According to InDepthNH, the Coos County Commissioners approved the plans 2-1 on Monday, leading the way for Les Otten to churn up more investors for the grand project. Could this mean the hotel, and thus the ski resort, be coming back? Some details about the ski area expansion, along with the feasibility of these plans are below.
The Ski Area Expansion: The Balsams Wilderness has been closed since 2011. The original plans involved twenty-two lifts on 2200 acres of skiing terrain. The latest from the 2021 meeting noted that Otten said “the report on the viability of skiing will also be redone,” meaning that their extremely ambitious expansion plans could be toned down a bit. Based on their initial projections, the reopening and massive expansion will cost $180 million. Pictures of the expansion are below.
Are These Plans Feasible? The project has been in limbo for half a decade due to a variety of issues, such as financial battles, an environmental review, and the pandemic. The real progress has happened this year though. One bump for Les Ottens’s team was getting complete ownership of all the properties. According to the AP, Les Otten finally got the other 50% share of the Balsams from a contractor in January. Also in January, “Coos County Planning Board granted a four-year extension for the project’s Planned Unit Developmental Conditional Use Permit, which was set to expire this month.”
In terms of the lodging portions of the resort, I can definitely see them reopening fully at some points once we get back to officially normal in the United States. In terms of the ambitious ski area reopening and expansion though, I have my doubts. Who knows though, Les Otten has pulled off some crazy ski resort expansion projects (Sunday River and the Canyons) in the past. If it happens, I’ll be up there every weekend.