Tupper Lake, New York — After years of being abandoned, Big Tupper could be on the comeback trail.
The Adirondack Explorer reports that New Jersey’s Josh Parnes and Martin Schapira won an auction for a parcel of land that’s home to the closed Big Tupper ski area. After several bids for the ski area, they won the parcel for $650,000. Bidding under the username lovetupper, it was later revealed that the two bidders were Parnes and Schapira. Luckily for avid skiers, the two plan to reopen it as a ski area. While they are from New Jersey, they fell in love with the Tupper Lake area, each buying a second home there. They also acquired two separate parcels of land at the auction, but those aren’t part of the plans for the ski area. Anna Klimek acquired the fourth parcel (a wetland) for $50,000, but she’s unrelated to the New Jersey investors.
Josh Parnes explained their good intentions for the ski area to the Adirondack Explorer:
“A real motivation was to be assured that a developer didn’t come in there and start developing high density housing and closing access to the community.”
In an interview with the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Martin Schapira described what their vision is for the ski area:
“Our whole concept is less is more. We’re not a fan of overdevelopment. We feel that the whole reason people come to Tupper Lake is its jaw-dropping beauty and nature. We would like to blend it with nature as much as possible. We’re not looking at this as ‘how do we get rich by exploiting the mountain’ type of a deal.”
In the 2010s, a developer aimed to create a large housing development around the ski area. The company planned to build hundreds of vacation homes around Big Tupper. Media outlets proclaimed it “the biggest real estate development ever proposed in the Adirondacks.“ Those plans didn’t come to fruition, as the developer accumulated a tax liability of nearly $470,000. However, Stanley Rumbough, who’s a local developer, is trying to buy the adjacent land to revive this development. Rumbough also attempted to win the bidding for the ski area but tapped out after his final bid of $625,000.
Over the past few years, the town/village of Tupper Lake tried to acquire the land by covering nearly $300,000 in unpaid taxes. However, a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling nullified that a town would have first dibs in this kind of situation, leading to the foreclosure auction on November 7th. The new owners plan to work with the local community, including the town of Tupper Lake.
First opened in 1960, Big Tupper has had an up-and-down history. Numerous owners came through but ultimately failed to make Big Tupper a viable long-term business. The full ski resort hasn’t operated since 1999, but thanks to volunteers, the ski area briefly reopened from 2009 to 2015.
They also faced challenges, like finding funding, which kept them closed for the 2012-13 season. However, they raised funds after allowing Michael Bay & Paramount to film a scene there for the 2014 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie. According to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, volunteers tried to reopen the mountain for a couple of seasons following that snowy winter of 2014-15 but were unsuccessful due to various factors. In its heyday, the ski area featured around 30 trails, five lifts, and a vertical drop of around 1150 feet.
If the new owners intend to reopen the ski area, they will likely need to spend millions of dollars on new snowmaking equipment and lifts. Tupper Lake Town Supervisor Rick Dattola told 7 News WWNY that reopening the ski area with a functional lift and snowmaking network would likely cost around $15 million.
Overall, the ambition from these new investors is clearly there. Whether they have the money or the time needed to revive this gem is to be determined.
Image/Video Credits: Absolute Auctions & Realty, Rick Godin Productions, MediaCentralLLC, Skimap.org
