In 2019, Dan and Kellie Francis took ownership of the Wilds Resort & Campground, on Shell Lake, east of Detroit Lakes.
Yes, this couple’s dreams came true! But it’s not like a plot from a Hallmark movie. They did their homework on resort ownership, talked to dozens of resort owners and lined up the finances.
But they needed a little boost. Enter a consultant, West Central Initiative (WCI) – and an unexpected reunion.
“We needed to have someone help us present a package to the bank, so they wouldn’t just laugh us out of the place before we had a chance to consider giving us a loan,” Dan said, explaining how they worked with a consultant to seal the deal. “He helped us big time through the process.”
It’s a process that started months earlier. “We were probably camping most every weekend the summer before,” Kellie explains. “One weekend we stayed at a resort and a couple, just a few years older than us, had just bought the place. The husband was building picnic tables and then Dan wanted to build picnic tables.”
Dan smiles. “I worked with my Dad in construction since I could swing a hammer and I did some time on the oil rigs.” Dan also served in the military. “We both wanted a change in our jobs,” he said, “So after that weekend, we talked about it and started searching online for resorts for sale.”
They drove by a few in the area but didn’t like what they saw. Then they heard about a resort owners’ group and decided to attend the group’s fall conference. “We wanted to learn about it from other resort owners to see if we would be more interested in pursuing, dropping it, or if we can actually handle it,” Dan said.
They were thinking about building a resort from the ground up on Dan’s parents’ land. “When we introduced ourselves at the beginning of the conference and said we were considering building a resort from scratch, the room filled with an immediate reaction of ‘oooooooooooh,’ because they knew the amount of work that would entail,” Kellie smiles. “It was like a collective gasp of shock from the group of seasoned resort owners,” Dan adds. “We totally understand that now. Working on an existing one is hard enough.”
They decided to forget building new, worked with a realtor, and found a resort for sale that really excited them: The Wilds. Their consultant helped get the purchase numbers working, but they needed a little extra for the down payment. “So the guy helping us told us about West Central Initiative,” Dan said.
West Central Initiative Helps Make the Dream Real
For more than 35 years, WCI has provided what is called “gap financing” – that little extra boost – to help dozens of similar dreams come true throughout the nine counties of west central Minnesota. Dan and Kellie said working with WCI was the smoothest part of the whole process.
There was also that unexpected reunion.
During the signing of the WCI gap loan, “I didn’t realize it was Captain Wagner (who they were working with),” Dan laughs. Dan and Greg Wagner, WCI’s Director of Business and Economic Development, were in the Army National Guard and served together. “That was a kinda neat surprise,” Dan said.
Would they recommend WCI? “Definitely, because we wouldn’t have been able to have this place without that part of it,” Kellie said. “We didn’t know that you could even get gap financing.” Dan adds, “I would say thank you to West Central Initiative for helping us through this process because they were awesome. They made it pretty easy,”
It was easy because they were prepared, WCI’s Greg Wagner said. “When we received the gap financing request from Dan and Kellie, it was very clear that they had done their homework and given a great deal of thought to what it meant to take on owning their own business, in this case a resort.” He added that their level of planning made the review much easier. “And because Dan is a Veteran, we were able to use WCI’s Veteran’s Loan Program, and reduce some of their upfront closing costs,” Wagner added. “It was a cool outcome that this project allowed me to work with someone I had previously served with.”
Dan and Kellie are thankful they could stay near their hometown of Detroit Lakes. Why stay? “Our kids,” Kellie said. “We have ties here and we’ve always loved this area.”
“I was her first kiss back when we were 14 years old,” Dan smiles.
OK, now we can see that Hallmark movie!
