The Wonderland Valley Resort has been sold.
As of June 2, the owner of the resort, Craig Davidiuk, and his young family will be packing the last of their belongings and heading to 100 Mile House. Davidiuk said he is part of a wave of people he knows – about eight he can list off the top of his head – who are packing up and moving away from Squamish.
Wonderland, located on Depot Road at the north end of Squamish, includes 50 campsites and five lodge rooms. The property’s new owners, from Toronto, are keen about mountain biking and will keep the site as a mountain bike-centred campground, Davidiuk said.
“That’s why we chose them, actually,” he said. “We were pretty committed to finding someone who was going to keep it a campground.”
Davidiuk said he thinks the new owners will be able to take the campsite to the next level, something he wasn’t able to do with limited resources and time.
The campground’s bookings have increased greatly year over year, he said, and the new owners will likely want to expand.
“The main reason we are selling is, with the real estate market conditions the way they are, the value of our land appreciated quickly and we had a chance to make a graceful exit,” Davidiuk said.
He said he is leaving with a positive feeling about both the campground and Squamish.
“I am quite happy and proud of what I accomplished here,” he said. “It was a really cool time to be in Squamish.”
Davidiuk, 44, and his spouse, Courtney Driver, bought the campground on April 1, 2014. Davidiuk did not say at what price the 1796 Depot Rd. property sold; it was previously marketed by a local real estate company at $1.1 million.
The other reason for the sale was the changes following the birth of their son, Arlo, last year, Davidiuk said. “It is part of a life restructuring,” he said, adding maintaining the campground is a lot of work, up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week during the summer months.
“We just don’t want to pay someone to raise our kid while we work 100 bazillion hours a week running two companies,” he said.
The couple will now devote more time to their online promotional products business, he said, which has been put on the backburner while they worked the campground. The couple is renting out their home in Squamish and on June 3, leaving for 100 Mile House, where they can be closer to relatives and live a calmer life – like the one Davidiuk said he used to have in Squamish, especially when he first moved to the district in 2002.
“I really enjoy recreating at a lake on a sunny day and now you can’t even park near a lake and just the amount of people there,” he said. “It is not as much fun anymore.”
In 100 Mile House, things are just starting to percolate, he said. “It is still a pretty small rough-and-tumble town, and that is kind of fun.”
