Waubee Lake Lodge To Open Thursday, Aug. 13 After being closed for six months, Waubee Lodge in Lakewood will reopen Thursday, Aug. 13, with new owners and a slightly new name. The 30,000 square foot resort/dining/banquet hall facility has been purchased by Russ and Mary Kralovetz and will now be known as Waubee Lake Lodge.
Waubee Lake Lodge, with 250 feet of frontage on Waubee Lake, is located at 18398 Waubee Park Lane, just off Oconto County Hwy. F a bit east of Lakewood and about 25 miles west of Wausaukee via Marinette County Hwy. C to F through Silver Cliff.
Russ and Mary, with the help of their son, James, will continue to own and operate the popular Woods Supper Club and Trillium banquet hall at the junction of Kottke and Newton Lake roads just west of Crivitz.
The new facility will be open to the public for fine dining and relaxation seven days week. Hotel suites and cabins may be rented by the day or by the week, and banquet and meeting room facilities are available for weddings, business meetings, and other large gatherings. Russ and Mary plan a grand opening some time in September.
The famed old Waubee Lodge was destroyed by fire in 2005. At the time it was owned by Tom Wurzer. A corporation in California took over ownership in 2006 and began reconstruction. The work was completed in late spring of 2007 and the new lodge was opened.
A large, luxurious log building with the rustic flavor of the northwoods, quality construction and every amenity possible, the new Waubee Lodge fulfilled a dream.
The facility includes 17 condo-type suites, two cottages, two bars, fine dining indoors and out on the patio, a massive fresh water aquarium, and a large ground-level banquet hall which can accommodate 250 guests with an adjoining outdoor patio for 100 additional guests. The lodge can accommodate lakeside weddings, Kralovetz said.
On the lakefront there are 10 piers for boaters.
Three of the hotel condo rooms have large corner whirlpool tubs. Most have fire places. There are also guest laundry facilities and an exercise room.
Waubee Lodge was operated by Nowakowski Properties in California until Feb. 15, 2009. With the passing of the founder, Leonard Nowakowski, in early 2008, plus the distance and economic outlook, it was decided to close Waube Lodge. The last day of operation was Feb. 15, 2009.
The next day one of the vendors mentioned to Kralovetz that Waubee Lodge had closed. Russ went there to see if some of the weddings booked there could be contracted over to The Woods.
He picked up four weddings and an idea.
The idea grew.
Intermittently both Russ and Mary separately took trips there, and the more they visited, the more they fell in love with the place. Mary in particular loved the building and the atmosphere.
A happily married couple for many years as well as cany business partners, Russ and Mary kept talking and dreaming about Waubee Lodge. They wondered if it would be wise to have another banquet hall. They wondered if they could handle the work.
In March they went back to get more information on the wedding banquets and learned the lodge had been listed for sale with Hilgenberg Realty of Shawano. They went home, did some research on the Internet,and called Terry Hilgenberg at Shawano. Then they contacted Bank North.
“We love a challenge. We wanted to try,” Russ said.
Things began happening very quickly. On May 1 they made an offer, and it was accepted. At the same time, the Woods got very busy. Russ and Mary wondered if they could handle everything. Too much money? Too much risk? Too much work? They got cold feet and decided to back out.
About a month later, Hilgenberg called back and asked them to reconsider. They were offered additional incentives within five days, but a quick decision was essential.
Bank North President Jerry Schmidt and loan officer John Llinas toured the Waubee facilities. “Both men were in awe,” Kralovetz declared. Financing was tentatively arranged.
In mid-July, Russ and Mary made another offer. That offer was accepted, financing was arranged through Bank North, and closing was set for Monday, Aug. 10. That evening Lakewood Town Board approved the license application, and as of Tuesday, Aug. 11, everything was in place to open on Thursday, Russ said.
Time to prepare for Saturday’s wedding, their first in the new lodge, is short but sufficient, he and Mary agree. It will be held in the lower level banquet hall, a facility with separate full kitchen and seating for 250 guests. Upstairs, the 120-capacity dining room will be open to the public, as will the bar.
Russ said there is plenty of room for parking, and he is pleased that the purchase package includes a generator with sufficient output to keep the whole place going in case of a power outage, which does happen up in the north woods.
Russ and Mary say their plan to work back and forth between Waubee Lake Lodge and The Woods will work out with the help of James and “a great staff at the Woods.” They plan to hire 20 to 35 people to assist at Waubee Lake lodge. Anyone wishing more information may contact Russ or Mary at 715-276-6091.
Russ and Mary are not new to the hospitality business, but this is their first venture into the lodging industry. They have owned and operated the Trillium in the Woods since spring of 2007. They continue to own and operate the Sportsman’s Cafe on County X near Stephenson Town Hall, and Vacationland Fun Park which they built across the road in 1991. Two years ago they sold the ice cream stand adjacent to Vacationland.
Russ and Mary both attended Crivitz schools and were high school sweethearts. He graduated in 1976 and Mary (the former Mary Kaiser) graduated in 1978.
You could say Russ was born into the hospitality business, that it’s his family heritage. His parents owned and operated Hilltop Resort. He is the fourth generation of a family involved in similar businesses in the Crivitz/Marinette County area, and even farther back his forefathers owned businesses in the Coleman/Klondike area.
Involvement of the Kralovetz family and their ancestors in area businesses started back in the logging days, when Kralovetzes owned taverns, farms and a cheese factory in the Coleman/Klondike area. In the early 1900s, a great-great-grandfather owned a popular tavern in Klondike with a dance hall upstairs.
In 1939, great grandparents, Cora and August Kollath, opened a business known as Twin Bridge Resort. (The business that today is called Twin Bridge Resort was Thom’s Resort at that time.) Eventually the Kollath’s daughter and son-in-law, Lorraine and Hank Kralovetz, took over the family business and changed the name to Hilltop Resort. Then it was operated by their son and daughter-in-law, Jim and Joan Kralovetz, before their son Keith took over and Russ, another son, embarked on his own business ventures.
The Russ Kralovetz family of today includes Russ and Mary; with son, James and wife Amanda and their daughters, Serenity and Summer; and daughter Jessica, and her three daughters, Olivia, Carlie and Ava.
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Yes
No
Undecided
