Spotlight_Vol 25_Issue_3

The food, the scenery, the stories - it’s pure Newfoundland.

T here’s a tucked-away place in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, where time moves at the pace of the tides. You arrive by boat, spend your days exploring trails and shorelines, and end your nights with music drifting out over the water. No filters, no timelines - just the rhythm of a place that’s stayed true to itself. That place is Woody Island Resort - and for owner Brian Seward, it’s both a destination and a new beginning. After two decades in Alberta’s oil and gas industry, he returned to the East Coast looking for a change of pace. “I didn’t want to come back and do absolutely nothing,” he says. “The Woody Island resort was for sale, and I kind of jumped on it.” Brian stepped into a unique setting: a remote island that had once been resettled by the Newfoundland government and later revived as a tourism destination. The resort’s founder, Loyola Pomroy, had deep personal ties to the area. He grew up on Mirasheen, another resettled island nearby, and saw Woody Island as a way to preserve

and share a once-common way of life “When I first came to Woody Island, I said, this is it - this is the place,” Loyola recalls. Loyola began developing the property in the late 1980s, starting with a single house and gradually expanding the infrastructure to support overnight guests. “We had to use barges, floating docks, and towboats behind the main boat just to get materials over,” he says. “It was a challenge.”

By the time Brian arrived, the resort had grown into a well-established retreat with a loyal following. Maintaining that legacy has become a central part of his role. “To be honest, a lot of it was the fact that Loyola had to put a lot of effort into creating this business,” Brian says. “And the reputation that it had was astounding.” It’s also a complicated business to run. “It’s remote. It’s seasonal. Trying to maintain

102 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 25 ISSUE 3

BUSINESS • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE 103

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