By IAN ROSS
Keric Funk had a few trepidations about establishing an upscale, chic salon in blue collar Kenora.
After working five years as a stylist at Winnipeg’s avant garde Edward Carriere Salon, the entrepreneurial bug got into the Steinbach, Man. native. He needed to escape the city and find someplace to tap into the “positive energy” of the rocks, trees and water of the Canadian Shield.
Looking to establish his own place, he became sold on the community of 15,000 on Lake of the Woods from the van-load of teachers and other clientele who regularly came into Winnipeg to get their hair done.
“We used to call Saturday, Kenora Day,” says Funk. “There were so many people that drove up, it was sort of a niche thing.”
They convinced him to bring his urbane talents and settle in northwestern Ontario. Funk quickly liquidated his assets and made the leap, moving two hours east in the fall of 2002.
These days, his trendy downtown salon, spa and boutique is a popular place.
Funk has imported some big city personal amenities offering high-end beauty products, designer accessories and body treatments like Thai massage. With a staff of 16, some appointments are booked three months in advance.
“Our generation is all about lifestyle,” says Funk, 30. “I could do business in Winnipeg, but I wanted to be five minutes from the lake.”
His cherished 21-foot power boat is moored only a few minutes walk from his Second Street shop.
Like many small town business people, he serves on the local chamber of commerce and he’s fully involved in efforts to revitalize Kenora’s postcard downtown.
Funk is part of an entrepreneurial youth movement of 20 and 30-somethings, both homegrown and from afar, who are opting for the easier pace of small town life in one of the most stunningly beautiful locations in Northern Ontario.
For this hard-luck forestry town seeking to re-brand itself as a retirement/cottage capital and a good place to do business, the municipality is only too eager to promote them.
Their innovative ‘Choose Kenora’ youth retention campaign, encouraging young people to come home and open a small business, is starting to bear fruit.
On a tour of the historic downtown core, City of Kenora economic development officer Jennifer Rasmussen gives a block-by-block commentary of some of the hip new specialty shops that have sprung up.
She talks about the city’s grandiose $25 million improvement strategy to rejuvenate the harbourfront and downtown, while offering incentives to restore many century-old heritage buildings back to its original Victorian-era character.
“Typically people who are moving here,” says Rasmussen, “grew up cottaging here, went away to university, started their career, and thought, I spent every weekend and vacation at the lake, why wouldn’t I live here?”
Since 80 per cent of Kenora’s growth will come from the within, says Rasmussen, creating a business-friendly environment, promoting a lifestyle change and accentuating the cottage country charm, will make people want to move there.
Part of that process will soon begin with a $9 million big dig on Main Street to replace aging wooden sewers, install new sidewalks and angle parking and better promotional signage on the Trans-Canada Highway bypass.
The city’s consultants say Kenora has all the natural and historic components to be a vacation destination if the enthusiasm and willingness is there.
Newcomers like Funk believe Kenora has a “ton of potential” and wants to put almost two years of community planning into action.
Forestry has always been the mainstay of the local economic engine, he says, even after the 2005 closure of the Abitibi-Consolidated pulp and paper mill and the 320 jobs lost.
“When that crumbled it really convinced the whole town to come together and work toward a new future,” says Funk. “I think we’ve just started unleashing the potential now.
“I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in the next five to 10 years.”
For other entrepreneurs like Taras Manzie, moving to Kenora to enter the hospitality business is a whole new experience.
The part-owner and chef of the Southview Inn & Bistro has expanded twice in two years and is refurbishing a 122-year-old downtown building.
Manzie is spending $100,000 on the three-storey former grocery store, gutting the interior and peeling back layers of sub-ceiling and plaster down to exposed brick.
“We’re restoring the building to its former glory,” says Manzie, in drawing on inspiration from historic photos to create a trendy groceria-type store.
The building features 14-foot ceilings and old growth Douglas-fir floor joists spanning almost 25 feet.
“There’s nothing structurally wrong with it,” says Manzie. “It’s stood the test of time.”
His new venture –Southview on Second –will be an extension of the bistro’s very successful catering business with a main floor bakery, deli, gelato and specialty coffee shop.
Upstairs will be converted into a business meeting space with fully-wired boardroom and lounge.
Manzie, who started an Ottawa-based IT company and got out just before the dot-com bust, tried the candy business with the Sugar Mountain chain before moving to Kenora, his wife and business partner Audrey’s hometown, to start their family.
He’s delved into Rotary functions, while Audrey devotes her Mondays to a local school lunch program.
While working as a commercial lender, he found the inn property in nearby Keewatin.
The couple knocked down some lakeview cabins to build a boutique-style inn. This summer, a contractor was finishing an eight-unit, motel-style addition with vaulted ceilings and exposed timbers.
Despite recent hard times in forestry, Manzie has great faith in Kenora.
“The forestry industry will always be a major player,” says Manzie, “but this is the Muskokas of the North. With the infrastructure (the city is) putting in to revitalize the downtown, there’s definite opportunity here, no doubt.”
www.kericfunk.com
www.southviewinn.ca
www.kenora.ca
