The man with the golden tooth Gold Nuggie Dougie has sold the Gold Rush Inn Hummers not included.

After 28 years of owning the Main Street landmark, 58-year-old Doug Thomas has sold the hotel and adjacent land to a group of Yukon and Alberta-based investors who comprise Northern Vision Development.

Northern Vision president Piers McDonald said while there are no immediate plans, the group of some 50 to 60 investors see the potential for future expansion as a primary asset of the purchase.

There's nothing immediate in the works, said McDonald, but the group did buy half of the block beside the hotel to sit on it.

'One of the things I like about it is they are carrying on with my plan,' Thomas said Thursday afternoon during a short affair outside the hotel to mark the change in ownership. 'They are called Northern Vision, and they have good vision.'

As Thomas handed McDonald the keys, McDonald handed Thomas a cheque folded in half, the amount hidden from view.

The purchase price remains a secret, and all Thomas would chuckle was: 'I can buy a big boat now.'

But the longtime Whitehorse resident who arrived in the Yukon as an apprentice carpenter in 1968 said he's not going anywhere, but fishin' for a couple of days.

He's committed to make himself available to assist with the transition, and still has about a month of paperwork wrapping up payables, receivables and the like.

Thomas said he feels obligated to his staff to stick around and assist with the change of ownership, as some employees have been with him at the hotel for 15 and 20 years, and more.

'They are all like family, and they are going to have a new boss.'

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, Thomas pointed out, he was essentially unemployed, though there was some hint he'll still get free coffee.

The new general manager, a former all-Canadian college basketball player who played three years professional ball in Turkey, arrived in the Yukon last week to begin training.

Dikran Zabunyan was selected to run the hotel.

'We did an extensive search across the country to find who would be the best candidate for it,' said Myron Tetreault, a Calgary entrepreneur and a founding director of Northern Vision who was on hand to close the deal.

Zabunyan, said Tetreault, is extremely experienced, and was most recently employed as the general manager of the Cranberry Golf Resort and Conference Centre in Collingwood, Ont.

McDonald doesn't expect to see any changes overnight, other than to try to improve on what he describes as an existing high standard of customer service.

'We are thankful Doug had the foresight a number of years ago to acquire the land next to the hotel,' said the Yukon's NDP government leader from 1996 to 2000. 'It was a major element in our decision to proceed.'

McDonald and company first approached Thomas last fall about the possibility of selling the hotel and the adjacent property, which encompasses all the lots between the west wing of the Gold Rush down to Sixth Avenue.

The hotel, said McDonald, is a central thread through the downtown and Main Street fabric.

'While we do not know exactly what we want to do, we do know we want to do something in the near future. We didn't buy the land to sit on it.'

Northern Vision already owns several Whitehorse properties, such as the eight acres behind Boston Pizza where a commercial building is currently under construction, he pointed out.

The investment group is also advancing an industrial lot development in the Marwell area. It owns the lot on which Domino's Pizza sits, has an apartment building in Hillcrest, and some other properties around Whitehorse.

Also in town for the closing was Trevor Harding, a former NDP cabinet minister with McDonald's government and a director with Northern Vision.

McDonald dismissed any notion that the Gold Rush Inn will swing left in its orientation, insisting with a humourous grin that there is nothing politically partisan about Northern Vision or its investments.

'This isn't going to be Red Square,' said McDonald, who is also serving as the president of the host society for the 2007 Canada Winter Games. 'The deal was good for him, and we feel the deal was good for us, and we are all happy.'

McDonald said from what he understands, the deal amounts to the largest private sector transaction in recent Yukon memory.

Thomas arrived in the Yukon in October 1968 and began working on the installation of the third turbine at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam. After receiving his journeyman's ticket, signed back then by commissioner Jim Smith, he started up his Moon Construction business, and in 1978 purchased what was then known as the Ben-Elle, which was built in 1965 by Stan and May Bendera.

The Ben-Elle opened as a 22-room motel, recalled David Bendera, who grew up working the motel business and described himself as a hotel rat.

The Ben- in the name was from his late dad's surname, and the Elle, from his mom's name, May Ellen, Bendera said.

It was through his work in construction and sluicing gravel at his pit at Ear Lake that Thomas caught the gold fever, and started directing money into a placer mining operation at Barlow Creek.

In 1983, he renamed the Ben-Elle the Gold Rush Inn, in keeping with his growing passion for gold and the Gold Rush theme. A handful of years later, after convincing city hall to sell him the portion of Fifth Avenue that stopped at a dead end against the RCMP compound, Thomas added on the first of two major additions, and brought in the Best Western franchise.

He said he was surprised when McDonald approached him last fall, and they had several discussions and meetings through the winter.

But it wasn't until Northern Vision put down a deposit on April 1 that Thomas knew the investment group was dedicated to the purchase.

Thomas had also owned the Stratford Hotel between 1990 and 2004, and the Bonanza Inn from 1994 to 2003.

It will be difficult, he said, to wake up every morning and not go down to the hotel.

Though his plans for retirement after a couple of days of fishin' are still work-related, but a different kind of work.

Thomas and his friend, Whitehorse artist Jim Robb, are working on a book about Robb, his art, and his life in the North since moving to the Yukon in the 1950s.

Now that Thomas has fulfilled a career as a successful businessman and hotelier, he wants to help the 73-year-old Robb fulfill his dream of publishing a book about his art and his history.

As for the Hummers, Gold Nuggie Dougie is just going to hang onto all three, the latest purchase being the 2006 edition for $190,000 the last line of Hummers to be produced for the civilian population.