Mason County’s venerable Alderbrook Resort is in the midst of a major reconstruction. The fabled Hood Canal resort, which hosted such famous guests as Clark Gable, will become a year-round facility after the work, which includes moving Highway 106, is finished. North Forty Lodging LLC, the Kirkland-based partnership that bought Alderbrook, hopes to reopen the 98-room resort in time for Memorial Day, 2004.

Perhaps the most monumental part of the project involves moving a half-mile stretch of Highway 106, which runs next to the hotel and conference center and separates it from the parking lot. The highway will be re-routed to an area behind the parking lot and administrative buildings. Guests will enter through a flagstone-paved portico and into the lobby, which will boast a massive stone fireplace.

The firm purchased the 80-acre resort last year from Christa Ministries announcing it would renovate the facility. The extent of that renovation was unveiled just recently, with plans calling for the restoration of the Hood Canal hideaway that will transform it from a summer family playground into a year-round destination resort.

The project includes tearing down two of the three buildings that house guest rooms, remodeling its 21 guest cottages, gutting the main lodge, expanding its restaurant and oyster bar, and adding a new full-service beauty spa and fitness center. Included in upgrade is an 8,000-square-foot conference facility featuring wireless Internet service. The renovation is projected to cost in excess of $12 million.

When complete, the resort, which offers stunning views of the Olympic Mountains from the shores of Hood Canal, will have new outdoor areas to take advantage of summer weather but also encompass a fully enclosed single structure to shield guests from the winter climate.

Obtaining the necessary permits and completing the highway engineering postponed the reopening, which at the time North Forty purchased the property, had been predicted for October.

A spokesperson for North Forty said business retreats and conferences are expected to make up 50 to 65 percent of the resort’s business and should offset the decline of vacationers in the off-season.

Along with the highway reconstruction, extensive improvements to the salmon habitat on Alderbrook Creek, which runs alongside the property will also be made, and it is hoped the beach can be opened to shellfishing.

The reconstruction has had a tremendous ripple effect on the Union-area economy however. Alderbrook is one of the largest employers in North Mason County and accounted for more than half of all the hotel-motel tax receipts in Mason County when it was open.

Two nearby gift shops that depend on resort traffic have closed since the resort shut down. But a revitalized Alderbrook should create additional business for the town of Union and the whole south canal area according to state Sen. Tim Sheldon (D-Potlatch) — who when he isn’t serving in the Senate, heads up Mason County’s economic development council.

MTM, the management company hired by North Forty, operated the resort for nine months after the initial purchase. After the resort closed, some of the roughly 70 employees went to work for MTM, which also runs the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle and Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine among other properties.

Once Alderbrook reopens, MTM expects to increase the staff to between 110 and 130 employees.

Alderbrook originally opened 1913, when the only way to get to it was by steamer ships. During its heyday from the 1950s to the late 70s, the resort was owned by the late Wes Johnson, who also developed the 18-hole Alderbrook Golf Course.

Seattle-based Crista Ministries bought the resort, golf course, and water company from Johnson’s estate for $5.75 million in 1998 and spent almost $2 million on renovations.

But the business model of mixing Crista’s evangelical Christian mission with the hospitality industry didn’t really work. Some of that was blamed on the fact that no alcohol was served in the four-star restaurant and the busy lounge had been shuttered altogether.

Crista later sold off the water company, sold the golf course to the homeowners’ association for $1.3 million, and the inn to the North Forty group — which includes Jeff and Patricia Raikes, neighbors of the resort — for $2.4 million.

The resort also has several elite Seattleites as neighbors, including Bill and Melinda Gates who keep a summer home right next-door and the Nordstroms who have one within sight of Alderbrook.