Seeking Investor / Partner / Developer or Operator
Cortina Mountain Ski Snowboard Resort and Residential Development
The Cortina Mountain Opportunity
July 2010
The New York metropolitan area, also known as the Tri-State Region, is the most populous metropolitan area in the United States and is also one of the most populous in the world. Our project, Cortina Mountain, is 2 hours from the center of New York City, the most exciting city in the world and surrounded by a population of 20 Million. Cortina is located just four miles from the premiere ski resort of NY State, Hunter Mountain (www.huntermtn.com) as well as ten minutes away from Windham Mountain (www.windhammountain.com). Hunter has 480,000 skier visits and Windham has 350,000 skier visits that drive by our resort project annually. These numbers represent the winter skier traffic, November through March, the spring, summer and fall months visitor traffic is far greater. We believe the combination of the annual visitor traffic and the shortage of quality lodging and non-ski/board activities creates an exciting opportunity. As a matter of fact, Hunter has just launched "The World’s Largest Zip Line Canopy Tour". Hunter Mountain now has the longest & highest zipline canopy tour in North America, featuring over 5 miles of ziplines. This coupled with the fact that snowboarding participation is growing at rapid pace will surely have a positive impact on the amount of annual visitors to the Catskill Mountain area. All this continues to validate our plan to make Cortina the perfect location for a family oriented snowboard-centric four season resort.
MOUNTAIN STATISTICS
Base Elevation: 1,925 ft (587 m)
Summit Elevation: 2,650 ft (808 m)
Vertical Drop: 725 ft (221 m)
Skiable Area: 87 acres (35 hectares)
Annual Snowfall: 100 in (254 cm)
Longest Run: 5,280 ft (1,609 m)
Snowmaking: 100 %
Number of Lifts: 4
Uphill Lift Capacity: 2,200 per hour
Types of Lifts: 1 Poma Lift
1 Pony Lift
2 double chair
Number of Trails: 18
Cortina is made up of two parcels of land. One is a 40 year old 200+ acre ski resort know as Cortina Valley. We have chosen not to operate the resort at this time. We didn’t want to have a false start. Only the bar and restaurant are operating to cover some of our minor expenses. The mountain was a family run resort that operated with very little capital for thirty years. Since snowboarders aren't as desirous of mountain elevation as they are for terrain park type activities, the mountain is perfect for making the first resort in the tri-state area that caters to the snowboarding community. We have had a few different experts tour the mountain and they all agree that it is a great place to make snowboarding the primary activity. Skiers will be welcome of course, especially families and beginners, and we will also provide transportation service to Hunter or Windham for the more difficult terrain that some may desire.
Our venture is at the point where we need to partner with a resort developer that shares our vision. We will continue to be principals in the project and see our vision come to reality. The perfect partner would have a resort/hotel development background. Cortina will be a year round destination location. In the spring, summer and fall the mountain will be open to mountain biking, skateboarding, motor sports and other outdoor activities. Programs and real estate could be marketed to young couples and families with children of all ages. We envision rooms with snowboards on the walls (brands pay for the wall space), skateboarding and snowboarding art (brands pay). Xbox's in the rooms, etc. We can hold events at the mountain and really make something exciting happen. Our architect has done some work on this and we believe we can build a 122 room hotel as well as an indoor water park on the property. It's a blank canvas once we organize the right group of partners, but these are some of our thoughts.
The second parcel is 178 acres, that when acquired had approvals for a forty lot subdivision. We have spent the past four years creating a new plan; we are through our SEQRA review and have received preliminary plot plan approval for 92 single family units. The development is focused on "green" construction with very little ground disturbance, constructed vegetated swales for water runoff, rejuvenation of wetlands etc… We now have twice as many homes as the initial plan with 50% less ground disturbance and have designed a natural waste water micro-filtration treatment system. We are currently the largest subdivision in development in Greene County with 92 approved lots as of this past spring. The professional work has been completed with regard to our Storm Water Prevention Plan, Waste Water Treatment Center and Drinking Water plan. All plans have been submitted to the proper regulatory agencies and we anticipate review and approval by year end. Our efforts towards strengthening the local economy by creating jobs, tourism and tax dollars combined with a focus on the environmentally conscience building have gained very positive feedback from the local planning board.
Cortina is an exciting project. The Catskill Mountain area is a four season playground for people of all ages. There are 20 million people in the tri-state area that need recreational activities like fishing, hunting, hiking, skiing, snowboarding and we are convinced with the right partner, that has experience in resort development and management, Cortina will be a fantastic investment and bring joy to a great number of people. We look forward to discussing this project further.
Contact David Baker at david@rbaker.com or call 732-222-3553
No comments:
Post a Comment