Burke moving forward with Developement

[Masskier]

Nice article on the front page of yesterday's Record. Part of it is below.


"Act 250 Effort In The Works At
Burke
McGuire said Friday that the project at Burke Mountain “is going full steam
ahead.” He acknowledged that the economy has paused for a review of the original plans, which is ongoing. McGuire said the master plan for the
development of 1,024 units, is soon to be filed with the Act 250 District #7 Environmental
Commission – and should be in their hands by the end of the
month. The plans show the areas where construction of the condos, single family
homes and amenities and utilities to serve the development are planned.
Due to the economy and the fact the Burke Mountain expansion plans are
moving forward, albeit at a slowed pace, the project has been re-evaluated, and
there will be changes in “price points,” with lower prices than what was originally
planned for the residential units, and there will not be some “privatization”
of amenities such as a clubhouse or golf course; everything will be open
to the public, said McGuire. McGuire said he believes the lowered
price points for the development’s ultimate sales also will see it fit better into
the landscape here in the Northeast Kingdom than some of the higher end
luxury residences initially anticipated in the plans.
Overall, McGuire said, the mountain is gearing up for a good winter."

 

[thetrailboss]

If the ONLINE VERSION worked, as in the free one, I would have seen that, rather than the three day old news on there. :-? The Caledonian Record has really gone downhill the last few months. Their website used to be so reliable. The free one is poorly maintained now and infrequently updated.

As for the content, that's no real news. We knew that in May. The only change is that the pricepoint has been lowered.

 

[deadheadskier]

I would think additional amenities would need to be present to sell 1000 units.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

I love how they spun their reduced price points and elimination of the private amenities.

As if that would have happened had the economy not gone into the shitter. But no - it's really about fitting better into the ethos of the Northeast Kingdom.

 

[thetrailboss]

I love how they spun their reduced price points and elimination of the private amenities.

As if that would have happened had the economy not gone into the shitter. But no - it's really about fitting better into the ethos of the Northeast Kingdom.

+ 1. Cynical view, but I agree. It was cheap PR for them. No cost at all actually. They have done little if anything with the ski area in the past two or three seasons. A few minor upgrades, but nothing really. Ginn has owned it for four years now...and the only work was in 2005.

The big positive is that despite this terrible economy, which would have crushed any previous ownership (except Burke 2000 LLC), the "quad" will spin on the first weekend of December this season and there will be skiing. That is something that is easy to take for granted now, but many times in the past that was far from certain.

 

[deadheadskier]

Trail Boss, are you in favor of an east bowl lift?

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I think Burke's decision is very forward thinking as it's becoming pretty clear that we are coming out of the recession and their timing will benefit them versus the competition who held back and waited.

A good friend recently bought a condo in FL for 1/2 of the price the guy he bought it from 2 years ago. Real estate has held up pretty well in New England by comparison, a good selling point.

 

[thetrailboss]

I think Burke's decision is very forward thinking as it's becoming pretty clear that we are coming out of the recession and their timing will benefit them versus the competition who held back and waited.

A good friend recently bought a condo in FL for 1/2 of the price the guy he bought it from 2 years ago. Real estate has held up pretty well in New England by comparison, a good selling point.

Agreed.

East Bowl lift: mixed feelings. Priority right now is to replace the Willoughby Quad, which has not happened. Then increasing snowmaking terrain.

 

[riverc0il]

Nice to hear that all will be open to the public. Having a private golf course and limited public ticket sales really put a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[Masskier]

Agreed.

East Bowl lift: mixed feelings. Priority right now is to replace the Willoughby Quad, which has not happened. Then increasing snowmaking terrain.

Burke really needs a new summit lift. What I like about the East Bowl lift, is it adds a lot more vertical to that area.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

I think Burke's decision is very forward thinking as it's becoming pretty clear that we are coming out of the recession and their timing will benefit them versus the competition who held back and waited.

A good friend recently bought a condo in FL for 1/2 of the price the guy he bought it from 2 years ago. Real estate has held up pretty well in New England by comparison, a good selling point.

