Group plans hotels for North Creek
Developers buy land to build resort, at base of Ski Bowl site
By JASON McCORD
mccord@poststar.com
NORTH CREEK -- Private developers have purchased 323 acres at the base of the historic North Creek Ski Bowl and are planning to build condominiums, hotels and an upscale day lodge on the site. Local officials said the $1.98 million purchase is a huge step toward making Gore Mountain Ski Center more of a destination resort, greatly expanding Johnsburg’s tax base and stimulating the local economy.
“This is great news for us,” said Johnsburg Supervisor William Thomas. “We’ve been waiting for this property to move along with a development project for quite a number of years.” Mark Bergman, associate broker with Adirondack Country Homes Realty, said a deal was closed Thursday, with the FrontStreet Mountain Development group purchasing the property from local business owner Elliott Monter.
The group plans to develop about 75 acres of the site, building a resort at the base of the ski bowl, Bergman said. “It will help to transform Gore more into a destination lodge than it currently is,” Bergman said. Mac Crikelair, project manager for FrontStreet Mountain Development, said the first phase of construction will include condominiums, a bed and breakfast and a lodge.
Developers hope to break ground next year. Future phases could include hotels and private homes, Crikelair said, although plans will have to be approved by the Adirondack Park Agency and local planning board. “It’s a significant piece of land that can hold considerable development,” Crikelair said. Developers believe the land holds great promise, Crikelair said, particularly with skiers who want easy access from their rooms to the slopes. “We really think there is a lot of potential with the ski-in ski-out community,” Crikelair said.
Gore Mountain already has plans to reopen the historic ski bowl area, creating six or seven trails on the lowest of Gore’s four mountains, said General Manager Michael Pratt. Plans also include connecting the ski bowl to the rest of Gore’s ski trails through lifts, an essential connection for the planned resort area. The North Creek Ski Bowl was one of the first commercial ski areas in the country, Pratt said, but closed about 20 years ago. Its heyday was from the 1930s to 1950s, Pratt said, when trains brought skiers from Manhattan and Schenectady.
With a new resort, Supervisor Thomas said he hopes those days will return. Work on rail lines between North Creek and Saratoga Springs is progressing well, Thomas said, with a private resort likely fueling those efforts. When completed, skiers from New York City and elsewhere could take a train up to North Creek, delivered within a half-mile of the ski bowl area, Thomas said. “It’s very important to tourism in Johnsburg,” Thomas said of the resort plans. “I see it as a big catalyst for Main Street businesses.”
A report last year by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi estimated a private resort and the reopening of the ski bowl area could more than double the tourist dollars in the region’s economy, capturing a larger portion of the $100 million New York skiers spend in Vermont. The study estimated Gore Mountain could attract an additional 168,000 skiers a year, bringing in a total of $45 million a year to the regional economy.
FrontStreet Mountain Development is based in Darien, Conn., but has ties to the local area, Crikelair said. He noted he’s a third-generation skier at Gore Mountain. “One of the reasons we were attracted to the project is because we’re familiar with the area and know the different groups involved,” Crikelair said.
