On Thursday, crews at both the Ski Bowl and an adjacent village-to-be took advantage of the weather to clear land and sift dirt as projects to build a ski lift, some six trails and a village to house skiers get under way.
After about four years of plans and talks to revitalize the historic Ski Bowl area, Johnsburg Town Supervisor Sterling Goodspeed said a ski lift to take skiers from the Ski Bowl to trails leading to Gore Mountain will be done in time for the 2010-11 ski season.
A separate project building a ski village linked to the mountains has also taken off, with some townhouses expected to be ready for the upcoming ski season.
The projects are the
result of agreements among town officials, private company FrontStreet Mountain
Development and the Olympic Regional Development Authority, where the
FrontStreet purchased land and gave the slopes to the town. The town then turned
the slopes over to ORDA, which is funding the restoration of historic trails,
building new ones and connecting Gore Mountain to the Ski Bowl.
The new
lift will take skiers from the bottom of the Ski Bowl to new trails leading to
the base of Gore Mountain. From there, they can take lifts leading to Ski Bowl
trails. One lift ticket would pay for both mountains.
"There’s nothing like it
in the East," Goodspeed said, noting how the project will make the area the
sixth-largest ski facility east of the Mississippi River.
One new trail
leading down from Gore Mountain to the Ski Bowl will be complete this winter,
but skiers will have to find their own way back to Gore.
Meanwhile,
FrontStreet Project Manager Mac Crikelair said at least two townhouses out of a
slated 131 will be done in time for this ski season. Crews at the site are
working on a road leading through the first townhouses and the first of five
hotels, which will hold 34 rooms arranged in what Crikelair called "Adirondack
great camp style," with several buildings, each housing several
rooms.
Crikelair said a construction timeline has not been set, but
completing all the townhouses, hotels and 18 single-family homes will take about
seven to 10 years.
The plan is for skiers to
step out of the homes and be able ski straight to the mountain, skiing back home
at the end of the day.
In addition to its ski benefits, Goodspeed and
Crikelair both said the development seeks to preserve the local charm of the
Adirondacks. "We’ve retained a lot of character," he said. "It’s not
Disney."
In the village, townhouses will be built in the Adirondack
style, tucked away behind trees, and the access road slopes and curves like a
river. At one townhouse site, the echo of a nearby stream could be heard.
While Crikelair said the
first of the townhouses — units with three bedrooms and three bathrooms — have
not been sold, they are "spoken for," and refused to discuss
prices.
Goodspeed said the town is depending on all the new development
to bring in business.
The proximity of Ski Bowl to North Creek will spur
more business than Gore Mountain alone, he said, since the access point to Gore
Mountain lies far from the cluster of restaurants and shops.
Already, he
said, new businesses have sprung up in North Creek despite the recession, all in
anticipation of the Ski Bowl’s revitalization.
Goodspeed said the town
will do its part to help those businesses with a shuttle to take tourists who
don’t ski between the mountains, stopping at the village along the way.
"That’s the goal," he said. "By making those connections, we’ll connect the entire mountain complex to our hamlet."
