Voyageurs’ Lodge for sale as O’Connors plan to retire

Frank and Gail O’Connor, owners of the popular Voyageurs’ Lodge and Cookhouse on Highway 17 at Batchawana Bay, have put their business up for sale.

The decision to sell after 19 years of running the restaurant, lodge, general store and gas pumps has nothing to do with the ravaging effects of COVID-19 restrictions or ‘the cost of doing business.’

It’s simply the right time, said Frank O’Connor, speaking to SooToday.

“We realized that we’re turning 60. We have grandchildren and we’re hoping we’re going to have more grandchildren, and we said if the selling process takes a couple of years we need to get started now.”

“Now’s the time to do it,” O’Connor said.

Until a buyer comes along, the O’Connors are raring to go for what they hope will be a busy, successful summer once the province lifts the current stay at home order.

“We’re doing fine, but it’s just a pain we can’t be fully open. I don’t have my gift shop open. I don’t have my restaurant fully opened. Our motel’s selling three rooms a night right now when I should be selling nine or 10,” O’Connor said.

“But as soon as the lockdown’s over, that is just going to go through the roof. We’re fully booked up for the summer.”

“We have a great staff in place who we’re assuming would continue operating the business with any new owner because they’re the superstars that make this place click.”

Of his staff, O’Connor said “these folks have stuck with us. We started out with six staff and we had 48 on the payroll last year. We have a lot of staff but the core is from Batchawana Bay, and these folks have stuck with us. Kim Pickard, our head cook, has been here the whole 19 years.”

The O’Connors bought the business, established in the 1960s, from its original owners in 2003.

“We’ve loved it,” O’Connor said, reflecting on the years he and wife Gail have run the restaurant and lodge.

“On day one, when we opened March 30, 2003, we had an ice storm that closed the highway down for the day. We were petrified. But an MTO official said ‘when the highway closes, you’re going to be busy,’ because the traffic backed up right here,” he recalled.

The O’Connors have built many relationships over the years through running the restaurant and lodge. 

“All of our friends are lodge friends. We’ve met people from every continent on the planet. We have friends from every province in this country and every state in the U.S. Everyone knows Frank and Gail as ‘the voyageurs.’ That’s what our identity has become and our brand has really grown over the years and been very successful.”

Though the O’Connors feel it’s the right time to retire, it’s a little sad to be leaving the business, Frank said.

“It’s become our way of life and it’s become our identity in the community and in Canada. People on the North Shore know us as ‘the voyageurs,’ so certainly it’ll be very difficult if the day comes when an offer were to be made and it was realized in the form of a sale, but for us right now we’re at a point in our lives where the focus is on family. We’ve both been working in tourism since we were 18 years old.”

Frank is a Sault native.

Gail was born in southern Ontario but has lived in Batchawana Bay for most of her life, both Frank and Gail having business degrees.

The couple worked in London, Ontario for a period, Frank as a teacher who helped design business courses for the provincial education system, Gail as a business administrator for a large Catholic parish in London.

The couple then returned to the north and bought the restaurant and lodge.

“We knew this location had potential, so we went for it,” Frank said.

The O’Connors live on site at the lodge, planning to eventually relocate to Havilland Bay upon retirement.

Frank said that apart from enjoying the great outdoors in his spare time, he also has plans to write.

“I have several ideas...either something in the business realm or something fictional.”  

He said Gail has opportunities to write for the tourism industry.

The O’Connors also plan to winter in Costa Rica and travel to Europe, especially Ireland and Italy.

The O’Connors have won numerous awards for their work at the lodge.

“Our first one was a Chamber award for business of the year, and then that same year we won the tourism award for tourist business of the year.”

The secret to the O’Connors’ success?

“Smiling and making a good product,” Frank said.