For economic development types, the story of how Vancouver Island's oft-overlooked Sooke snared itself a hotel and convention centre is the stuff of dreams.
And as Coast politicians, business people and community members gathered at the Seaside Centre June 30, at a District of Sechelt-hosted event to hear how Sooke pulled it off - and how, by extension, the Coast could follow suit - the excitement in the room was palpable.
Evan Parliament, Sooke's chief administrative officer and economic development officer, spoke of how the once-farming and logging community decided, a few years back, to re-invent itself. The vision, he said, was to become an ecotourism destination. The strategy was to attract a hotel and convention centre to a town with only B&Bs. And the method couldn't be conventional.
"Sooke has been called every name in the book: End of the Line, Distant Cousin, Forgotten Child, Outside of Victoria on the Road to Nowhere," he said. "We knew we had to do something innovative to succeed."
First, Sooke dispatched letters to eight hoteliers, inviting them to come visit the District - on Sooke's dime.
"That move alone set the tone - how serious we were," he said.
Two responded to the letters; one, Prestige Hotels & Resorts, actually came for a visit.
But Parliament said it wasn't until Sooke learned of a project in Salmon Arm - where the local government partnered with Prestige to build a hotel and convention centre - that a deal began emerge.
In 2001, Salmon Arm made a deal to provide a total of $500,000 to Prestige over five years in return for pre-booked conference space. The five-year term sidestepped a referendum.
"We weren't the guinea pig. The guinea pig was Salmon Arm," Parliament said, explaining that Sooke took the Salmon Arm deal and "upped" it to make the 122-room hotel and conference centre happen.
The "upped" Sooke deal gave Prestige a total of $1.5 million over five years in return for 12 days a month of pre-booked conference space - which Sooke decided to provide free to not-for-profits, most of whom would then book rooms and spend tourist dollars in town. That $1.5 million cost, he said, was equivalent to a six per cent tax increase for Sooke.
And then Sooke got even more creative, purchasing an acre of waterfront property adjoining the new hotel development to create a long-desired public boat launch. The town's old boat launch, he said, had lost its public access when sold to a new owner; bumper stickers in the town read "Give me my public boat launch."
The land plus boat launch construction was set to cost $2.5 million, but by sole-sourcing the project to the hotel company and applying for a federal stimulus grant, Sooke was able to knock its contribution down by half.
"Our total cost for our boat launch was 50 cent dollars - that's how we sold it [to the community]," he said.
Now, with the hotel and convention centre set to open next spring, Sooke already has eight conferences booked.
"This hasn't been easy, but it's been worth it," Parliament said.
Responding to the presentation, Coast Community Builders Association president Clark Hamilton, Sechelt & District Chamber of Commerce president Jim Cleghorn, Sunshine Coast Tourism president Judy Spears and economic development officer Michael McLaughlin commended Sooke for its vision and spoke of what a hotel and convention centre could mean for the Coast - including growing the Coast's off-season tourism.
McLaughlin noted that conventions would attract a new tourist demographic for the Coast - people who spend up to four times as much as "rubber tire" travellers, and whose glowing recommendations could prove more effective at raising the Coast's profile than any destination-marketing scheme. He added that a convention centre could boost other Coast projects, such as a regional airport.
"It's the kind of thing we dream about here, and there's no reason why it can't happen here," Hamilton said.
