570.646.1429
Bushkill Group Hires Local Contractors to Complete $2.5 Million Refurbishment Project
BUSHILL, PA - Bushkill Group, Inc., a locally owned company that operates Fernwood Hotel and Resort, The Villas at Tree Tops and Fairway®, and Minisink Financial, has announced the launch of a capital improvement project, spending over $2.5 million dollars using local contractors. Gina Bertucci, spokesperson for Bushkill Group, said, "Since our purchase of Fernwood and The Villas just over a year ago, we have been putting together a capital improvement plan and identified villa maintenance as a priority. Once we established how much to spend on phase one, we then went through our villas and identified how to best spend that money. In the end, it came out to just over one third of our 650 villas receiving improvements in this phase."
Bertucci continues, "This ambitious undertaking also needed to be achieved in times that are traditionally less busy at the resort. To get all of it done prior to the busy summer season, we put the job out to bid and identified as many local contractors as possible that met our criteria. As the project builds momentum, we hope to have many separate contractors working simultaneously." The contractors thus far include Potcher Construction of Stroudsburg, PA; Richard Henry Construction of Pocono Pines, PA; and Crestwood Homes & Restoration of East Stroudsburg, PA.
Fernwood Hotel and Resort is a 440-acre destination resort property that has been providing vacation and corporate retreats for over 85 years. It is one of the largest independent vacation ownership resorts in the Mid-Atlantic region with over 17,000 owners and offers four seasons of amenities and activities including four themed restaurants, an 18 hole par 71 golf course, a Winter Fun Center, villa and hotel accommodations, live entertainment, canoeing on the Delaware River, year-round horseback riding, daily scheduled activities, two gift shops, a fitness center with massage therapy, and a children's Game Zone. Its Food Court includes Pizza Hut, Cinnabon and Carvel. It is one of three applicants for a Pennsylvania Category 3 Gaming License and has over 500,000 guests passing through its facilities annually. It borders the 68,000 acre Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and employs over 400 people from throughout Monroe, Pike and Lackawana counties. The current ownership, comprised of executives who worked for the company prior to purchase, bought the resort from UK based Rank Group at the end of 2006.
Bertucci concludes, "Time is of the essence. Thanks to the work ethic of our employees and local contractors, we believe the project will be a great success. Our owners and guests will see significant improvements, and we have been able to employ local labor using goods purchased from local businesses."
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Contact: Gina Bertucci 570-588-6661 ext. 2118 eMail gbertucci@bushkillgroup.com FAX 570-588-7112
2008/04/24