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Kirill Soloviev says his plan for a sprawling four-season getaway would boost the economy and give common folk access to the exclusive summer playground. Many long-time cottagers fear the region’s soul is at stake
Published Jul 31, 2025 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 14 minute read
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Kirill Soloviev was sitting in his backyard in Kleinburg, Ont., a sleepy village northwest of Toronto best known for being home to a famous art gallery with an extensive collection of Group of Seven masterworks and locals who dabble in horse ownership.
He does not keep any ponies, but he has a backyard pool, and that is where he was on a sweltering mid-July day as he spoke about a life’s journey that has taken him from St. Petersburg, Russia, to the centre of a contentious four-season commercial resort development proposal in prime Ontario cottage country.
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“The first time I saw that piece of land was in 2019,” he said. “Cliff Bay has become a passion project for me.”
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There is much to be passionate about, particularly in the summer playground a couple hours north of Toronto known as Muskoka, or the Hamptons of the North. In the days of yore, it was the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Mellons building summer palaces by the lakes.
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Kirill Soloviev, left, stands with Marcus Gillam, CEO of Gillam Group Inc., on the Lake Muskoka site in Gravenhurst, Ont., where Soloviev is proposing to build a mega-development. Photo by Handout /Kirill Soloviev
More recent arrivals include Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Even David Beckham, the global soccer icon who comes from more humble, working-class British stock, was seen “hanging with the boys” — Mark Wahlberg, Tie Domi and Jamie Salter, Authentic Brands Group LLC’s founder and chief executive — in Muskoka last summer.
In other words, the area has always been a magnet for the upper crust. Part of what Soloviev intends to sell, he said, beyond the promise of job creation, knock-on spending throughout the region and a tax-revenue stream for the local town of Gravenhurst, is access to this paradise for common folks who don’t make millions or were lucky enough to inherit a property up there.
But some of the established cottagers, nature lovers and concerned locals, many of whom have been looking for several generations at the same piece of property Soloviev has his eye on now, are aghast at the scope and scale of what he is proposing and skeptical that he is a guy who can actually pull it off.
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If fully built out, the vision for Cliff Bay Muskoka could include two six-storey hotels, 28 boathouse-style villas, branded residences, a sunset pier and restaurant, banquet space, staff housing, parking, a boardwalk, a spa, a marina with 80-plus boat slips, two beaches and 1,200 to 1,300 units, all set upon an impossible-to-miss 83-acre waterfront property in Gravenhurst.
The first time I saw that piece of land was in 2019. Cliff Bay has become a passion project for me
Kirill Soloviev
The property is currently owned by the province and officially known as the Muskoka Regional Centre. It historically served as a sanatorium and is zoned institutional. The old building is full of asbestos and has been empty since the early 1990s, when the town had an opportunity to buy the land for $4 million and took a pass. Today, the property’s most notable residents are its butternut trees, glacial rock deposits, birds and its potential, while the asking price for it remains unknown.
The province has confirmed that a group headed by Soloviev is the “preferred bidder” in a proposed sale and, should a deal get done, it would involve a Ministerial Zoning Order, a piece of provincial legislation that overrides municipal zoning rules and official town plan amendment processes to help fast track development.
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Should the sale ultimately go through and the proponents stick to an agreed-upon plan, they can build whatever it is they say they are going to, which in the NIMBYs’ analysis would spell the end of life in Muskoka as they have known it, but to Soloviev it merely represents progress.
“I never owned a family cottage,” he said. “This project will give people the possibility to either own something that’s on a lake that’s not in the millions or even rent it, so there is an affordable aspect.”
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Tom Hanks, left to right, Steven Spielberg and David Beckham are among the celebrities who have been spotted summering in the Muskokas. Photo by CHRIS DELMAS, Toby Melville /Getty Images, Yale University, WPA Pool / Getty Images
A different vision
Ken Pearce once had a family cottage, just not in Muskoka. His parents’ place was in the Kawartha Lakes region to the southeast, an area renowned for both its waters and the ice cream produced by a locally owned operation that has been around for almost 90 years.
