Creemore native opens restored Dorchester Hotel

How does a farm boy from Creemore become the innkeeper of a trendy boutique hotel? Easy, if it’s Chris Millsap.

Millsap grew up on a farm on the 5th Concession, the youngest of Joyce and Glenn Millsap’s six children. He attributes his strong work ethic to lessons learned in those early days. In his words, “there are no lazy Millsaps.”

By age 13, Millsap had launched his lawn cutting business Yard Boys. Over the years it has grown to several different divisions including one which has a contract for grass cutting along the 400 and 401 highways.

During his student days at University of Guelph, Millsap purchased a home and rented out rooms to fellow students. By the age of 25 he had amassed a portfolio of a dozen homes in the university area. Later he and wife Tammy, his high school sweetheart from Stayner, began buying fixer-uppers in the Collingwood area, and at one point owned 30 homes. The common thread he says is that they all started out as dumps which they transformed by making necessary improvements and adding accessory suites.

Since 2018, Tammy has been operating the design store At Home Interiors in Collingwood. For much of that time, Chris says, the Dorchester building was sitting next door looking like it needed a hug. The building at 174 Hurontario was originally built as a hotel back in 1895. During the 1920s it operated as the Dominion Hotel. It was converted to apartments in the ‘30s then reopened as the Dorchester Hotel through the ‘60s and ‘70s before being turned into apartments once again. Over the years, it fell into a state of disrepair. In April of 2021 they purchased the building with the intention of restoring the exterior and upgrading the apartments, perhaps with one floor operating as a boutique hotel. The original goal, which Chris now admits was laughable, was to have the apartments ready for occupancy within six months. Once they made the decision to go all in on the hotel concept everything changed. The painstaking task of chipping away all the stucco from the exterior took a year. The interior of the building was completely gutted to install new wiring, plumbing and insulation. In December 2022, as they prepared to welcome guests in a soft launch, Chris and Tammy invited 20 relatives to spend the night and act as guinea pigs. They did discover a glitch in the technology that turns mobile phones into your room keys but they were able to correct it before the first paying customers arrived.