Muskoka’s 'Hamptons of the North' faces clash over Maldives-style resort plan

Muskoka’s lakeside allure is colliding with a multinational developer’s blueprint for a Maldives-style resort along the Bay of Muskoka. Russian-born Kirill Soloviev, through Cliff Bay Muskoka Corp, has proposed an 83-acre mega-resort on the site of the former Muskoka Regional Centre, a tuberculosis sanatorium that has sat derelict for years. The plan envisions two six-storey hotels, 28 boathouse-style villas, branded residences, a spa, banquet halls, staff housing, multi-storey parking garages, two beaches and as many as 1,378 residential units, plus a marina with more than 80 boat slips. Renderings show villas and restaurants rising over the water on tall stilts, a design Soloviev’s team has described as “unique in Ontario.” The project has become a flashpoint as Ontario’s government weighs a Minister’s Zoning Order to fast-track the development, triggering widespread local protest and questions about whether the plan aligns with Muskoka’s shoreline character and environmental safeguards.

Muskoka, located about two hours and 20 minutes north of Toronto, trails only the celebrities who vacation there. Known for its pristine lakes, thick forests and a string of affluent cottages, the region has drawn a who’s who of visitors, from Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell to Justin and Hailey Bieber and Cindy Crawford with Rande Gerber, who have shared snapshots from lakeside getaways. The area’s exclusivity has earned it nicknames such as the Hamptons of the North or the Malibu of the North, underscoring the pressure that comes with maintaining lakefront access and protecting the delicate balance between private privilege and public interest.

But the Cliff Bay plan’s scale and the location’s sensitivity have unleashed opposition from residents, local officials and a leading regional association. The Cambridgeshire-like chorus of concern centers on overwater construction, potential pollution, and the rapid permitting path that a Minister’s Zoning Order would deliver.

The proposal would put two six-storey hotels, 28 boathouse-style villas, and thousands of ancillary units on land that sits near Muskoka Bay’s shoreline. Plans also include 2,272 parking spaces and a marina with more than 80 slips. In public renderings, the project features chic restaurants and resort amenities rising out of the water itself, creating what has been described as a Balinese-inspired, water-based resortscape. Kirill Soloviev’s team has pitched the project as a way to offer housing options on a lake “not in the millions” and as a development that would create jobs and destination revenues for the region.

The furor began to crystallize publicly during a Zoom information session that drew more than 250 residents. While Soloviev appeared via a remote link, other team members spoke for him as questions about past developments and credibility surfaced. He offered only broad answers, with presenters stepping in to provide specifics. He also floated ambitious funding ideas, including 3D printing, modular construction and even blockchain tokenization, as a means of financing and delivering the project. He insisted the plan would not be a proliferation of cottages, saying, “At the end of the day, we’re doing something that’s creating jobs, creating destination revenues, creating tourism.”

The broader spark for much of the backlash is the use of an MZO to fast-track approvals. In Ontario, an MZO can override municipal planning authority, which has raised questions about local control and the adequacy of environmental and shoreline protections in a region that relies on clean water and fragile ecosystems. A petition opposing the resort has already drawn more than 4,500 signatures, reflecting widespread concern that a project of this scale could alter Muskoka’s character, threaten the shoreline and disrupt a cherished public-resource landscape.

Local officials have been careful not to take a formal position while the process unfolds. Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz told the Daily Mail that because the developer is pursuing an MZO, “the town has no approval role. The MZO process overrides local planning authority.” She noted that revisions to the proposal are ongoing and that public feedback from July’s information session would inform the next iteration, but that councillors would only debate the plan once a revised application is submitted. She added that redevelopment of the derelict Muskoka Regional Centre has long been a priority for the town, a sentiment rooted in a 2023-2027 strategic plan and decades of interest in bringing the parcel back into productive use. Still, she stressed that the council has not issued a position on the current proposal to date.

The Muskoka Lakes Association (MLA), which represents more than 2,000 lakefront families, has filed detailed objections spanning dozens of pages. Its president, Ken Pearce, said the association’s single biggest concern is the project’s river-to-lake plumbing: pipes, sewage lines and the idea of overwater villas and restaurants built on stilts in Muskoka Bay. “You just don’t do that. Nobody’s allowed to do that,” Pearce said. He noted that Ontario’s own rules prohibit dwellings within floodplains and require at least a 30-meter setback from the shoreline, while Cliff Bay’s plan would push buildings as close as 7.5 meters to the water, and in some cases directly into the bay.

Pearce warned that overwater villas would scar the shoreline, invade privacy and carry sewage and water lines over open water. Noise from the development, he argued, would travel across the narrow bay and disrupt neighboring cottages. The MLA contends the development would erode Muskoka’s shoreline buffer—the trees and vegetation that curtail erosion and filter winter road-salt runoff—leaving pollutants to wash into the lake. Pearce emphasized that the association’s concerns are not about opposition to redevelopment per se, but about the project’s scale and the risk that essential environmental safeguards could be compromised.

The plan’s footprint is a central point of contention. Local residents argue the proposed density—nearly 1,400 residential units in total—far exceeds what is advisable for a region characterized by limited master-planned growth and a reliance on tourism revenue that is sensitive to environmental health. The MLA has urged the province to drastically reduce—or eliminate—the shoreline villas and to align any development with Muskoka’s Official Plan and through-the-zoning by-laws, a stance that would require major adjustments to the project’s design.

The tension over Cliff Bay sits amid broader debates about how Ontario should manage the province’s cottage-country growth. Some nearby property redevelopments offer a cautionary counterpoint; proponents of more modest renovations argue that projects can bring jobs and tax revenue without compromising the region’s natural assets. Gravenhurst and Muskoka Lakes leaders have pointed to other, smaller-scale initiatives as examples of how to balance development with conservation and local interests. Still, the absence of a formal position from council on Cliff Bay leaves the matter in limbo as the province weighs its options.

The developer’s background, as reported by the Financial Post, adds another layer to the conversation. Kirill Soloviev, 43, moved to Canada at 19 with his truck-driver father and retail-worker mother. He now operates from a modest office above a suburban Toronto home-improvement center that sells hot tubs and antiques—a strikingly humble setting for a project described by his team as a multi-billion-dollar vision. The Financial Post notes that Soloviev has never owned a cottage himself, a detail he has used to position himself as someone sympathetic to families priced out of Muskoka’s shoreline real estate. He told the paper that the project would give people the possibility to own or rent a lakefront property that is more accessible than the current market allows.

As developers pursue provincial authorization, residents and local associations are pushing back with a mix of petitions, proposed revisions and careful scrutiny of environmental and planning guidelines. The Lake Muskoka region’s delicate balance of natural beauty and economic vitality makes this dispute particularly sensitive, drawing attention to how far Ontario is willing to bend zoning rules and how much weight local concerns will carry when a provincial decision could reshape a cherished landscape for decades.

The public conversation remains ongoing. The Daily Mail has reached out to Cliff Bay Resorts and Residences for comment, underscoring that the project’s proponents are seeking to secure broad support as they navigate the regulatory process. With the clock ticking toward a formal planning submission and a provincial decision on the MZO, Muskoka residents, local officials and environmental advocates are watching closely to see whether the region’s ultimate fate will be a grand new resort or a carefully scaled development that preserves Muskoka’s famed shoreline and tranquil character.