Catamount Condos and hotel

SKI-3PO said:

Looks like Kaatskill Mtn Club at Hunter or any other generic ski area timeshare hotel.

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The lady I was talking to in the lodge said they were not timeshares.

Fractional ownership = same thing to me

I crash in Rhinebeck when I ski Platty, and I see this place is less than 1 hour from there? Worth a look, or is Platty much better terrain wise?

abc said:

I don't doubt there's been SOME thoughts, though I suspect containing a large dose of wishful thinking.

Let's see what's the potential draw, and drawback:

- The skiing: ok, it's a 1000' hill, half of southern Vermont such as Mount Snow, about the same as Jiminy. Not bad, really, on that stat. But what about snow falls? And length of season? Snow-making? We all know it's not that great. So what's the hidden agenda? More snow making? That'll cost money. So how are they going to do it? Support by the real estate sale? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

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I'm no expert on Catamount. Skied there for the 1st time in eons this year. From what I saw a majority of the major trails are covered top to bottom with tower mounted fan guns. Seemed to have plenty of fire power. How much they use that system or if they have an adequate water supply is something I don't know but the infrastructure seemed to be there already.

I highly doubt there is much of a difference in natural snowfall or elevation between Jiminy & Catamount.

BenedictGomez said:

I crash in Rhinebeck when I ski Platty, and I see this place is less than 1 hour from there? Worth a look, or is Platty much better terrain wise?

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Absolutely. There really is no comparison, that is given same conditions.

I don't understand why they have chosen 1/5 fractional ownership, but whatever floats your boat, I guess. The week you would have still rotates every year, but not consecutively.

spiderpig said:

I don't understand why they have chosen 1/5 fractional ownership, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.

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We looked into a 1/4 share on Cape Cod for the summer. I quickly realized that it sounded a lot better than reality. If your August week was the last week in August (when school has started), you would only wind up with one peak summer week (July-August) that you could actually use. This would happen every fourth year. The ski season is similarly short in duration and they are offering smaller fractional ownership. And who would want to pony up that amount of cash to only be able to use their condo during school vacation week only every fifth year?

The place we looked at tried to lure you in by renting out your unit when you could not use it. I ran the numbers, and it made no financial sense. You were better off just paying to stay at a hotel or condo on the week(s) you would actually use it.

Jackson Gore at Okemo allows owners to stay in any unit for just housekeeping costs if the rooms are less than 85% booked, so that helps get more use out of a fractional ownership. I don't know if they're offering that deal at Catamount. My family puts their two quarters in the rental pool and say it comes out about breaking even every year, based on paying property taxes and fees, but that would clearly be harder with 1/5 ownership.

spiderpig said:

Jackson Gore at Okemo allows owners to stay in any unit for just housekeeping costs if the rooms are less than 85% booked, so that helps get more use out of a fractional ownership. I don't know if they're offering that deal at Catamount. My family puts their two quarters in the rental pool and say it comes out about breaking even every year, based on paying property taxes and fees, but that would clearly be harder with 1/5 ownership.

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Do you mean at JG? Breakeven includes rental income, fees and taxes, so you come ahead because you end up staying for free?

lerops said:

Do you mean at JG? Breakeven includes rental income, fees and taxes, so you come ahead because you end up staying for free?

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Exactly, but free plus set-up/housekeeping fees, which is around $80 for a weekend.

weel season pass price of 300$ would probably go up once condos are up. Hopefully better c snowmaking comes with that.

Oh no Catamount

http://blog.ctnews.com/snowzone/2014/02/28/catamount-going-upscale-with-new-hotel/


Catamount = FUTURE Jiminy peak south

Say goodbye to 20 dollar monday tickets and powder.

From the article
"Hopefully, the upscale hotel and any future development at Catamount won’t take away from its down home charm and … affordability"

Yeah...good luck with that They'll have to spend an absolute fortune upgrading their lifts and snowmaking to support the resort. I find it strange they didn't do that first, then the hotel/condo stuff.

It was discussed when you were in timeout.

lerops said:

Absolutely. There really is no comparison, that is given same conditions.

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Meaning.......... Platty has much better terrain than Catamount, or Catamount has much better terrain than Platty?

