Sugarloaf Mountain‘s massive West Mountain expansion plan has received the thumbs up from Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection, according to WMTW News 8. The expansion is set to cost Boyne USA, Inc., owners of the resort, $104 million.
The expansion is set to take up approximately 550 acres of undeveloped land, providing ten new beginner and intermediate trails and a new high-speed lift. Additional parking lots and roads, as well as a new base lodge will accompany the ski terrain. The expansion also involves more than two hundred new housing units, including condo buildings, single-family housing lots, and duplexes, and a new mountain biking and hiking trails.
Sugarloaf’s plans don’t stop with the West Mountain expansion, though. Following this massive increase in terrain and housing, the mountain plans to begin working on a downhill mountain biking park in the Whiffletree area, expand and improve the mountain’s Children’s Center, and replace and upgrade the Double Runner lift, all by 2025. In the more distant future, the mountain is hoping to replace and upgrade the SuperQuad and Timberline lifts, transform the mountain’s iconic and unused summit building for year-round use, install a massive, full-service spa into the mountain’s main hotel, and much much more.
All in all, the future is very bright for Sugarloaf. If final approval is received on the state and federal level, tree clearing could begin as early as this winter, meaning skiers won’t have to wait long at all for new terrain (the new lift could be open for the start of the 2023-24 season!).
Featured Image Credit: mainedroneimaging via Instagram
Image Credit: Sugarloaf Mountain