The Golf Terrace Motel was purchased by John Bridgeford in October. The motel has had some remodeling done since then and it is ready for the influx of pipeline workers.
Bridgeford his original plans were to transition away from a motel, but for now, that’s what the Golf Terrace will continue to be. “Our original plans were to convert it into apartments, but we ran into a couple of roadblocks regarding how those changes would affect zoning and potential fire suppression issues that would’ve added a lot of cost to the project,” said Bridgeford. “We also had some built-in tenants when we first bought it as well. We had five or six long-term tenants, so we just decided to keep it as a motel for the time being. Over the past couple of weeks now, the Enbridge Pipeline got approved, and that’s brought a big influx of people to town, so for the foreseeable future, that’s our game plan.”
Bridgeford said they made a few changes in the rooms initially. “Right away, after we bought it, we started changing out windows,” said Bridgeford. “The building is fairly old, was built in the 60s, so it was in need of a little TLC. We changed all the windows in all the rooms at this point, we changed our bed linens for some updated linens, changed out a few of the beds. We also went through and painted a number of the rooms to make it look fresh and updated.”
Bridgeford said social media and the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) have helped him get off the ground. “We’ve got 17 rooms,” said Bridgeford. “A combination of one and two beds. For the most part, people have been finding us on Facebook and Google. We’ve been trying to be proactive as well, putting some posts on the Facebook site with pictures of the updated rooms. We went on some of the pipeline websites as well to get our name out. The CVB has also been helpful. They came up with a little flyer and sent that out to some Enbridge groups. I think that’s probably driven some traffic to the hotels as well.”
Bridgeford said things have been pretty busy with pipeline workers, which he hopes is the same for the other hotels as well. “We’ve had quite a few folks coming in and calling,” said Bridgeford. “We’re pretty much filled up as of right now. I think a lot of the other hotels in town are kind of seeing the same thing. At least I hope they are. There are quite a few trucks in town right now and people working up north. I think it’s a very good thing for the town and it would be great if we can get the businesses opened up, bars and restaurants and things like that to have someplace for these folks to go as well. I know that’s a state-level decision, and hopefully, that will be coming soon.”
