Showalter RV to Open Upscale Indiana Resort Next Spring – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
Initial groundwork has just gotten underway on an expansive new 230-site North Trace RV Resort LLC, an upscale development near northern Indiana’s Lake Wawasee spearheaded by Nappanee, Ind.-based RV dealer Steve Showalter in the nearby community of Syracuse.
As a matter of fact, inquiries are already being received from area RV builders regarding availability of the County Road #29 facilities for owner rallies, according to Showalter, who’s spearheading the project. He says the projected grand opening for the first 82-site phase is set for next spring while initial reservations are to be accepted this fall.
“I’m excited about it, even though it has taken a little bit longer than expected to get going,” said Showalter, owner of Showalter RV Sales & Rentals, who says the whole resort project is a byproduct of he and his wife Junell’s personal RV enjoyment.
“We’re big RV enthusiasts ourselves,” stated Showalter, who got his start in the RV rental business in 2015 and now sells towable and used motorized RV’s at his upscale dealership a few miles away. “We really like them. We became accustomed to them and enjoy resort-style parks even though there’s not any around here yet.”
Resort-style parks like you’d run across in northern Michigan tend to feature paved streets, concrete pads, pools, full hookup and gated, nice, safe, clean environments. “And there’s some beautiful places in Florida,” he said, “but just nothing really right around here. So, we just felt like it’s an opportunity for us to invest in our community.”
And it makes additional sense to be located in northern Indiana in that so many RV owners from around the country tend to visit the area near the RV-building center of Elkhart County for service. There’s also a pretty strong demand among consumers for enthusiast rallies for which North Trace will be incorporating an event center. “We’ve had several manufacturers reach out and said they wanted to have rallies at the resort,” added Showalter. “Well, for that, you need a nice event center. You need a place where you can bring 250 people and serve dinner.”
Plans call for the resort to be built in three phases, the first phase including an office, event center, fitness center, pickleball court, dog park, maintenance building, four of the 18 cabins and 82 sites in the southern portion of the resort’s 46 acres. Phase two will involve a pool and 89 additional sites while the final 59-site segment will be on the north side.
The concrete pads throughout will be 20-foot wide and 65-foot deep with 25 feet of grass between them, and there will be other landscaping throughout plus “buddy sites” where two RVs face each other for RVers and friends. Each site will have water, sewer and 50-amp hookups. There will also be pull-through sites for those hauling vehicles behind their units.
“We will have a sidewalk that runs into town so people can walk and ride their bikes to town,” added Showalter, noting that plans call for the park to open from April to October. “We want to promote the town of Syracuse to our visitors. We want them to go there and use the restaurants.”
There will be a privacy fence around the resort, which will be gated with a pass code for accessing the facilities, and there won’t be any permanent-style long-term campers, although visitors are welcome to spend a week, a month or whole season. “So, this is only going to be short-term RVing.,” he said. “We’re not going to be building sheds and decks and we’re not putting trailers there and leaving them all year. That’s not what we’re trying to do here.
By Deb Patterson, Editor-in-Chief. The Papers Incorporated
