Construction on Blackfish Resort gets underway

After “20 years, 4 months of working on the project,” said owner Steve O’Neill, work has started on the Blackfish Resort on Marine Drive. O’Neill told the All Point Bulletin October 25 that “We’ve just passed the first inspection,” referring to foundation work that has been recently completed at the site.

“The county has been great to work with,” he said. “We are moving forward and getting pricing on the next steps. We should be pouring concrete into the foundation forms in about three weeks.” The work has been done by Pearson Construction and keeps the permitting of the project active.

The Blackfish Resort will offer a boutique hotel, restaurant, and spa experience, a first for Point Roberts. The red building fronting Marine Drive will become a brew pub and commercial kitchen. O’Neill says the pub will comprise the first phase of the project. (See photo, page 4.)

O’Neil had been facing another kind of deadline. The county had scheduled a November 27 auction for back taxes totaling $138,415.88 on the property. O’Neill said he had “just went in to pay my back taxes on Thursday [October 19]. That felt good. Hard but good.”

O’Neill said he wasn’t ready to issue a full-scale press release on the project but promised to keep Point Roberts in the know. His son Conor has recently started his own excavation and grading company, Next-Gen Land Services LLC (nextgenlandservicesllc.com) and has been working with his father on the project.