Xanterra buys new lodge in Columbia Falls

Developer Mick Ruis has sold the Cedar Creek Lodge in Columbia Falls to Xanterra Parks and Resorts.

“It was a perfect fit for their main offices,” Ruis said.

He said he sold it for what it cost to build the lodge, which was more than $7 million.

Xanterra operates all of the lodges in Glacier National Park under contract with the National Park Service. The deal is expected to close in the first week of January. Xanterra, operating as Glacier National Park Lodges, has its local offices across the street from the lodge.

The lodge will be a convenient place for the company to train staff, Ruis noted.

Glacier Park Lodges general manager Marc Ducharme said the lodge was attractive because of its proximity to the company’s local offices. The company also wanted a year-round presence.

“It means a lot to have something year-round and be even more involved in the community,” Ducharme said.

Ducharme said the company plans to open its board and conference rooms to community functions and perhaps even host a winter community market in cooperation with the market held at the Coop in the summer. Last week, the lodge hosted a Jazz Cafe, showcasing jazz music from high school and junior high groups.

Ducharme said Xanterra has no plans to build a restaurant. The company will level out and seed a vacant area next to the lodge for summer weddings and other functions. The lodge will have 14 year-round employees and 25 in the summer, Ducharme said. He said marketing will focus on winter months.

Construction of the lodge wrapped up this summer. It features high-end rooms, a swimming pool and a conference center.

Ruis said he plans on using the proceeds for the sale to invest in other projects in downtown Columbia Falls.

He’s working on plans for a mixed-use retail-housing development on the former Davall Building site. He said work on that will begin this spring when the weather warms up.

He’s already working on a building between the former Park Mercantile and the Columbia Bar. That too, will be a mixed use retail-housing building.

Ruis’s work in Columbia Falls has not gone unnoticed.

His daughter, Aurora, accepted the Columbia Falls Chamber’s awards for “first buck,” for new businesses in the past year, as well as a community spirit award for all he has done to bring new business to Columbia Falls and rejuvenate downtown.

“He’s a developer, he’s not in the hospitality industry,” Aurora told the chamber members.