A car dealer from Ottawa is betting he can turn Salvage, N.L., into the next tourist hotspot — and he's putting his own money on the line.

Jeff Mierins, who owns Honda and Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Ottawa, has bought the community's fish plant, and plans to transform it into a tourism complex — with a restaurant, microbrewery and maybe even hotel rooms.

"A saying that I've been using quite often is that tourists are the new cod," he said. "There's more and more tourists coming down the road. They are like a wave of fish coming at us, and if we take care of them, we look after them, they'll come back."

The business is still in its planning stages, and residents of Salvage, just northeast of Terra Nova National Park in central Newfoundland, heard about the ideas at a public meeting in the church hall Saturday afternoon.

Residents of Salvage and the area listen to Mierins during a community meeting on Saturday. Salvage Mayor Bruce Critchley estimates there are 105 full-time residents in his community. (Garrett Barry/CBC)

"Many people have said, 'If this fails, people are going to be mad at you,' so I can't have it fail," Mierins said. He plans to use a conservative approach that starts the business small and tests the waters before diving all-in.

"We'll have many, many components, and we can dial it up and we can dial it down. So we'll start with a modest size, and if it needs to grow, we'll make it grow," he said.

Tourists are the new cod. - Jeff Mierins

Canoes and kayaks may be stored in the plant as early as this summer, for ocean tours, and Mierins said the café or restaurant could be open for 2020's tourism season.

As beautiful as Peggys Cove

The businessman says he already owns property in the community, which he bought after meeting and visiting with Salvage residents Lisa and Peter Pickersgill.

"I've been coming here since the late '80s, early '90s, and I've fallen in love with the place. My family's fallen in love with the place," he said. "More people than me have referred to this as the Peggys Cove of Newfoundland. It's so beautiful."

Mierins says his property in the community, alongside his money invested, gives him skin in the game.

Mierins gives a tour of the P. Janes and Sons fish plant he bought in Salvage. The plans include a restaurant or café, a microbrewery and condos or rental units upstairs. (Garrett Barry/CBC)

"I think [people] are really pleased with the sense of community that Jeff obviously recognizes and wants to participate in," added Lisa Pickersgill.

Despite the town's remote location — more than an hour's drive from the nearest airport — Mierins says there are tourists already coming to the community, and their dollars can be captured.

It might entice them to come back and seek employment at his place. - Bruce Critchley

"We know there's thousands of people that come down to the end of the 310 highway to Salvage, they turn around, and there's nothing for them to buy, there's nothing for them to eat," he said.

Few jobs, but a good neighbour

Mierins told the crowd on Saturday that his new business will provide a few jobs to the small community.

"There will be jobs, not a lot of jobs," he told CBC News, explaining most work would be seasonal at first.

While it won't be as big an economic driver as a fully operating fish plant, Mierins described it as a good neighbour that does its part.

"What it does is it pays the taxes, it is an integral shareholder in the community, and what it will do is bring more people in that will spend more dollars, that will be able to spend more on taxes," he said.

The town of Salvage is located at the end of Newfoundland and Labrador Highway 310. (Garrett Barry/CBC )

A large part of the town's hundred-or-so full-time residents showed up to hear about the proposal.

"If he can create some work, maybe, some of the people that moved away to go work somewhere else, it might entice them to come back and seek employment at his place," said Salvage Mayor Bruce Critchley.

"If this works out, it's going to be good for our community, and that's the main goal here is to keep this community going."

According to Billy Mercer, an almost 50-year resident of the community, tourism is promising, even if he does wonder if it might change the character of the community.

"You can leave your door unlocked, there's nothing touched. But when you get a lot of, a big volume of people coming here, different from all over the world, what's going to happen, right?" He asked. "That's my thought. And I hope — keep my fingers crossed I hope everything goes smooth as silk."

Good bones in the old fish plant

Critchley says the P. Janes and Sons plant was the focus of the small community, when it was operating. People worked worked either there or on a fishing boat.

Even though the plant hasn't operated for years — it was sold in 2013 to the Barry Group, who shut it down for parts — Critchley says imagining that building as something other than a fish plant will take some getting used to.

"It's something new and we're going to have to get used to that," he said.

Mierins peeks at a camera during the town meeting at the Salvage church hall, where he outlined his plans to develop a tourist complex in the town. (Garrett Barry/CBC)

Mierins has already taken possession of the building, and besides a few small patch-ups — installing new LED lights, to start — says it's in good shape.

"I saw this fish plant vacant and I recognized how strong and well-built the Janes brothers built this building that it has to be repurposed," he said. "If I didn't do this, I didn't see anybody else doing it."

Critchley says he's not worried that a tourism venture will be an unwelcome neighbour in the community.

"Hopefully everything's going to pan out and work the way he's got it planned. If it does … he's going to put this place on the map. There's no doubt about it."

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