Blood family plans to build $8.5 M resort center

Page 22

A Blood reserve family plans to build an $8.5-million family resort in Cardston.

The Butlers International Family Resort, which will be located on a 110-acre site will include a 100-unit Best Western Hotel, convention and banquet facilities, a restaurant and dining-room dinner theater, a lake and a 100-unit recreation vehicle park. Greyhound Lines of Canada have been contacted to establish a charter bus service between Cardston and Calgary to bring in people during off-season tourist periods.

Caen Bly, a Blood Indian and mother of company president Cody Bly, said a Cardston bylaw prohibiting alcohol in hotels will be a drawing card for the facility, which will emphasize clean living and a balance of body, mind and spirit.

"To date the company has only been engaged in market research," said 22-year-old Cody.

If the company is successful in raising the $8.5 million, sod will be turned in the fall and the resort will open in 1992.

Caen Bly, company vice-president, said the resort will incorporate a Native theme and will include a teepee village that will give visitors an idea of the lifestyle of the local Native population.

"We will provide employment opportunities for local people including members of the Blood tribe," she said.

The company launched a feasibility study to determine whether a family vacation resort would complement the Remington-Alberta Carriage Museum to be built in Cardston.

Jim Fransico, a consultant with IBI Group, which undertook the study said, "between 75 and 85 persons-years of work will be generated by the project. Once completed the resort will require $2.5 million per year to maintain."