would inspire the fact that there’s nothing for sale here.

So yeah, I mean, I have no current plans to sell the property or sell parts of the property. But yeah, I mean, there may be some scenarios in the future that I would. We’ll see how it goes. I mean, but that’s not my plan and it’s not my sort of history.

I want to point out that if it’s beneficial, you know, to sell, technically, I might do that. You know, for example, you know, if it warranted having a seniors facility here, maybe I would sell—if the only way to get a seniors facility up here, if it made sense, was to sell a piece of land to somebody to do that, then maybe I would do it.

But if I was ever to do that, I would put in—in addition to the regulations that are already governing the property—I would probably put additional restrictions on that to make sure it was, you know, very cohesive and in the spirit of the place. So, you know, technically, there might be some… there’s a plan on this—there’s a subdivision on this master plan that’s a future phase that you see over there off Peninsula Road. Those are intended to be houses for any locals that might want to buy a new house in the future. Those I would sell for sure. You know, that would make sense, for example.

But for the purposes of that question, I mean, I’m on phase whatever-it-is on many of the developments that I’ve owned many, many decades ago, all over the country. And I wouldn’t expect this Clevelands House development to be any different.

Future Condos on the Site Plan

Question:
“Are the condos shown on the site plan part of a future phase?”

Mitch:
Yeah. So somebody has very good eyes. Yeah. So we put that on there just to make sure that, I mean, partly to make sure that everybody understands that’s a possibility. It’s not part of phase one. It’s not the current intention. It’s up on the hill. If we were there now, behind the marina, the grade goes up quite a bit. That’s where those are.

We’ve had those on from day one, just as, I guess, a way of, you know, communicating that it is a permitted use here, even though it’s not the intention. I just don’t have any plans to do any kind of condos here. And so it’s really just a placeholder, among a lot of other things that are on future phases here, that are placeholders just to show what is permitted. So it’s full, full disclosure, transparency, open kimono. These are all the uses that are permitted here. And phase one is what is going to happen for sure. The rest of it is to be determined.

Boat Launch Rights for Cabin Rentals at Clevelands House Minett Redevelopnen

Question:
“Will each rental cabin have permission to have a boat and launch?”

Mitch:
No. No. Absolutely not. I don’t know yet what we’re going to do with that, but I mean, a canoe? Yes, for sure. Don’t know what we’re going to do yet. Have to figure it out.

I mean, I do not support—I do not want—and so I don’t see it. I don’t know how we’re going to do it yet. We’ll have to think it through. The regulations, I believe, state that—I could be wrong, Paula, you can correct me—but I think there’s something like not more than 10% of our slips can be for the people living, in this case, in those cabins or residences. So technically, you know, we could really probably only provide 21 boats for the 48 cabins.

But I’m really hoping that there’s a lot of—I’m hoping there’s at least 48 people at any one time or 41 families, if you will, or variations of all that—that just love being up here and, you know, will be fine without having their own designated motorboat.

Location of Sewage Treatment Plant & Wallace Bay Water Quality

Question:
“On your comments on the sewage treatment plant, I’m not sure if you answered this one. Where do you plan to build the sewage treatment plant?”

Mitch:
It’s out near where the lagoons are. If you look on this plan, there’s two things that look like a lake, and they sit there. Those are lagoons. That’s where the sewage goes and has gone for many, many, many years—long before I owned this property. Somewhere around there—somewhere around there—would be the general intended location of the sewage and water treatment plant.

It’s not completely designed yet. We won’t need the lagoons once we have the [new] sewage and treatment plant. But there’s a big asterisk next to that because I don’t want to go into it. But certainly, from the Clevelands House property point of view, our water and our sewage will be going into municipal services. And the treatment plant will be somewhere over by the lagoons.

Question:
“The water quality in Wallace Bay is historically among the poorest on Lake Rosseau. What is being done to ensure that this is not exacerbated by the new development?”

Mitch:
I mean, sewage and water—municipal services, municipal water and sewage treatment—[are] the highest standard for treating water and sewage. We don’t have that there now. So the standard for treating water that ultimately ends up back in our ecosystem will be the highest it could be with all of us wherever we are. That’s the Western world’s system technology for treating water and sewage. And that’s what we’re going to have up here. So it can’t get any better than that. So hopefully, you know, that will contribute, or [be] in the service of improving the water quality here.

Closing Remarks

Susan:
I’m scrolling through the questions, and I think we may have come to the end of the ones that have had multiple people clicking on them. So I think we’ve also gone over the hour at this point.

We are going to be providing all these questions to Mitch’s team. And so if I haven’t read out your question or haven’t dealt with it directly, all the questions will be compiled and sent. And then we will be having answers available to you for all of these questions.

Susan:
Mitch, Paula, Matt, any final comments?

Mitch:
I mean, yeah, I mean, hoping to, you know, get this development going at some point soon. Hope we’ll all, you know, be able to enjoy it. And hopefully, we’ll have found the balance here. And I appreciate, yeah, everybody’s input. It’s open to continue—open to everyone’s feedback. We’re in this one together. I’m a cottager up there no different than everybody else. And so I appreciate everybody’s feedback.

Susan:
Thank you, Mitch. And thank you, Paula, for your comments as well. It’s really great for you to explain your plans and answer so many questions. I think our community is really fortunate that you’re taking this time to be so transparent and engage with us about these plans to develop a property that holds a very special place in the hearts and memories of so many of us.

And for people who attended, please watch your inbox later this week for a copy of the recording of this presentation as well as the renderings and questions and answers.

So enjoy the rest of your evening, and my very best wishes to everyone for happy holidays to you and your family. Thank you.

[Recording stopped.]

We know this is a lot to take in. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing follow-up posts on:

• the Minett Official Plan Amendment and what it actually allows at Clevelands House,

• what has happened so far at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), and

• what the next Township meeting means for the Clevelands House and for Lake Rosseau cottagers.

If you’d like to stay updated when those posts go live, you can follow us on Instagram @cottageinmuskoka or subscribe to our newsletter.