BenedictGomez said:

Meaning.......... Platty has much better terrain than Catamount, or Catamount has much better terrain than Platty?

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Platty mich better Catamount loczl hill couple nice diamond trails snow making different old guns cheap tickets no much crowds , slighty more crosed then Ppatty on loildays.

Snowlover said:

http://blog.ctnews.com/snowzone/2014/02/28/catamount-going-upscale-with-new-hotel/


Catamount = FUTURE Jiminy peak south

Say goodbye to 20 dollar monday tickets and powder.

From the article
"Hopefully, the upscale hotel and any future development at Catamount won’t take away from its down home charm and … affordability"

Yeah...good luck with that They'll have to spend an absolute fortune upgrading their lifts and snowmaking to support the resort. I find it strange they didn't do that first, then the hotel/condo stuff.

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Well, they have swapped out two lifts in the past few years, one a double for a quad. A high-speed is always welcome, though.

New terrain coming with condo thingy as well!!!

I snapped this in the lodge.
Yellow is existing lifts, blue lines are new lifts, light blue trails will be new trails.


This is very interesting. The first (and biggest) part of the expansion is in the Sidewinder area. Half a dozen new trails. Measured in Google Earth, the lift will be about 2,700 feet and 600 vertical feet (similar profile to Mohawk's summit lifts). Solid intermediate cruising. The base of the lift is 20 feet lower than the current base area, so theoretically Catamount could claim an increase in vertical. New base lodge? Not shown on the map, but a definite possibility. A parking lot at the base of the lift is shown.

The two trails above Holiday are interesting. Catapult Jr and Turnpike Jr? Guess the old T-bar line is also coming on the map.

Hard to see, but a new lift and trail are to the left of the current Meadows Triple. Kinda pointless, imo.

The nice ladies at the presentation table answered my nerdy questions. As a whole, this is a ten year plan, starting with the condo thing. The club will start selling rooms this fall, construction starting in spring 2015, and opening in summer 2016 (all preliminary). No detailed information on the new lifts yet.

I think it would've been better to build the new terrain first and then hotel, but the hotel is what will probably finance the new trails and lifts so I understand.

This makes the whole condo ordeal much easier to swallow. The new trail capacity will allow them to keep stuff ungroomed (I hope). They should really be advertising the terrain expansion more. It's been stated in this thread time and time again- Catamount is a ski area. People don't want condos at ski areas with 1,000 vertical and 120 acres. 200 acres and I'm sure a lot more people would get out their checkbooks.

Swwwweeeettttt. Burn it to the ground.

http://www.newenglandskiindustry.com/viewstory.php?storyid=173

Catamount Hotel Running Into Zoning Roadblocks
Wednesday, October 22, 2014, NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com

At a September 25, 2014 meeting of the Copake Zoning Board of Appeals, a 2 to 2 vote resulted in the group not granting a special use permit for the Berkshire Mountain Club at Catamount. As a result, locals are now asking the board to reconsider their decision. According to the Hudson Register-Star, dozens attended a pro-Catamount meeting on Monday, October 20.

Prior to the permit roadblock, BBL Construction Services LLC was planning to start construction in spring 2015. It is not known if or when constructed could be formally postponed.

Phase one construction is expected to produce 66 units for fractional or full ownership, opening in July 2016. Nearly one hundred more units could be constructed in subsequent phases. Prices are expected to start at $50,000 per 1/5th of a share of a unit. Rock Solid Development LLC is undertaking the project in conjunction with Catamount Ski Resort. While the ski area is located in both Massachusetts and New York, the hotel will be solely in the Empire State.

Future development at Catamount may include two more chairlifts and over half a dozen new trails.

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I do like that last line though.

Well... nothing official yet, but a couple things I've noticed.

1. The Berkshire Mountain Club Facebook, which had been updated once or twice a week since it's inception, has gone unupdated since June 7.

2. The Berkshire Mountain Club logo at the bottom left of Catamount's winter site is gone.

3. The supposed construction start date of Spring 2015 has come and gone.

4. Still no way to buy any ownership on the website.

At this point you have to wonder if it's going to happen.