With new owners and renovation plans already in the works, Marina Cay Resort is poised for a strong future in Bigfork.

A group of investors from Central Montana called ELK LLC, including state senators Ed Buttrey of Great Falls and Llew Jones of Conrad and Valier businessman Ken Wheeler, bought the resort’s commercial assets earlier this month from Bay Club Inc.

Bay Club is a family corporation involving Suzie Judge and her sons, Don and Fred Sterhan. Bay Club retained a small share of ownership.

Fred Sterhan, who began as general manager of Marina Cay in 1990 and continued to manage the resort after his family partnership purchased it in 1992 from original developer Dan Averill, will stay on as resort manager.

“We wanted a group who had the vision to realize the potential of the resort,” Sterhan said, adding that the financial strength ELK brings to the business will carry it into the future.

Sterhan said he has been friends with Buttrey for years. Buttrey started Cable Technology Inc. at Creston a number of years ago and grew it into a successful business before moving the operation to Great Falls.

“His family has a long history in Montana; all these folks do,” Sterhan said of the new resort owners.

Sterhan and the ELK partners spent several months hammering out the details of the acquisition. He said Glacier Bank was instrumental in putting together the financing to move the sale forward.

Bay Club was ready to upgrade the resort in 2008 and already had begun scaling back conventions, meetings and food and beverage services. The plan was to raze the main resort building containing the offices and meeting space. But then the recession set in and “everything stopped,” Sterhan said.

They shelved the renovation plans, and operations that had been downsized remained closed.

“It’s been a rough three to four years for a lot of people,” Sterhan said. “In the last several years, the food and beverage [services] have been running at limited capacity and seasonally.”

Now the new owners are ready to put the property back into full operational mode. Plans to demolish the main building will remain mothballed for now, but renovations will commence shortly, Sterhan said, including a new roof and updated exterior facade “to increase curb appeal.” By June, Marina Cay will be fully functional once again and will operate as a year-round resort.

ELK issued a statement last week, saying it plans to “start an immediate and aggressive plan to market and update the property to benefit all users of the resort.

“We saw real value in Marina Cay and what it provides to the community of Bigfork and the Flathead Valley,” the new owners stated.

Beefing up the resort marketing and amenities will mean an increased work force, Sterhan said. In 2000 when the local economy was much stronger, Marina Cay employed 90 to 110 people. The past couple of years the summer staff has been about 55 employees. Sterhan sees that increasing to 75 to 85 yet this year, with an uptick to about 90 employees by 2013.

Beyond the commercial applications of the resort that ELK purchased, which include the swimming pool, Tiki Bar, Champs Sports Pub & Grill, offices, convention and facilities and boat slips, there are two condominium developments within Marina Cay.

“ELK bought everything but the condos,” Sterhan explained. “We have management contracts with the condo owners to rent [their properties] as guest rooms. It’s a common arrangement.”

Averill began developing the resort in the early 1980s, and by 1995 Marina Cay encompassed five condominium buildings. The Marina Cay Homeowners Association operates those five buildings. They offer 93 units totaling 83,000 square feet.

Bay Club developed Marina Cay Estates a number of years ago, and those 22 high-end condos, totaling 43,000 square feet, are operated by a separate homeowners’ association, Sterhan said.

Improvements to the condo buildings are governed by the homeowners associations, and homeowners bear those costs.

“There are a lot of moving parts to this,” Sterhan said about the resort structure.

He estimated that Marina Cay’s guest accommodations total the equivalent of more than 400 hotel rooms spread over nine acres. The resort remains one of the premier facilities in the Flathead Valley.

“One of our strongest months was last August,” Sterhan said, encouraged about a rebound in the economy. “We’re going in the right direction.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.