Katahdin Homes finishes contract for Ky. restaurant

OAKFIELD – For more than three decades, families across the world have been able to sit around their dinner tables inside homes manufactured by Katahdin Cedar Log Homes and share a meal.

Now the Oakfield-based company is manufacturing a massive northern whit e cedar complex to feed generations of families, tourists and – most likely – fans of the country band Montgomery Gentry.

Officials with Katahdin Cedar Log Homes announced recently that the company had finished an agreement to design and manufacture a 20,000-square-foot restaurant called Eddie Montgomery’s Steakhouse near Harrodsburg, Ky.

Eddie Montgomery is one-half of the gold and platinum album country singers known as Montgomery Gentry.

The building, which will contain a 265-seat restaurant and tour-quality concert stage, is part of a 38.5-acre development called Skylar’s Landing. The development, which is named for Montgomery’s granddaughter, will include shops, recreational facilities and other amenities. The price of the project was not made public.

Montgomery has tag-teamed with Tommy Mitchell, president of Rocky Top Furniture, to develop the family-oriented destination in central Kentucky. Mitchell developed a strong relationship with David Gordon, the president of Katahdin Cedar Log Homes, when he joined the Katahdin team to construct the first cedar log home for ABC’s “Extreme Makeover – Home Edition” in 2005. That house was constructed in Wells.

Founded in 1973 by Foster Gordon and two associates, Katahdin Cedar Log Homes is one of the largest log home manufacturers in the U.S. and is the largest processor of northern white cedar in the world. David Gordon, Foster Gordon’s son, later took over the business. It now employs about 80 people and manufactures about 200 homes, condominiums and camps per year, shipping them as far away as Israel, Japan and Scotland.

During an interview on Wednesday, Gordon said he was thrilled that his company was participating in the project.

“This restaurant is going to be four times as large as the ‘Extreme Makeover’ house was,” he said. “This will be one of the largest commercial structures ever constructed of northern white cedar. We are quite excited about it.”

The Katahdin building will have 28-foot ceilings with dramatic exposed beams and purlin log trusses, as well as cedar paneling, stone fireplaces and other unusual interior features. Outdoor seating will be available at both ends of the building. As part of the entertainment element, Montgomery has commissioned a tour-quality, professional concert sound and lighting system for the top-name country performers he expects to book, as well as new and up-and-coming artists.

“We worked hand-in-hand with an architect from Kentucky to design this,” said Katahdin’s Lany Sherman. “It took three months and really was a team effort.”

“This is the most exciting project I have ever worked on,” he continued. “Now that the design phase is over, it is going to get ever more exciting.”

Barry Ivey, the company’s vice president, also was “very excited” about being involved with a project of this magnitude. He said officials hope to be serving meals at the restaurant by early 2009.

An estimated 15 tractor-trailers containing the precut and drilled logs for onsite assembly will be making their way from Katahdin’s mill to the Harrodsburg construction site at the end of this month. Another 15 semis will transport the remaining materials to the site.

Tommy Mitchell said in a written statement that both he and Montgomery wanted the steakhouse to be designed and manufactured by a company that shared their “green” approach.

“I knew that David Gordon had long been implementing ‘green’ practices, so Katahdin Cedar Log Homes was the obvious choice,” he added.

The Oakfield company has made it a practice to be a good steward of the environment. The company has a computerized house manufacturing line that makes efficient use of each log, while waste sawdust produced in the milling is recycled through a 14-million Btu biomass boiler, which has cut Katahdin’s fuel oil consumption by 90 percent.

Gordon said he believes that the company’s participation in the project will help boost sales and get more name recognition out there for Katahdin Cedar Log Homes.

“It will boost our sales and our reputation in the industry,” said Gordon. “This is a wonderful two-way street – it can only help us.”

On the Web: www.katahdincedarloghomes.com

jlbdn@ainop.com

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