On Tuesday, April 15, the Marmot Ridge restaurant was finally torn down.
The former golf course has been a landmark in 100 Mile House for decades now, its location beside Highway 97 making it highly visible to the community and visitors alike. It has been demolished to make way for the Lakeland Veterinary Clinic's new veterinary hospital, which Doctor Ross Dickinson hopes to see completed by this time next year.
"We're just wrapping up demolition on the existing building. The cost to renovate that building, to bring it up what it would need to be to be a veterinary hospital, was just too expensive. Damage from the flood and structural integrity in a few spots was probably the big (deciding factors). We made the decision to demolish and we're now in the design phase for the new clinic," Dickinson said.
"It was frustrating to put a fair bit of work and a fair bit of money into design and try to renovate. The goal there was to save the building, it's been a landmark of 100 Mile for a lot of years. You talk to people who have a lot of fond memories of the place, and I was hoping we could save the building, but at the end of the day, the cost to build brand new is on par with what it would have cost to try to renovate that."
Dickinson purchased the Marmot Ridge property back in 2022 with the original intention of renovating the restaurant building into a veterinary clinic. However, the projected cost for such a renovation and the multi-level nature of the old building ultimately contributed to Dickinson deciding to build something new and purpose-built. That means the Marmot Ridge building had to go.
He noted that the weekend before the demolition, he and his wife held a garage sale where the community was invited to come buy and salvage whatever they could from Marmot Ridge. Dickinson said they were overwhelmed by the response, with at least 200 people coming through to buy everything from cups, old windows and even the building's floorboards.
When the demolition itself took place, Dickinson said even he was surprised by how fast Bree Contracting worked. By noon on Tuesday, he said only the walls of the old racquetball court were left standing, and by the end of the day, the entire structure was nothing more than rubble.
"It was impressive how efficient that crew was. It came down quick, it was there and then it wasn't," Dickinson remarked.
While he's sad to see it go, Dickinson said he is also relieved. Since he purchased it, the building has been vandalised and broken into more than once, which was a real headache to deal with.
With this demolition now finished, Dickinson is turning his attention to the future of the property. In the next six to eight weeks, he plans to settle on a final plan with his contractor, Medico Construction & Design - Clinic Construction Contractor, who specializes in building vet clinics. Once that's done and all contracts and permits are in place, he hopes to begin work this summer to construct the outer shell of a 5,000 to 6,000 square foot facility for around $1.6 million.
"If it goes well, if it goes according to my plan, the hope would be to have the new building started and then lock up the doors, windows, roof and siding before winter. Then we have the entire winter to work on all the interior stuff, in which case we can be up there next summer," Dickinson said.
Dickinson said he hopes to get a small animal facility constructed first and then, a few years later, build a facility suitable for larger animals. His current clinic on Horse Lake Road is only about 3,600 square feet, which Dickinson said is cramped for both staff and patients. A specially built clinic will give him enough space to have separate exam rooms, surgery rooms and dental rooms for each vet.
He said once they have a new clinic, he is hopeful he will be able to attract new vets to the community to help meet the high demand for veterinary services. Dickinson would even like to build either a duplex or an apartment building where he could house visiting veterinarians or long-term veterinarians. He also plans to turn the old golf course grounds into a residential subdivision to provide 100 Mile House with some needed housing.
"This new sewer line that is going up towards the Co-Op is the top priority for development of that property. We need to make sure we're not putting too much in front of the agricultural land commission all at once," Dickinson said. "Once that line is in place, it's fully approved, it will probably make sense to approach the Agricultural Land Commission and ask for an exclusion on that property. If we can develop that residential, that would be my goal."