His sister inherited the family place, but he and his wife also fancied the cottage life, and, thanks to a long and fruitful career as a corporate lawyer with a blue-chip Toronto firm, he was able to buy a place on the western shore of Lake Muskoka.
“It is one of those weird things,” he said. “You become a seasonal resident, and the next morning you wake up and you’ve become a permanent resident.”
Pearce is now president of the Muskoka Lakes Association, a volunteer outfit with 2,000 members that advocates for “the responsible stewardship and enjoyment of the unique environment of the Muskoka Lakes.”
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He said he is not anti-development, but is deeply concerned about the potential Cliff Bay project since, in addition to any environmental considerations, he believes it simply misses the point of what Muskoka is all about.
“I know there’s lots of people who want, as they say, the slice of heaven, and far be it from me to say, ‘You know, you can’t get in on this,’” he said. “But the reason people come here in the first place is for the rocks and the trees and the cliffs and the pristine waters, and if we destroy that, and if the result looks like the Toronto waterfront, are people going to be keen to come here? No.”
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Clevelands House on Lake Rosseau was slated for a major redevelopment until billionaire and local cottager Mitchell Goldhar, chief executive of SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust, stepped in with a smaller-scale plan. Photo by Handout /Ontario
Pearce points to a development on nearby Lake Rosseau and Mitchell Goldhar, the “beneficent” billionaire behind it, as proof that building something new can be a win for everybody.
Goldhar is the founder and chief executive of SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust and is often referred to as the man who brought Walmart to Canada. He is also a Muskoka cottager, and in 2019 he bought Clevelands House Resort, a beloved, family-geared place that had been around since the 1880s, but was sagging into disrepair and slated for redevelopment to the tune of 4,000 new units.
Enter Goldhar, a reluctant white knight who bought the property off its previous owner not because he was itching to get in on the resort development game, but to prevent what was being proposed for it.
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His plan for the property dramatically scaled back on the number of allowable units to 1,700, with a modest opening phase build of 48 cabins, a village, a restaurant, a wellness centre and indoor tennis and pickleball courts.
The cabins will all be rentals, and the buck stops with Goldhar, who is not in short supply of bucks. He asked not to be quoted directly, but he said the development will take a gradualist approach that respects the surrounding nature — which is the reason why people love Muskoka in the first place — and not dominate it.
The reason people come here in the first place is for the rocks and the trees and the cliffs and the pristine waters
Ken Pearce, president, Muskoka Lakes Association
“Everybody around here has been like, ‘You go for it, Mitch,’” Pearce said.
But there is no billionaire saviour on the horizon for Cliff Bay, and barring one showing up on Gravenhurst’s doorstep, the town, which has a year-round population of close to 14,000 and a council that would like to see the property developed, must consider the proposal at hand.
Mayor Heidi Lorenz, like Pearce, is a Toronto expat. She moved north with her family in 1998 to escape the big city’s ballooning housing prices and to find a better work/life balance — so far, so good. Town officials have twice met with Soloviev, she said, but have neither endorsed nor opposed the vision he is peddling yet.
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As it is, life for the locals is not all sunsets and lazy days by the lake. Gravenhurst’s unemployment rate is slightly higher than the Ontario average and average incomes are slightly lower. Nearly a third of its residents are seniors and a fifth survive on an annual household income of less than $40,000. Most of the jobs for working-age people are in retail and construction, which depend upon the summer cottaging crowd.
The Muskoka Regional Centre does not generate any tax revenue in its current state, but were it to be sold and built, Gravenhurst could look forward to a flow of development charges, property taxes and tourism-focused municipal accommodation taxes, thereby creating revenue streams that would be put toward services and programming to the benefit of all locals.
“Generally speaking, development of the site would create much more short-term and long-term employment opportunities than have existed here since the early 1990s,” Lorenz said. “Money aside, this proposal would certainly change the landscape of our community, and council needs to carefully consider its support.”
The lake is calling
Soloviev’s plan has Chris Byrne’s vote. He is a local contractor with a small crew and a steady work stream, but, according to his unscientific analysis, the area is oversaturated with builders and the market is sputtering. The wealthy are still spending, but a lot of other folks are tightening their belts, so he can’t see a downside should the Cliff Bay group get the green light and follow through on its pledge to hire locally.
