Over the last two weeks, the news has come hard and fast – first the 74-acre Rosario Resort, including mansion, restaurants, spa, store, giftshop, guest rooms, game areas, swimming pools, employee housing and marina – will be auctioned on Sept. 30. Then last week, Olympus Partners, Rosario’s current owners, announced that its employees will be laid off in 60 days.

But Rosario Resort’s historian, musician and Marketing Director Christopher Peacock recently told company employees at a meeting, “I hope everyone has the patience to wait and see what the future holds.”

We all knew the resort was going to sell, but there were a lot of unknowns. Now we know new facts: there will be an auction on Sept. 30 and the resort is closing.”

Having been through the resort’s auction before (in 1984) Peacock says he likes to focus on the positive, “and I truly believe the outcome will be positive.”

If anyone should know, he should.

Peacock has been an employee and historian of the resort since 1980. He began as a young college graduate with a summer job, working the front desk, doing the night audits and playing the piano on the regular musician’s night off.

That fall, he was surprised to be offered the fulltime job as the resort musician. He accepted the position, although he’d been planning to return to graduate school at UCLA, studying percussion instruments.

“Then one year lead into the next,” Peacock says. His position grew to include marketing until 1991, when he started his record label, Pure and Simple Music.

Then three years ago, he again became Marketing Director for Rosario Resort.

“So many people have been given the opportunity to move and live here because of Rosario hiring them,” Peacock said. “Also, the island has this magical quality of absorbing people once they leave the resort, offering them new jobs and experiences, and hopefully, that will be true this winter.”

When asked what he expects to happen, Peacock cautions, “We have to remember everything we say is pure speculation.”

“The sale includes the Resort Master Plan (a comprehensive planning document approved by the San Juan County Council in May, 2007). Most people who have looked at Rosario are developers,” Peacock says. “Usually developers find hotel people, but sometimes a hotel company finds a developer.”

“Whoever will be the new owner will be a caretaker of the Moran legacy” Peacock insists. “The only right thing to do, in my mind, is to build a business plan and design based on Robert Moran’s original vision – Rosario should be a place to regain mental, physical and spiritual health and return to the ideals of the arts and crafts movement; a respect for nature; hand-craftsmanship (‘the human touch’); and family.”

Peacock praises the Resort Master Plan (RMP) in that it is a well thought-out blueprint, designed to steward the environment, and creates a business model that gives long-term potential for business.

He also feels it will return Rosario to predominance in the Pacific Northwest as a destination and preserve the legacy of Robert Moran through the enhancement of the historical element, is

“Rosario is in its position due to a variety of circumstances. You can’t point to any one thing,” Peacock says.

“Olympus (the real estate development company that has owned Rosario Resort since 1998) was caught, in the Growth Management Act, with county requirements of completing the RMP; the county was diligent in reviewing the RMP to insure what’s best for the community; the current economic downturn affected the lending market which stymied developers; and the lack of capital improvements, even before Olympus, all contributed to the reality of today.

“The only reason it’s open is that it’s always sustained itself by land sales – from 1300 acres in 1958 when it was bought by Texas oilman Ralph Curton for development as a resort, to 74 acres today.

“There is no more real estate to sell, which brings us to the reality that the business model as it is cannot sustain itself.

“That’s where the Master Plan addresses multiple markets by its design for mixed uses; hotel rentals, fractional and whole ownership condos and cottages, group and wedding events and expansion of the marina.”

Peacock says that the question of Rosario’s importance to the island depends upon how the local economy will be able to deal with the effect of the sale of Rosario over time.

“Everyone can speculate on the impact of the resort closing, but the reality will soon be upon us. The longer it is closed, the greater the ripple effect on our community.”

Plans now call for a closed auction on Sept. 30, with the resort officially closing Oct. 20 with the attendant layoff of 98 part-time employees and 98 full-time employees.

The local pool of summertime help has dwindled in recent years, and the resort has found foreign students to be a great resource for seasonal jobs. “These are law, medical, engineering students and are bright, bright people,” says Peacock. Originally the international students were from the former Soviet Eastern bloc countries, but now they are from all over.

Many of the year-round help have years of experience at Rosario. Some, like front desk clerk Jo Walker, have worked for several years at a time, with several years off in between.

Carolen Ritchie has been with the accounting department for 20 years, and Peacock estimates that about 30 current employees have been long-term employees.

Like him, they enjoy the excitement of the resort industry – meeting new people and the camaraderie in service. Many marriages have happened over the years involving Rosario co-workers, and, like Peacock himself, many of those marriages have started with a wedding at Rosario.

“Rosario has been a good place to work and a consistent place to work for many wonderful people,” says Peacock.

Peacock has learned a lot of skills in his years with Rosario, and operating his own business. He’s waiting to see the outcome of the auction before making any decision about his next job.

“I tend to be buffered from the shock because I’ve experienced it before. This time it’s an announced closing and I expect to see it closed through the winter.”

“How long it will be closed is the key question. I will record a new CD in the meantime.”

Peacock remains hopeful for the future of Rosario “if somebody will take the Master Plan to heart and understand the principles behind it – quality construction, historic integrity, environmental stewardship and long-term commitment.”

Though, like the rest of Rosario’s employees, Peacock has been notified that his job will cease in mid-October, he doesn’t plan any farewell “because I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Rosario.”

“I’ve had 28 years experience preparing for this, it’s my second auction. The first was in 1984, when the Geisers bought it back, and that was a positive thing. It all boils down to how we react to change.”