BELWOOD – An appreciation for the same piece of heritage property in Belwood has led two men to take on the “ultimate construction project."
Belwood’s historic pre-confederation built school house is now under the ownership of Jefferson Wilde, owner of Elora’s The Porch Light, and Noah Klar, owner of Guelph’s Clarity Construction Group, who have turned it into an event space called The Skol House.
The property has been largely vacant for decades. Wilde said it was a very successful restaurant before closing about 20 years ago. The school house land was also contaminated by a former gas station up the road, adding to the work needed to be done to the property.
Klar said he had other business partners interested who walked away when they saw the complexity of dealing with the heritage building and remediation work needed on it. Klar was too intrigued by the property to walk away.
“The first time I came here, it just felt like a special place,” Klar said. “I saw the listing and I was like ‘what is this castle by the lake doing 30 minutes away from me?’ I couldn’t even believe that this existed in the proximity to sort of like where I was.”
A mutual friend introduced Klar and Wilde, who was also interested in the property, and it was clear both could bring a useful set of skills to building an event space.
“Between the two of us it’s kind of a bit of a perfect partnership with a construction background and a hospitality background, it’s kind of what’s needed for something like this,” Wilde said. “That’s why it’s pretty daunting to a lot of people.”
After months of planning, permits, environmental consultation and other paperwork, the duo is ready to welcome guests for an inaugural event, a bluegrass concert on July 1.
For the time being, they are focusing on outdoor events geared towards music, art, food and drink. There is a food truck onsite, a New York City fire truck that has been converted to do wood fired pizza.
“Our current is to just operate on the outside of the building as we figure out and work towards completely restoring the building,” Wilde said, with the two later adding that restoring the inside will be a long-term project over many years. “We’re putting in a stage next week and we’re gonna start having events all summer.”
Wilde and Klar stressed they are doing their due diligence when it comes to the property and are focused on fitting in naturally to the community in the long run.
“We see it becoming a kind of world class event space eventually,” Wilde said. “I work with Riverfest so there’s quite a high level of talent that you could get into a space like this.”
But Klar acknowledged it will take a lot of work to get there and be economically fruitful for the two.
“This is kind of like the holy grail of restoration projects. It's got stone, it's all heritage, it's got an amazing history,” Klar said.
More information on the Skol House and its events can be found here.
