The Hockley Motel, which is best known for standing in as the Rosebud Motel in the Emmy-winning comedy series Schitt’s Creek has officially hit the market, and it is being sold for 2 million Canadian dollars or approximately 1.6 million U.S. dollars.
Located in the town of Mono in Ontario, Canada, the 6.7-acre property is set on an expansive site with over 1,265 feet of frontage on Hockley Road. At the back of the site is the Nottawasaga River, a highly desirable fishing river for rainbow trout and salmon. The property offers refuge from the hustle and bustle of the big city but is just 1.5 hours from downtown Toronto and an hour or less from other cities like Barrie, Collingwood, and Guelph.
The property’s main 4,300-square-foot building has six units, each with a bedroom and an en suite bathroom. It also has a two-story manager’s suite that has three bedrooms and one bath. The property also includes a 700-square-foot detached guest cottage and a nearby stable that can house three horses or other livestock.
Jesse Tipping ― president of the Athlete Institute Basketball Academy and Orangeville Prep, one of Canada’s most successful basketball prep schools ― is the current owner of the property. He bought the motel for $820,000 in 2011 as a place to house his recruits.
According to Tipping, fans from different parts of the world have stopped by the motel to see its famous façade ever since Schitt’s Creek premiered in 2015. “We just kind of let them enjoy it because they are not bothering anybody,” Tipping told the Orangeville Banner in September. “People really get a kick out of it. They’re always so happy to see the place.”
Tipping went on to share that the Schitt’s Creek production team rented out the property for one month a year for six years, and when they weren’t filming, the motel was being rented out on Airbnb.
Tipping said that it “wasn’t an expensive rental” and even though they “were pretty consistently booked”, they didn’t advertise the place as Schitt’s Creek’s Rosebud Motel. “We actually used it for people who needed a spot when they were coming in to ski at Hockley or worked in the area for weddings or events,” he explained.
As seen in the video below, the interior of the Hockley Motel is different from that of the fictional Rosebud Motel, as the interior shots of the Rosebud Motel were actually filmed in studios in the Toronto area.
Aside from Schitt’s Creek, the Hockley Motel has also been a set for other screen productions, including Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, Hulu’s 11.22.63, and the 2005 action-thriller film A History of Violence.