Big Burke announcement

[AdironRider]

To be honest, in a ski lodge, as an owner, Id rather have gas.

Wood fires are a labor suck. Not to mention one 5 year old accident away from burning the joint to the ground.

 

[from_the_NEK]

To be honest, in a ski lodge, as an owner, Id rather have gas.

Wood fires are a labor suck. Not to mention one 5 year old accident away from burning the joint to the ground.

I'm just talking about the bar (Bear Den) in this case. Not too many 5 year olds running around in there.

 

[from_the_NEK]

The big reveal of preliminary plans is tonight at 6:00. Unfortunately, I can't go.

It will be interesting to see how the plan for four lodge/hotels has been modified for the indoor bike park and the tennis facility. Sound like one of the lodges/hotels may be dropped and another made larger than the original plan (that I have never seen). The Cal-Rec article hints that the park and tennis facilities could be glass enclosed structures similar to the Jay Peak waterpark.
Honestly, I would rather see something like that than a windowless warehouse style building.

Interestingly, I had talked to the new manager of our local Ice Arena about the feasibility of an indoor bike park in the ice arena in order to help the building generate revenue during the off season. She thought it might have potential. I suggested talking to the Kingdom Trails people to see about interest. However, now it sounds like that idea may be moot with the potential proposal for the development at Burke.

 

[thetrailboss]

Come on FTN what do we pay you the big bucks for?

:lol:

Hopefully the Cal Rec does not place this behind their paywall...assuming that they put the story on their website at all....

 

[Zand]

The big reveal of preliminary plans is tonight at 6:00. Unfortunately, I can't go.

It will be interesting to see how the plan for four lodge/hotels has been modified for the indoor bike park and the tennis facility. Sound like one of the lodges/hotels may be dropped and another made larger than the original plan (that I have never seen). The Cal-Rec article hints that the park and tennis facilities could be glass enclosed structures similar to the Jay Peak waterpark.
Honestly, I would rather see something like that than a windowless warehouse style building.

Interestingly, I had talked to the new manager of our local Ice Arena about the feasibility of an indoor bike park in the ice arena in order to help the building generate revenue during the off season. She thought it might have potential. I suggested talking to the Kingdom Trails people to see about interest. However, now it sounds like that idea may be moot with the potential proposal for the development at Burke.

I'd go but I'll be doing the weather on News 7 at 5:30 so I wouldn't make it in time lol.

 

[from_the_NEK]

Will there be a News 7 crew there covering it? Make sure they get some good pictures of the plans

 

[thetrailboss]

Honestly the News 7 crew does a great job and I've loved being able to see and hear what is really going on up there.

 

[Zand]

Will there be a News 7 crew there covering it? Make sure they get some good pictures of the plans

There was a story tonight announcing the meeting. I imagine someone went to cover it.

 

[Masskier]

Any news from last night meeting?

 

[fbrissette]

Nothing on Burke's website.

 

[thetrailboss]

Any news from last night meeting?

I would have expected you to know anyways....

 

[thetrailboss]

The Burke article is behind the paywall, but here is the opening to the article from the Cal Rec:

BURKE -- Creating a conference center and hotel accommodations for hundreds of people at the Burke Mountain Resort, plus indoor and outdoor sports facilities, are part of the new master plan for the resort. The resort is now owned by Jay Peak's Bill Stenger, who is driving the plans with his partners.
[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, Times, Serif]Friday, December 14, 2012[/FONT]

 

[from_the_NEK]

Well, I finally found out some more details about the development plans at Burke.
The primary phase will consist of a duo of Hotel/lodges being built in the area just below the Mid-Burke Express (surprise!).

The two lodges will be connected in the middle and the entire structure will be 500' long by 70 feet wide. The mountain side of the building will show four stories, the downhill side will show five. I figure that makes for a build between 70-90 feet tall. This would be very similar to what you see on the Tram House at Jay. The parking area will be a garage constructed under the hotel. Additional parking would be available in the lots (most likely modified from their current layout) on the otherside of the small brook (leftside of the image below). A bridge would be built for people to walk across to the lodge(s) and the lift. So, it sounds like I wasn't too far off in the rendering I made previously.

According to my sources, Stenger said they are still working on what to do with the existing Mid-Burke Lodge (and the Bear Den). So any plans for an additional lodge at mid-Burke is still up in the air.



