Aug. 30–COPAKE — Albany-based BBL Construction Services would be the builder of a planned resort hotel at Catamount Ski Area in Columbia County.
Plans for the Berkshire Mountain Club call for a three-phase, four- to five-story project with 159 units in an area currently used for parking and maintenance at the base of the 75-year-old ski mountain located in Copake near the border with Connecticut.
Units would be sold, either in fractions as small as a fifth, or as a whole, and the facility would operate as a upscale hotel, with amenities including a spa, swimming pool, fitness center, owners’ locker room, restaurant, retail space, and conference center, said developer Harry Freeman, of Rock Solid Development LLC.
The resort would include a concierge, valet parking, bell service, a 24/7 front desk and security, housekeeping and room service.
“The ski industry is changing. It is becoming more about the amenities that people expect to be at the base of the mountain,” said Freeman. The mountain has 34 trails and about 1,000 feet of vertical drop.
Freeman said construction of 66 units in the first phase is expected to start this spring and will take a year to finish. Units should be ready for occupancy by July 2016, said Freeman.
Prices will range from $50,000 to a fifth-share of a unit, to about $250,000 for a full unit, and more for larger-sized units, said Freeman.
He said the potential market for the resort will be skiers from metropolitan New York and Connecticut. The ski mountain is about a 90-minute car trip from both Hartford, Connecticut, and Westchester County.
The project already has subdivision and site plan approval from Copake town officials, but a special use permit application is pending, he said. No units have been pre-sold, as a legal offering has not yet been issued, he said, although developers have identified 800 potential customers.
The project is being developed by Rock Solid Development, BBL Construction Services, and Catamount Ski Resort. See more at http://www.berkshiremtnclub.com/index.html.
