The Windsor Hotel Project

As I’m sure many of you know if you follow us over on Instagram, at the end of last year, we bought a hotel.

Now before folks think we’re fancy, I should clarify, we bought an abandoned, foreclosed, historic hotel in the small town of Greenwood, BC — aka we bought a hotel through the courts for less than a new farm truck costs these days.

But isn’t she pretty? Or at least she’s going to be when we’re done with her.

I haven’t taken the time to really explain the plan behind the project because I’ve been stuck in this strange place lately of being unsure if I should just stick with farm content over here but at the same time, we have projects happening that are so huge in our lives and that ultimately have ties back to Central Park Farms.

So why the heck did we buy a hotel?

It all started when we decided to sell the farm property in Langley and put more focus on raising animals at our off-grid ranch in Rock Creek. The issue there is that we run that property off generators and solar so it’s not reliable to store frozen meat and with butchery being so difficult to come by we planned to split up our butchery with our long time butchers Lepp Farm Market and a small town butcher near our ranch.

And with that decision I was on the hunt for a commercial space in Rock Creek to house freezers, that turned into wanting small corner to house an office, and if I was going to be in town during the day I might as well have a couple little freezers so folks passing through or camping families (our town is huge for camping and outdoor recreation) could stop by and grab some Central Park Farms meat.

In a ranching town of 181 people it didn’t take long to realize there wasn’t any commercial buildings for sale or lease so I started looking beyond that. Fast forward a few weeks and I was bringing Jay a hotel built in 1899 with the option of retail space, an office, and possible living accommodations for us. The way we’re set up at the ranch is perfect for the Spring to Fall but forget about it when we’re under feet of snow and hit -30. Not that we spend a great deal of time here in the winter season but the option would be nice for those times we need to be here.

How did it escalate?

I’ve had ranch retreats in the plans for years but it’s always been a project that never quite happened at the ranch. I dreamed of women coming from the city and learning more about ranching, eating yummy food, bonding, and taking part in different fun and relaxation with me on the ranch. The only thing holding me back was accommodations so for the past few years we’ve been sketching out options for on-ranch glamping tents, cabins, you name it we’ve considered it.

Don’t worry fellas we (or more correctly Jay) has plans for you too.

The future of The Windsor Hotel includes accommodations that can be rented like any old hotel or Airbnb but also gives me the opportunity to use the full building as a home base for retreats. It’s close proximity to the ranch would allow day trips to our ranch, but the hotel will allow lovely accommodations, a restaurant space and lounge for chef prepared meals made with Central Park Farms meat, fun cocktails, and workshops.

This is a huge undertaking and a long term goal. I dreamed of this space every time we passed it not realizing it was for sale and could be mine. I made Jay stop each time we drove through so I could take photos. Thankfully we have a ton of family and friend connections in the construction space including my dad who’s been in management of a construction company that handles large commercial projects on the coast for many years. Their knowledge, skills, and expertise, mixed with our ability to handle hard work gives us the confidence to take it on.

One space at a time we’ll work through it and first up is the ground level Mercantile where we’ll sell housewares, food, clothing, accessories, in an old-school general store both in person and online. Next up is the lounge/restaurant area, and then we’ll attack the two top floors.

When people ask how the heck we could take this on, we always reply the same ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’