New events center brings needed service to Sanders County community

PARADISE – The Sanders County community gained a new events center recently as Quinns Hot Springs opened their newly constructed facility. 

Up to now, Sanders County has had fairly little in terms of a true public events space. This new center is expected to bring lots of business to the area, as people book large events and guests take advantage of the local services. 

“Building it has helped boost our net and having the proper facility makes all the difference in the world,” said Denise Moreth, general manager and convention director at Quinns.

To help with spreading local business, Quinns has created a handout of local attractions and businesses around the community guests can use to find lodging, food and other services.

“[It’s] so the guests get out and see our county,” said Moreth. “That should boost the economy.” 

The new center is more than open to local day use as well. Quinns has already started talking with a number of local organizations about having meetings in the space and hope to see lots of use from local groups. It was also noted the resort projected an increase in their daytime business as a result of use for meetings. 

Before the center was built, large events had to be limited to only about 100 guests or an extra tent had to be set up outside. The new building, thought, is plenty big enough to accommodate larger crowds.

According to Moreth, the space can accommodate approximately 250 people. 

“It’s nice to have a facility where we don’t need to limit our space,” she said. “It’s nice to have the space and know that we don’t have to limit the people to 75 or 100 for comfort.” 

The new events center officially opened around Thanksgiving with a party of approximately 300 guests from around the area and beyond. The opening was featured tandem to Quinns’ Thanksgiving dinner. 

The event saw several bookings over the holidays. A number of Christmas dinner parties and other holiday-themed events were quick to take advantage of the space. Quinns also had their first wedding in the space last month. Reunions and conferences have also been getting scheduled into the new year.

The new center is approximately 9,000 square feet and is set up for conferences and other events. The building is equipped with its own independent kitchen and lobby area. The main event room can also be split into three smaller rooms.

The center also brought an upgrade to some of the resort’s systems. Moreth noted they are somewhat “off the beaten path” and have a hard time getting services. However, part of the new center’s construction included the installation of fiber optics for high-speed wi-fi Internet throughout the resort grounds.

“It’s really nice to finally get some high speed and really have that Internet connectivity for the guests,” she said.