BALSAMS RESORT PROJECT TAKES GIANT STEP FORWARD
March 23, 2023
By Lisa D. Connell
Appearing in the Berlin Sun
“WEST STEWARTSTOWN — Conditional approval of the Balsams resort development and a financing plan was granted at a special meeting of the Coos County commissioners on Wednesday.
The approval calls for ‘the creation of the Balsams Resort Redevelopment District’ and also, approval of the issuance of bonds for the district. Developer Les Otten has worked on this project for several years, a project that would restore the ski resort and bring jobs into northern Coos County.
As noted in the resolution: ‘Balsams Resort Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Developer”), together with its affiliated entities, is in the process of redeveloping the resort as a four season destination resort as described in the improvement plan presented to the county commissioners and included in the financing plan at a total estimated cost of in excess of $270 million (the “Master Resort Redevelopment Project”) and the County Commissioners have determined that the Master Resort Redevelopment Project will generate public benefits.’
Conditions involving the land itself at the site, near Dixville Notch, also must be followed. This includes alteration of terrain permits.
Otten’s long-term vision is to turn the once-grand resort, which closed in 2011, into a ski resort larger than Killington, Vt., where he began in 1971. His plans call for a gondola to be built from the hotel across Route 26 to the mountain summit where there would be 22 lifts and more than 1,200 acres of skiable terrain.
In other Coos County commissioners news, the three-member board appointed as full-time members of the Coos County Planning Board Mike Ouellet and Ericka Caneles. Ouellet is the Coos District 3 state representative and is a Republican representing Colebrook. Canales also is the executive director of the Lancaster-based Coos Economic Development Corporation. State Rep. Arnie Davis (R-Milan) will be the commission planning board’s alternate member. Davis represents Coos District 2 in the state Legislature.”