Les Otten Details His New Plan For Balsams Hotel

December 10, 2021
From the Colebrook Chronicle

“The Lake Gloriette Hotel and Conference Center at the Balsams Resort property in Dixville Notch might be just a handful of months away from start of construction.

This week, Les Otten, the property’s owner, met with the Coos County Commissioners – the board which serves in a similar capacity as selectmen – to discuss the backing he has received from a non-profit organization to build the main structure on the property.

The non-profit, Provident Resources Group, is a national 501 (c) (3) asset management firm in operations for the past 21 years, according to spokesperson Steve Hicks, who attended the commissioners’ meeting via Zoom. Hicks said the organization has access to $5 billion in capital to finance its mission, and that the organization has the ability to undertake the projects in three principal areas: education, health care, and city/state resources for the benefit of local governments. The organization’s corporate headquarters is in Baton Rouge, La. Hicks said the plan is for Provident Resources Group to create a New Hampshire limited liability corporation, which would then be the majority owner of the new Lake Gloriette House hotel building, and will finance its construction through tax-exempt bonds which will be sold to institutional investors, according to a statement from Les Otten at the meeting.

Once the Lake Gloriette House is constructed, Otten’s organization will be retained by Provident to oversee its operations. ‘We are looking for the county’s support of the project for having Provident participate in its financing for the benefit of economic development in the country through the issuance of project backed revenue bonds,’ Otten told the commissioners. ‘We will need for the county to adopt a resolution evidencing their support of the project,’ he said. ‘To be clear, there is no financial commitment or liability of the county whatsoever. The bonds are not an obligation of the county in any way. They are solely the obligation of the Provident entity involved in the ownership of Lake Gloriette.’ He explained that the resolution from the commissioners is a requirement of the IRS. ‘After months of due diligence, we are now at a point where we are ready to move forward with this bond offering with Goldman Sachs acting as the proposed underwriter for the placement of the tax-exempt bonds for the construction of the Lake Gloriette House,’ said Otten.

The Lake Gloriette House is proposed to be the largest building on the property in the redevelopment plans. It is a conference center with guest rooms, and other commercial services. It is anticipated to be located along the western driveway going into the property, flanked by Lake Gloriette to its east and the Dix House and Hampshire House – which would ultimately have a connector between those two buildings. The bulk of the hotel to the west of the Dix House and dormitories would need to be demolished to make way for the new Lake Gloriette House, as outlined in the original plans some seven years ago.

The commissioners and county delegation are meeting on Monday, Dec. 13, in a public hearing to review the proposed 2022 budget and the commissioners plan to make its vote on the proposed resolution at the start of that meeting. ‘By having a partner like Provident, it gives us a head start on the housing we want to build in Colebrook at the golf course,’ said Otten. ‘This now opens opportunities to work on that development.’ Once the resolution is adopted by the commissioners, Otten said that it will take about another 90 days to get all the final paperwork completed – which he anticipates in March – and construction of the new hotel can get underway in 2022.”

Watch some of the announcement from the Colebrook Chronicle on YouTube here »