JOHN DAY – The old John Day hotel and opera hall may step out of the shadows of the past and into Grant County’s future.

Paul Gardner of Lake Tahoe, chief executive officer of First Resorts Management Group, bought the old hotel behind Grant County Ford. Gardner’s business is forming a spinoff corporation, John Day LTD, with the idea of building a business enterprise around the building.

“We probably will not make a decision until April with what we intend to do with the existing property we have bought,” he said.

However, a chance trip through Grant County has stimulated Gardner’s interest in developing a business here.

“We’re looking at highest and best use for the area. We’re community oriented,” he said.

Gardner rattled off enterprises that piqued his interest, including a call center, bed and breakfast, hunting lodge, manufacturing plant (possibly for mountain furniture) and even a studio for friends of his that are artists.

“We’re a very diversified company, in a lot of different directions,” he said. “Right now we’re doing a lot of research on your entire area and all of Grant County.”

“We have been in the lodging business for years,” Gardner added. First Resorts Management Group employs 150 people in Lake Tahoe, the resort area straddling the Nevada-California border southwest of Reno. The business works with billing and handling tour arrangements and lodging for a variety of clients, including churches.

“We’re looking to see what we can do in your community because we’re very impressed with it,” he said.

On a trip north, Gardner spent the night in Pendleton and was traveling back to Lake Tahoe when he stopped to have lunch at the Grubsteak restaurant. He said he was staring out the window at the old opera building, and he crossed the street to Jerry Franklin’s Century 21 realty office to inquire. Soon thereafter, his company purchased the building.

Grant County’s rural character, from the antelope and elk that Gardner encountered on his trip to the livestock industry that he learned about through inquiries, intrigued the CEO. He mentioned improvements at Blue Mountain Hospital and Grant County Regional Airport, the county’s assisted living facilities, the Grant County Fairgrounds, as well as recreational opportunities offered at places such as the John Day Golf Course and Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Area, as features of the county that appealed to him.

For now, the brainstorming will continue as Gardner and his company ponder what to do with the old John Day hotel and opera hall.

“We don’t have anything in mind at this time. We probably will be doing something in the spring,” he said.