If their business proposition is based on the notion that we are emerging from the recession for good, I think they are in for a nasty surprise. The resets/recasts of Alt-A and Option-ARM mortgages late this year and into all of 2010 are going to put that notion to rest.

 

[ski220]

He acknowledged that the economy has paused for a review of the original plans, which is ongoing.

Interesting. I had thought that the economy paused to allow Lehmen Bros., AIG, BOA et al catch up.

Overall, McGuire said, the mountain is gearing up for a good winter."

I guess he knows something and should let HighwayStar in on it.

 

[thetrailboss]

Burke really needs a new summit lift. What I like about the East Bowl lift, is it adds a lot more vertical to that area.

Why do you think that? The maps I have seen would mean that folks don't need to ski the runout, and some diagrams have that lift going to the true summit, or close to it. But that only adds maybe 10 or 11 vertical..not much more.

 

[Glenn]

Act 250: Doing more harm than good since it's inception.

 

[deadheadskier]

Having only skied Burke once, which included three trips out to the East Bowl area, I would be conflicted if it was my home mountain. That run out is the worst I've seen anywhere in New England. If I were a snowboarder, I would definitely have zero desire to head over there often. Because it's such a pain to get back to the lift, I'm sure that does quite a bit to keep traffic down and preserve powder. A summit lift over there would have that terrain getting hammered.

Maybe a happy medium would be a transfer lift at the bottom back over to Mid Burke?

 

[thetrailboss]

Having only skied Burke once, which included three trips out to the East Bowl area, I would be conflicted if it was my home mountain. That run out is the worst I've seen anywhere in New England. If I were a snowboarder, I would definitely have zero desire to head over there often. Because it's such a pain to get back to the lift, I'm sure that does quite a bit to keep traffic down and preserve powder. A summit lift over there would have that terrain getting hammered.

Maybe a happy medium would be a transfer lift at the bottom back over to Mid Burke?

The EB lift has been on the drawing board for about 30 years now. It has never come, it almost did in 1998-1999 when Northern Star had plans to move the current fixed grip into the East Bowl and then to install a new HSQ where the Willoughby Quad sits now.

Ginn scrapped those plans. At one point, they had the lift configuration conceptually really messed up...with the Willoughby terminating where the Poma does now, and the summit lift originating in the East Bowl. This would mean that if you started at Sherburne, you would need to ride 3 lifts to get to the top...Sherburne, Willoughby, ski over to EB, East Bowl to summit. :blink:

At some point that changed to the current plan with "some kind of lift" being installed from MidBurke to the summit...likely a HSQ but it is not clear. The new lift route would go pretty much up along Doug's Drop and to the summit. This is problematic because unless they regrade the MidBurke area, which they may very well do, then you still would have to ride three lifts to get to the top from Sherburne...assuming that the current summit quad is shortened.

 

[deadheadskier]

3 lifts to the summit at a mountain the size of Burke would not be desirable. Heck, even at Mt. Ellen when they had that configuration it was undesirable.

 

[bigbog]

Nice to hear that all will be open to the public. Having a private golf course and limited public ticket sales really put a sour taste in my mouth.

Always great to see eh'?, as if there aren't enough existing courses made from clear-cut woodlands..where people who get a thrill out of whacking a little ball into a hole can't go anymore....well, guess it's just us non-golfers.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

Always great to see eh'?, as if there aren't enough existing courses made from clear-cut woodlands..where people who get a thrill out of whacking a little ball into a hole can't go anymore....well, guess it's just us non-golfers.

Lord knows your passion of skiing doesn't result in the clear cutting of huge swaths of trees along moutain sides in the Northeast.

 

[thetrailboss]

Lord knows your passion of skiing doesn't result in the clear cutting of huge swaths of trees along moutain sides in the Northeast.

No of course not! Ski Resorts are very environmentally green, remember? :lol:

Back on topic...the mountain is certainly too small for three lifts to get to the summit. I still wonder if they should invest in the ski area to attract more attention, rather than the other way around. Show people what they are buying into, rather than ask them to buy into a pipedream that has been around since 1977!