Lou Biffis, who built the Nottawasaga Inn Resort and Conference Centre into a cornerstone tourism draw for the Alliston area, has died.
Drury Funeral Centre announced Luigi Giacobbe “Lou” Biffis died on Jan. 8, as part of an obituary posted to its website Wednesday.
Biffis immigrated to Canada in 1953 and six years later purchased the land that was to become the Inn. Originally used to produce the first nursery-grown sod in Ontario, it was here he planned to construct a resort that would take advantage of the river location and the rolling hills of the Nottawasaga Valley.
According to a page on the Inn website, Biffis drained the marshy area and then built a cable-supported bridge over the Nottawasaga River, before a friend bet him one bottle of Canadian Club whisky that he could not obtain a liquor licence in the former Township of Tecumseth, which had been dry since 1907.
Biffis worked on a petition for a liquor plebiscite in 1967, garnering enough support within six months to make it valid. The plebiscite was won in November of that year, and construction on the resort started weeks later.
The Inn opened in 1968 with 40 guest rooms, a dining room, coffee shop and banquet facility. An international-sized soccer field was added in 1977.
Over the next three decades, the family-operated site underwent major expansions and it now includes a golf course, more guest rooms, a 70,000-square-foot sports and leisure dome, and the Centre Ice Sportsplex that features two NHL-sized pads.
Biffis also led the way on the construction of the Green Briar and Briar Hill adult-lifestyle communities.
And he has received a permanent star on Toronto’s Italian Walk of Fame and an honorary diploma from Georgian College.
“We are sorry for the loss,” Barry and Donna Jebb said, in a tribute posted to the Drury site. “He certainly will be missed but not forgotten. Thinking and praying for you all at this time.”
Biffis also made a point of giving back to the community. In 1988, the Inn began assisting with Stevenson Memorial Hospital fundraisers and by 2000 it had helped bring some necessary pieces of equipment to the health centre.
In 2001, the Biffis and Lombardi families established the Nottawasaga Foundation, with the goal of supporting local charities that “provide invaluable service to the community,” the foundation’s website says.
“To the entire Biffis and Lombardi families, our deepest sympathies,” foundation board member Steve Jones wrote on behalf of his own family. “We are devastated and will feel this loss for a long time.”
To date, the foundation has raised more than $7.2 million through a one-day golf tournament for Simcoe County-based charities including the Sir Frederick Banting Homestead, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Hospice Simcoe, and Children’s Aid, Alzheimer and Canadian Cancer societies.
It also continued raising money for the hospital, making donations toward emergency room upgrades, the urology centre, the purchase of dialysis machines, and a digital mammography machine. In 2017, the foundation pledged $1 million toward the redevelopment of the hospital.
Community Living Association for South Simcoe (CLASS) staff member Nancy DeLuca recalls talking to Biffis several times at CLASS's annual golf tournament —which was hosted at the Inn — and says he had a wonderful sense of humour and a willingness to help anyone in need.
"Lou did a lot for CLASS; he was a great supporter," she told BradfordToday. "He donated each year. (The foundation's) golf tournaments would support us. He was proud to be part of the community. He loved Alliston. He was a very nice guy — such a kind man. He did a lot for the community. He'll be greatly missed."
Some proceeds from the CLASS golf tournament were used to place a down payment on space for a group home, DeLuca said.
Visitation will be held at the Inn’s Crystal Ballroom (6015 Highway 89) Jan. 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Mass will take place at Alliston's St. Paul the Apostle Church (190 King St. S.) on Jan. 16 at 11 a.m.; a private family interment will follow.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to yet-to-be-determined charitable organizations will be requested.