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“I don’t know a whole lot about the project — I’m so damn busy with work — but if the developers are going to be bringing in jobs and bringing up property values, then I don’t see why not because it is coming anyway,” he said.
What could be coming in terms of affordable units at Cliff Bay was somewhat fleshed out by its development team during a three-hour public information Zoom session on July 16. The project’s affordable housing component specifically refers to staff housing, which workers will be able to rent as part of their compensation package. Non-staff members can expect to plunk down $600,000 for a lower-end residential unit and $2 million or more for fancier digs.
Should a buyer happen to own a boat, they will be required to berth it elsewhere since the purchase price does not include a spot at the Cliff Bay marina. Owners will, however, be able to rent their units through the property managers and the market will presumably set the price.
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Cottages line the shores of the Muskoka lakes in this aerial photo. Toronto was home to about 75,000 people when tourists first started showing up here in the 1870s. Photo by James MacDonald /Bloomberg via Getty Images
A quick scan of the available rooms at the nearby JW Marriott The Rosseau Muskoka Resort & Spa shows that a family of four can cram into a single room with a king-sized bed and pullout couch for about $1,000 per night, so any bargain hunter getting pumped about Cliff Bay should be prepared to pay up or shop elsewhere.
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Kris Potts, another non-cottage owner, is untroubled by the financial particulars and the outstanding what-ifs related to the project. The founder of Norseman Construction and Development Ltd., a custom homebuilder and renovator in Toronto, has signed on as Cliff Bay’s vice-president of construction and said having more places in Muskoka, in whatever form, will ultimately mean more access for the average “guy.”
Toronto was home to about 75,000 people when tourists first started showing up in Muskoka in the 1870s. Today, the city and its surrounding region are home to more than six million people and those people, at least the ones brave enough to endure cottage country weekend traffic, need somewhere to swim.
“That piece of property is too valuable and too perfectly positioned for it not to become something more than what it is,” Potts said. “People who have generationally owned property in that area, of course, don’t want to see a change, and of course they don’t want to see development, and of course they don’t want to see other people in their environment, but all of Canada is moving toward more universal equality and access, so why should Muskoka be any different?”
All of Canada is moving toward more universal equality and access, so why should Muskoka be any different?
Kris Potts, vice-president of construction, Cliff Bay
He has not had a ton to do in his role with Cliff Bay so far, but he has walked the site several times and he describes the bedrock that is in abundance there as ideal for building upon. He has known Soloviev for several years and describes him as a “closed person,” albeit an inveterate networker, who may personally disdain the spotlight, but is adept at knowing people who know people and putting them together to get things done.
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“Kirill is more of a behind-the-scenes guy, someone who can bring in top-level individuals,” he said.
Soloviev certainly has an air of mystery about him, which in the battle for the soul of a beloved corner of cottage country lends fodder to those who see him as a fly-by-nighter poised to do irreparable harm to their special place.
More than 250 people logged into the recent Zoom call and most stuck around to the end. Soloviev was politely and ultimately with increasing exasperation asked by several different people to provide some specific examples of past development projects that he had been involved with and successfully executed upon. Beyond offering vagaries and having another team member answer on his behalf, he never did provide a concrete example.
Prior to the public meeting, however, he was asked the same question and said he would be willing to tell the “whole story” of Cliff Bay in late August, but he did share some of his past experiences and said he made the “right decision” at age 19 to come along when his parents, Igor, a truck driver, and Tamara, a retail worker, came to Canada.
Kris Potts, centre, third from the right, the founder of Norseman Construction and Development Ltd., a custom homebuilder and renovator in Toronto, has signed on as Cliff Bay’s vice-president of construction. He said having more places in Muskoka, in whatever form, will ultimately mean more access for the average “guy.” Photo by Handout /Kris Potts
“I did not come from money, that is for sure,” he said.
His family lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto. If Soloviev learned anything in his adopted Canadian home, it was that he was best suited to be an entrepreneur since he preferred calling the shots.
