Seasonal staff housing in Sun Peaks has more than doubled in the past five years, helped most recently by the completion of the Red Fox Lodge.
An addition to the seasonal staff housing buildings for Sun Peaks Resort LLP (SPR) and Sun Peaks Grand Hotel (SPG), which consists of the Burfield, Black Bear Lodge, Whispering Pines, Little Shuswap and the cabins adjacent to the Burfield Administration building, the Red Fox Lodge has made sure the resort has accommodation available for all of their seasonal staff this winter.
“Last year we actually had to take hotel rooms out of circulation, out of SPG, in order to accommodate staff,” chief operating and chief financial officer for SPR Amy Blakeney said. This year, she hasn’t heard of any concerns with seasonal staff accessing housing.
The resort can now house up to 447 staff members with the addition of the 116 pillows brought in by the Red Fox Lodge.
Red Fox Lodge: design and assets
The Red Fox Lodge is the first Sun Peaks building under the Step 3 building code, which is 20 per cent more efficient than the 2018 Building Code baseline and a standard that will be set for future builds as well.
Part of its efficiency model includes all LED lighting, a water-softening system, high-efficiency windows and individual air systems controlling fresh air in and out by the unit.
On top of the sustainability aspects, the building has been designed to maximize storage as well.
Each unit is equipped with a queen-sized bed with drawers underneath and includes closets and cabinets. For each of the 58 units, there are caged locker storage units on the first floor along with ski and bike storage areas.
Designed with staff feedback in mind, Blakeney said they chose to create units with one bed in each. In addition to freeing up space for storage, this idea is appealing in a post-COVID world where people are wary of sharing rooms.
With two pillows to a bed and the desire to bring the number of residents closer to the 116 benchmark, many of the spaces are still being shared.
“In order to maximize the pillows, we’ve been targeting couples to put in Red Fox Lodge,” she said. “We’ve been able to fill most of our units in the Red Fox Lodge with couples.”
Of the 58 units, 54 are studio-size at 250 square feet with a full kitchen, and the other four have a separate bedroom, living room, washer, dryer and dishwasher while being double the size of the studios at 500 square feet.
With the effort they made to design this particular building with maximum efficiency based on staff feedback over the years, she said the feedback from residents so far has been extremely positive.
Investing in improving housing
With seasonal staff housing, the resort loses money during the summer when occupancy drops, Blakeney said.
As a $12 million investment, the Red Fox Lodge is a significant addition to winter operations.
“That’s a big item for us to chew,” she said. “But we knew how critical it was to our operation to ensure that we have sufficient beds for our staff.”
With this additional space for designated resort staff, other areas in the village are free to house employees of other businesses.
Part of the resort’s master plan is the expansion of community employee housing spread out around the village, to improve the ongoing problem of finding housing for permanent residents.
“There’s nine parcels that have been designated as community employee housing,” she said, the first being parcel 74 which was purchased by the municipality for the BC Builds project, designed to bring middle-income rental housing to Sun Peaks.
Another program designed with permanent residents in mind, the Sun Peaks Community Lodge program hasn’t taken off in the way the resort had hoped, though Blakeney said they’ll be soon pushing the community to contribute more.
The program provides incentives to homeowners willing to rent to long-term residents and has contributed six units for SPR and SPG employees as well as four units for employees of local businesses that have opted into the program.
“We estimate we’ll generate about 2,000 pillows for employee housing over the long term.”
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