||| FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES |||
ORCAS ISLAND — This wasn’t a five-star summer at Rosario, the storied resort on Orcas Island that changed hands in April.
Parts of the 84-acre property remain closed, including the elegant Robert Moran mansion, completed by the former Seattle mayor in 1909.
Rooms can be booked but some guests have left scathing reviews about scarce staff, scant amenities (no pools, spa or dining room) and concierge services run by a third-party call center that seemed “completely unfamiliar with the property,” as one reviewer put it.
Locals are irked that Rosario’s new owner, Empower Investing, which paid $6.65 million for the main part of the property in April, hired only a few of the resort’s former staff and has been heavily pitching the property to investors.
Empower founder Chris Robison blames the rough start partly on the state of the aging property. In interviews last month, the 39-year-old island resident said he would be buying the remainder of the resort with plans to refurbish and reopen the property in stages under its new name, Rosario Village. He hopes locals and would-be guests can “be patient with us” in the meantime.
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I can’t think of a single reason why they decided to keep the pool closed for the entire summer. Anybody have ideas?