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He now rents an office on the second floor of a gargantuan home improvement centre in suburban Toronto that has retail outlets selling everything from hot tubs to antiques to financial advice. The office manager there said she had “no complaints” about Soloviev.
A chess set he picked up in Venice a number of years ago is on display in the office. His father taught him to play when he was a kid and he still enjoys the game, though he grades his talent for it as “modest.” He is 43, but is self-conscious about his age and jokes that he would prefer his age be given as “40.”
He does not say much, but he is polite when he does. What is telling in the face of Soloviev’s reticence, however, is that the team he has assembled for the Cliff Bay project aren’t a bunch of nobodies, but established real estate industry players, including Zeidler Architecture Inc., a Toronto company that has been around for 70 years, and Hunter Milborne, a Toronto condo salesman/marketer and chair of Milborne Real Estate Inc., who has been around since the 1970s.
I see technology as playing a big part of how this property gets developed
Kirill Soloviev
Another Toronto-based company, Gillam Group Inc., which has built several projects north of the city, will be the construction partner, and Potts will be the boots on the ground making sure everything runs smoothly and comes in on budget.
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Soloviev is a kindred soul when it comes to their interest in construction technology, said Potts, who recently purchased a $1-million mobile 3D printer from a company in France. While he is waiting for Cliff Bay to “kick off,” he plans to build a six-storey building in the west end of Toronto as a showcase vehicle for the technology.
Down the road, he envisions 3D printing, modular wall systems, mass timber and other cutting-edge techniques and materials being applied to Cliff Bay, since whatever ultimately gets built there is going to be subject to broader economic forces. With the continuing swirl of uncertainty around tariffs and trade relations with the United States at an all-time low, being smart and innovative will be critical to being cost-effective in Muskoka.
“I see technology as playing a big part of how this property gets developed,” he said.
Blockchain future
Soloviev and Milborne in May appeared on a panel together at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto. Cliff Bay was not on the agenda, nor was it discussed during a 15-minute session called Why Tokenize? Unlocking the Future of Asset Ownership.
Tokenizing involves creating a digital representation of a tangible thing, such as a bond, hockey card, work of art or, in theory, development project in Muskoka.
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If you think that sounds like science fiction, Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock Inc., does not. A few months ago, he said his firm believes that the “next step going forward will be the tokenization of financial assets, and that means every stock, every bond … will be on one general ledger” that would be accessible to digital investors through the blockchain.
During the panel discussion, Soloviev mentioned his past experience as a mine owner and his interest in tokenization as a vehicle to raise capital and broaden the pool of potential investors. The idea occurred to him in a mining-related context in 2018, he said, but the technology was not “there” yet, though its arrival is nigh and it could be applied to a real estate play.
Asked by the moderator to give an example of a current real estate project that would be ripe for tokenization, Soloviev shook his head, indicating he did not want to answer, but he later said that one of the projects he has “cooking now” involves tokenizing collectibles and art.
“This is something that appeals to everybody, and it is something that appreciates in value, probably even higher than real estate,” he said.
Muskoka has long had the cachet as the ultimate Ontario summer destination, but perhaps forgotten amid the discussions around its pristine waters and the mega-developments that could be coming soon is that a family willing to drive even further north will discover that the lands, lakes and summer masterpieces stretch on and on and on. The farther one treks, the cheaper the cost for a slice of heaven.
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Sprinkled here and there are old-timey, ramshackle, bare-bones, mom-and-pop-style lodges, campgrounds and cottages that charge less than $1,500 a week, but customers need to be willing to drive there and that requires the kind of pioneering resolve that the earliest Muskoka cottagers possessed in the 1870s.
Today, it is a trip most people make by car, unless they have access to a floatplane or a helipad on their property. Helicopters are not part of the vision for Cliff Bay at this stage, but change is in the summer breeze and a mysterious Russian-Canadian, who is long on vision but short on answers, is “100 per cent” confident his passion project will get built.
“We are not going to build five cottages,” Soloviev said. “At the end of the day, we’re doing something that’s creating jobs, creating destination revenues, creating tourism and, obviously, some cottages that are a couple of rows down may not be happy, but, overall, for the city, for the province, it is a good thing.”
• Email: joconnor@postmedia.com
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