ENGLISHTOWN, N.S. — Cabot Shores is expanding its offerings with the construction of a green-energy based events and retreat centre.
This year, the Englishtown all-season accommodation and adventure business received a $160,000 repayable contribution from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
The money has been used to implement clean technology initiatives while also developing its current facilities.
Paul Weinberg, who owns IndianBrook Adventures Inc., along with his wife Barbara, said construction has already begun on an approximately 1,600 square-foot, multi-purpose centre.
The building will feature an upstairs conference room, along with a large outdoor patio.
“There are solar panels on the ground directly in front of this new building and then the new building will continue these panels up on its roof,” said Weinberg.
“You’ll see that there’s the same slope of the panels on the ground as the panels on the roof.”
Additional sources of energy efficiency will provide heat and hot water to the multi-purpose building and to nearby Mongolian yurts and cedar soaking tubs.
“Although we have an electric boiler in the building — we have radiant heat — we’re adding a wood boiler called a GARN unit, and it’s an extremely efficient use of wood,” said Weinberg.
“We’ve been doing a lot of hot tubs where we have to change and put hot water in, and so we’ll be able to create hot water very efficiently and in a clean way.”
The Weinbergs opened the wilderness resort along the Cabot Trail on a 22-hectare property north of St. Ann’s Bay in 2004.
The resort offers traditional camping and ‘glamping’ in geo-domes or authentic Mongolian yurts, in addition to chalets and a main lodge featuring its own restaurant.
For travellers seeking the ultimate seclusion, Cabot Shores also operates a traditional farmhouse located about 12 kilometres away in Skir Dhu.
“Our guest count is increasing, and more people are coming off the road to our restaurant,” Weinberg said. “More people come from all over the world to do retreats and events, so in addition to working hard to continuously improve quality we also want to keep the costs in line with what we’re doing,” said Weinberg.
“We find over the long-term that sustainable energy is a better economic approach than just consuming all this power through the grid.”
Cabot Shores also offers hiking, yoga classes, standup paddleboarding, kayaks, along with winter adventures and fresh and salt water swimming.
Weinberg said to date Cabot Shores has hosted a wide variety of retreat guests from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles hockey team to patients of the Cape Breton Cancer Centre.
Weinberg expects the resort’s new multi-purpose space will open in January.
