Hartford Business Journal

10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 29, 2024 Contractor Dean Soucy and his wife, Darlene M. Rice, in 2019 paid $300,000 for a 6.3-acre, rundown former brownstone quarry in Portland. After years of clean up and improvements, they recently sold the property for $2.5 million to a Canadian company planning a unique Nordic spa facility. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER 'Immersed In Nature' Here's how a once-rundown Portland quarry is being transformed into an upscale Nordic-style spa they could get a clear view of the flooded quarry below. Despite the wall of brush and garbage, Soucy and Rice were certain they had found a diamond in the rough. "We were awestruck," Rice said. "We knew we had something. We just didn't know what we had." Soucy, now 65, shuttered his foun- dation repair company shortly after the purchase to focus on improving the quarry. The bureaucracy of a state program assisting homeowners with defective foundations had left him frustrated and stressed, he said. The quarry gave him a passion project on which to focus. Soucy began improving the property without a clear concept or end-goal. "It was almost like this land popped up in front of us and said: 'Well, you have an opportunity to work,'" Soucy said. Soucy spent months cutting brush and restoring drainage channels, as well as building pathways, small bridges and Stonehenge-like arrangements out of brownstone slabs. He worked with neighbors to clean surrounding slopes. Soucy said he carted away dozens of tires and shopping carts, along with 1,400 pounds of milk crates, 800 pounds of glass and 22,000 pounds of other trash. He also repaired and improved drainage structures, drying out much of the property and restoring a constantly flowing waterfall off the lower cliff. New sewer and water pipes were installed from the road. Soucy said he "begged for and borrowed" materials to perform his renovations, including soil to level or raise portions of the site. Meantime, Rice kept her day job as a collections manager for a local fuel company, covering the cost of groceries, insurance and other household bills. Rice visited the quarry daily after work to check on progress and help out. The cleared brush revealed a spectacular view of the flooded quarry along one entire side of the property, prompting Rice to name the site "Quarry View." Today, it looks like a rustic and unique park. Landscaped terraces allow visitors to see turtles and carp swimming dozens of feet below the lip of the cliff. Soucy and Rice eventually began generating revenue from the property by hosting events, like drum circles, craft fairs and even weddings, asking for donations and charging $10 for parking. They also rented out camp- sites for $100 per night. Quarry View even hosted a funeral for a fan of the site who was killed in a car crash. Soucy made a special brownstone shelf to hold her urn and photographs during the memorial. Soucy said he hasn't tallied up his costs for upgrading the property. He is confident expenses far exceeded any revenue from the site. After the sale, Soucy and Rice paid off a $245,000 line of credit against their house, much of which had gone Different views of the Portland brownstone quarry site that took years of clean up by contractor Dean Soucy and his wife, Darlene M. Rice. HBJ PHOTOS | MICHAEL PUFFER By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A Canadian hospitality company planning to build a chain of Nordic spas in unique settings across the U.S. has paid $2.5 million for a Portland brownstone quarry that dates back to the 1600s. The 6.3-acre site, at 311 Brown- stone Ave., was part of a larger quarry — much of it now flooded and underwater — near the Connecticut River. It was a major supplier of the rich brown sandstone that reached the height of its popularity in the late 1800s. Major quarry operations shut down after much of the site flooded in the 1930s. A one-man operation quar- ried one corner for about 18 years until 2012. Contractor Dean Soucy and his wife, Darlene M. Rice, bought the property in 2019 for $300,000. After spending more than four years reviving the rundown site, they sold it in early April to Pomeroy Lodging. It was a nice return on investment, but it wasn't easy money. They spent considerable funds, and even more sweat equity, reviving the rundown and littered site, which is now poised to become a spa facility that will offer a unique hydrotherapy experience. Sweat equity Soucy said he originally bought the property as a place to park his foundation repair business' heavy equipment, including bulldozers, an excavator and truck. The quarry originally listed for $1 million, but the asking price had dropped to $375,000 by the time Soucy went to see it, he said. He offered $300,000 to buy it as-is, with no extensive inspection. The property had an open area where he could park his vehicles, but most of it was covered by a mixture of thick brush, thorns and literally tons of garbage, most of which had been pushed over a roughly 50-foot cliff running along a border with neighboring properties. The quarry's rear was flooded and swamped with water leaching off the cliff sides. On one of the couple's early visits, it took them about two hours to fight through the thicket to a point where

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