Van Buren's The Landing expected to reopen in early April

VAN BUREN, Mo. — The Landing is finishing construction on its rebuilt Rose Cliff Lodge next month. After more than a year of rebuilding, co-owner and family patriarch Tom Bedell expects the new and improved lodge to open in the first or second week of April.

The hotel was destroyed by a fire in September 2021. The Bedell family said it is excited to begin the next chapter of its family business, which is both a local landmark and a source of tourism revenue in the community.

“It feels great. It was a very challenging project,” Tom Bedell said. “Due to the timing of the fire and the need to get the business up and running, we were forced into a period of very high pricing of building materials. Also, supply-chain issues caused several delays. We were hoping to be completed late last fall, but we feel fortunate to be opening this spring.

“We are grateful to have the construction behind us and look forward to The Landing getting back to serving our past and future customers.”

The Rose Cliff Lodge is “about 90% complete,” Bedell continued, and will also house The Landing’s offices, floating headquarters and store.

“Hopefully, we will be open the first week in April or mid-April, as far as the new river store and this riverfront building,” he said.

The Landing’s new store is three to four times as large as the original, he added.

The Landing remained open last year during rebuilding. To add to the rooms in the River Centre Lodge, the new 18-room Moonshadow Lodge was constructed, from which they also ran their floating and retail operations. Despite “operating on a shoestring” and fitting everything in a converted lodge room, Bedell said the business made it through. They look forward to moving into the new space, though.

“We got our floating (season) completed, had a good floating year. But this is obviously going to be much more convenient for us up here, and we’re certainly glad to get here,” he said.

There are a total of 31 new rooms in the Moonshadow and Rose Cliff lodges, including eight additional Rose Cliff rooms set for completion in mid-April. This block of rooms will occupy space originally reserved for the Blue Heron restaurant, which was freed up when Blue Heron’s temporary home in the River Centre Lodge became permanent by popular demand.

Bedell explained the new Rose Cliff is shaping up to be bigger and better than its predecessor, with updated amenities and more deck space.

“We’ve really dressed the rooms up, and we’ve expanded our deck out front of the rooms from 8 feet to 10 feet — it makes a lot of difference,” he said. “And then we’ve got some auxiliary decks that people can use that really are right on top of the river, so to speak. They’re really got good view areas.”

For more information on The Landing, visit www.thelandingcurrentriver.com or call (573) 323-8156.