The Burke Side Condo owners likely aren't going to be real happy about this. They are going from having a great view of the mountain to staring at the back side of a five story hotel. (edit: actually this isn't entirely true, as pointed out in a following post, these condos actually face away from the mountain.

It also sounds like my thoughts were fairly accurate concerning a new hotel/lodge being built at the base. It sounds like it would be on the other side of the Sherburne Express from the the base lodge. This is largely due to Burke Mountain not owning any other property in this area near the lift. The Condo Associations own a lot of the abutting property here. IMHO it is actually not a bad location for a hotel. It will be easy to get to and it won't block anyone's views.
I still haven't heard where they plan to build indoor MTB park or the tennis facility. I'm thinking the bike park may be integrated with the new lower mountain lodge. This is the base for the lift served mountain bike trails an there is room to build here (if they cut some trees). In the picture below, the MTB park is in blue and the tennis in green. There has been talk that at this may be built in the same glass enclosed design that the waterpark at Jay is in. The Pump House waterpark is approx. 130' x 275' = 35,750 sq ft. However, after a bit of research. building the ""the world's largest indoor MTB park" (this is a phrase I've heard thrown around) would have to be a HUGE structure (unless it was multi-level). Ray's MTB park in Wisconsin is built in an old 110,000 sq ft vacant Menard's building.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/u...ukee-lets-mountain-bikers-ride-in-winter.html

 

[Masskier]

The Mountain Brook Condos are positioned so from the living areas, decks, and patios you have a outstanding view of the Gap. Most of them never had much a view of the mountain unless you are outside in the parking areas.

 

[from_the_NEK]

The Mountain Brook Condos are positioned so from the living areas, decks, and patios you have a outstanding view of the Gap. Most of them never had much a view of the mountain unless you are outside in the parking areas.

You're right. Even looking at the picture above where I photoshopped in the tramhouse lodges, you can see the Mountain Brook condos only have a couple of small very windows looking toward the mtn. Others are behind the trees.

 

[Masskier]

Anyone see yesterday's Cal Record. Front page article and rendering of the new lodge, it's behind the pay wall so I can't post a link. Also there are renderings and info in the real estate office at mid burke on display.

 

[Smellytele]

Anyone see yesterday's Cal Record. Front page article and rendering of the new lodge, it's behind the pay wall so I can't post a link. Also there are renderings and info in the real estate office at mid burke on display.

I was just there yesterday and missed it - Damn

 

[from_the_NEK]

Anyone see yesterday's Cal Record. Front page article and rendering of the new lodge, it's behind the pay wall so I can't post a link. Also there are renderings and info in the real estate office at mid burke on display.

I procured a copy of the Cal-Rec. The one rendering printed in the paper looks almost exactly like my photoshopped picture and is described as a 116 unit hotel (58 rooms per side) that is 500' long by 70 wide. So no surprises there. Even right down to them stealing my idea to keep Willoughby Gap visible between the buildings :grin: :

However, the surprise from the article is that the Hotel is actually only part of Phase 1. The other part consists of:

"Plans for modifications and additions to trails and lifts on the main face of the mountain, including improvements and expansion of the snowmaking system... and the first phase will also significantly expand the area of the East Bowl."

...Gulp...
Phase 1 also discusses expanded parking to allow for 1.5 to 2 vehicles per suite.

Then there is "Phase 1a" that they hope to get approval for and start work on while Phase 1 is being constructed. This phase is still being "ironed out". Apparently they are planning to build a tennis, aquatic area that contains a olympic size pool and diving area somewhere on the property that, under the Ginn administration, was to be golf course. A "world class mountain biking center" is also planned but no details were given as to where this would be sited.

The additional 2 (80-100 unit) hotels are planned for a later phase.

Stenger is quoted: "the three elements of recreation that we are focusing on - tennis, diving, and the indoor biking facility will keep Burke busy year round which is critical to its success."

They want to have the hotel open by Fall of 2014 with ground breaking this spring.

 

[thetrailboss]

Diving?

And we know that you are the real brains beyond the engineering/architecture for the place.

 

[Smellytele]

"Plans for modifications and additions to trails and lifts on the main face of the mountain, including improvements and expansion of the snowmaking system... and the first phase will also significantly expand the area of the East Bowl."

This is the part I am most interested in.