Thursday, March 28, 2024

New owner of former Bindlestiff cabins targets recreation use

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The former Bindlestiff cabins have changed hands again. The cabins were purchased recently by local entrepreneur Steve Demarest, who did some upgrading of the cabins, which sit on the edge of the Wenatchee River just east of the Wenatchee River Bridge in Leavenworth.  

Now, the cabins have been purchased by Outdoor Recreational Hospitality and Real Estate Company Loge Co. CEO Johannes Ariens said they are a relatively new hospitality owner and developer. 

“We both operate and develop. We buy our own properties, existing properties and add value depending on how they are. Our focus is on recreation. We referred to it as recreation driven hospitality,” Ariens said. 

Their first property in Westport is very surf oriented, Ariens said. It’s a gathering place for that community or the surfers that go out there and participate in the cold water. The Leavenworth project will be similar in theme, he said, targeted and designed for outdoor users coming to Leavenworth to enjoy the outdoors, mountain biking, hiking, skiing, river sports, etc. 

Loge Co. opened their first property on Memorial Day weekend this year. They were formed just last November. For Loge Co. it is about driving access. 

“Our brand is not a luxury brand. It is a clean, simple design. Really just trying to be a place for outdoor users. There are a ton that go out and sleep in their cars and figure it out. We’re those people too,” Ariens said. “My background is in design and construction as well as more recently learning about the real estate development world. Being a long time outdoor user, I grew up on the Olympic Peninsula, near Westport. I grew up surfing there.”

Ariens said they just started looking at properties and found the place in Westport. They did some renovation on it. Along the way, he found out it was quite an undertaking to get involved in the hospitality business. What they are learning goes beyond surf products, he said. 

“I’m honestly more of a mountain user than a surfer myself. Hey, if we can do this for surfing, then hopefully we can apply this to other sports. It’s a lot of the same people looking for the same things. Really just driving access in recreation giving community a place to stay,” Ariens said. 

Westport is basically a fishing community, not a big tourist destination place, he said. There is a large surf community that goes out there year round. No was was really serving them. 

“That was sort of what drove it. There were places for them to stay, some really crappy. There were some small, but very noticeable challenges like putting on a cold, cold wet suit. So we put in a wet suit dryer that dries your wet suit overnight,” Ariens said. “Board storage, covered campsites, cafe, bar. We have a full stage where we have live music every weekend throughout the course of the summer. It’s something to do. It’s a long drive. A lot of people would try a day trip, which is pretty brutal.”

Their hypothesis was if there was something cool and a nice place to hang out, would these people stay? The answer was yes. 

“It’s just fun to hang out. We have a bunch of fire pits, barbecues. People just enjoy hanging out with other people that are there for the same reasons because they are passionate about surfing,” Ariens said. “In Leavenworth, there are tons of places to stay obviously, but for us, it’s about bringing like minded people together that are experiencing the same thing and adding value to them through our other guests.”

Ariens actually found the Leavenworth location through a friendly relationship they have with Jessie Boyd at the Bavarian Lodge. Since they started, Leavenworth was number two on their list of places they wanted to go, but it was a tough market to get into. 

They ended up driving around Leavenworth with Boyd. 

“He said that place was cool but it wasn’t for sale. It was a sweet spot. It could really work out for our band, small, unique, right on the river,” Ariens said. “I could see why someone who liked the outdoors would stay here, with the river access. That was about the extent of it. I started looking at some other places. When I had pulled it, turned out it had just been sold to a new owner. I reached out to him.”

Even though Demarest planned on running and operating it, Ariens was able to convince him their brand really speaks to the property and lines up well. 

“We asked if they would consider letting us run it, buy it from you. They are doing well on the deal just turning it over to us. Ultimately, we can maximize on it and they still do really well on the deal,” Ariens said. 

The property is now called the The Loge in Leavenworth. Ariens said they are not going to change the property. “There is a solid remodel of all the cabins, so they are good to go. There are split units with high efficiency heat and AC. There is a fire ring area and river access. We’ll probably put in an outdoor kitchen space, more barbecues. Mainly, these meeting spaces around the site, maybe a couple more fire pits and barbecues. We’ll keep the main one right by the river,” Ariens said. “We’re looking at doing a small hostel, which we hope to have online by March. We’re going to put that in the main building that is already existing.”

They will be upgrading some of the cabins, or as they call it, Loge-ifying them. They are changing all the locks so they connected to a wifi system. They’ll add in-room retail, which includes a lot of Loge Co. apparel. 

Some of the furnishings will be upgraded to something more modern, not super modern, but a little more design forward. Some of the art will change. 

“We want to turn the whole property into an avalanche transceiver training park. That would be open to on-and-off site guests. We would have back country access. We’ll have a safety education board for backcountry travel. We’ll demo the transceivers, so you can come out and try the different types,” Ariens said. “That will be a unique thing, cool not just for our users, but for the community. We can host an avalanche training weekend.”

There will be some live music, but not on the same scale as their Westport facility. 

“We don’t have a lot of room for parking and that sort of thing. We’ll probably do some small acoustic sessions. We’ve had a ton of success with that at Westport, but our property there is a lot bigger. Full bands play there, but the property size doesn’t permit,” Ariens said.  

The property is located at 11798 U.S. Highway 2. You can book a room through  www.logecamps.com/leavenworth-wa/

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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