Browse Our Archives

May 2015

The Balsams Rising

The return of this Grand Resort proves all things old can be new again.

Written by Rick Kahl | 0 comment

If you were starting from scratch to design a resort for the 21st century, you might well choose a location like The Balsams. That is, an unspoiled lake, with dramatic cliffs on one shore, and substantial, north-facing mountains a gondola ride away. You might add a Grand Hotel, golf course, cross-country trails, hiking, biking, and snowmobiling, plus water sports, boating, and fishing. All the makings of a multi-season playground, in short.
Just as The Balsams offers.

It’s easy to understand The Balsams’ appeal to Les Otten, whose office is about 45 minutes away, in Newry, Maine. For those who are new to the industry or have short memories, Otten was the ­mastermind behind the once-great American Skiing Company. He parlayed his start at Sunday River, just up the road from Newry, into a 12-resort behemoth that eventually disintegrated under the weight of its debt. But before it did, Otten remade resorts from Sunday River to Heavenly Valley, mostly in a good way. Whether it was Grand Summit hotels or a broad vision for The Canyons or the bold gondola from the center of South Lake Tahoe up to the heart of Heavenly, Otten always thought big.

That was then, more than 15 years ago. Otten has been out of the industry since. But when the owners of The Balsams sought his advice in the fall of 2013 as they considered how to revive their shuttered, grand old resort, Otten was ready to get back in. He’s now a partner and leading the development.

“This old resort has some assets—water and road systems, sewage treatment, a great Donald Ross golf course, some usable buildings and skiing, plus hiking/biking/off-road trails. There’s potential to have rafting, boating on the lakes, hiking and mountain biking, even climbing,” Otten says. In all, he estimates about $40 million in infrastructure already exists.

“You end up with the opportunity to think what a year-round resort would look like, 3 hours and 40 minutes from Boston, in one of the snowiest places on the East Coast, with a 250-inch annual snowfall,” Otten says.

What it looks like to Otten is a “year-round resort with world-class everything. Yoga and cooking and sports. This concept has both sport and cultural aspects.”


The Way It Was
The Balsams was, and is, a resort in the Grand Hotel tradition. There were once dozens of these sprawling New Hampshire summer resorts. From the late 1800s until the mid 1900s, they hosted visitors escaping the summer heat in the city. Only a handful remain, including the Mount Washington at Bretton Woods.

The Balsams is located at Dixville Notch in northern New Hampshire, on the same latitude as Jay Peak, Vt., and Sugarloaf, Maine, and roughly equidistant between the two. It has a picturesque setting on Lake Gloriette, with a view to the narrow, cliff-lined Notch. Several old hotels and inns, including the original Dix House, built in 1866, and the Hampshire House, built in 1916, form the village core. The Balsams Wilderness ski area and its narrow old New England-style trails descend a mostly low-intermediate mountainside a mile away.

The property totals 11,000 acres—as large as some towns—all on private land that includes several mountain peaks rising to almost 3,500 feet as well as three lakes and several streams. Its water treatment plant is the legacy of a commercial latex plant set up by one of The Balsam’s previous visionary owners.

But The Balsams also shows its age. Its hotels and inns need repair, and some are poised for demolition. The existing ski area needs renovating. There’s a lot of work to do before The Balsams is ready for the 21st century.


A New Vision
Otten’s concept is to turn all of this into an integrated, multi-season sport center and cultural retreat. “We’re creating a pathway to rebuild a resort community that can house 15,000, and offer year-round activities, a solution that’s much more robust than the old winter- and ­ski-focused resorts.”

All activities begin in the residential core and are close by. To the west are the non-motorized activities: mountain biking, ropes course, X-C. Motorized activities, such as snowmobiling or four-wheeling, leave from the north. The Balsams Marketplace, the retail core, is also on the north side of the core; it has a local “farm to table” focus—think sugaring. The spa is to the northeast; the culinary school, to the east. The lawn is on the southeast side, with space for 10,000 to gather and with access to the lake. “You don’t have to get in your car to get to something; it’s all there,” Otten says.

The Hampshire House and the Dix House, the two mainstay hotels, will form the heart of the village. The proposed Wilderness Lake Lodge will be “luxury rustic,” reflecting the Grand Hotel style with wood pillars and wood floors, “but without the tilted doorjamb,” Otten says. Future lodging and ­residences will ring this group.

“The core is an inspiring, beautiful place in every season,” says Otten. “In summer, the core is lawns, gardens, and the lake, not the bare bones of a ski area. In winter, you’re on the edge of a lake.”

Resort planner Dave Norden of Owl’s Head Partners, part of the development team, points out the advantages of having a central core, and especially the lawn. “That is the hub. Trails leave from the lawn and head out in several directions, and they all return to the lawn,” he says.

“If people return at different times, they can hang out and wait for others.”

Norden says it’s easy to ­picture a triathlon, or Nordic race, finishing here, with awards, festival, bands, and so on. “It’s the perfect venue to start/finish activities from a central point,” he says.

Norden compares the core to a college campus, which he says has advantages over the European-styled alpine villages of many resorts. These villages typically feel cavernous and rough around the edges in the off seasons. In contrast, he says, “College campuses are gorgeous. And they are beautiful even with no one there.” The same is true with The Balsams, which was initially designed for summer guests, and is fully landscaped.

“The original layout was fantastic,” Norden says. “We’re just building on it.”

Building is set to begin in June, both in the village and on the mountain. The Balsams plans to be ready to open for the 2016-17 winter season.


The Downhill Experience
The ski and snowboard expansion could give The Balsams the most skiable terrain in the Northeast. The terrain sprawls across several peaks, not unlike Otten’s original area, Sunday River. And it has a similar 2,000 vertical, though most trail pods are in the 1,400 to 1,600 range. About 40 percent of the potential 2,000-plus acres of terrain will be ready at opening in late 2016, putting the resort on par with many existing Eastern areas. And it will have plenty of snowmaking. With a base elevation at 1,850 feet, one of the highest in New England, The Balsams will enjoy a long season.

The initial resort expansion includes five lifts, plus the gondola, and adds about 300 acres of developed terrain across four mountain faces (see map). There are also 500 acres of hike-to gladed terrain that will eventually get their own lift.

“It’s the beginning of what I think skiing is going to look like in the 21st century,” Otten says.


A New Real Estate Plan
The Balsams offers real estate buyers some new options. “The old models, McMansions or crazy-quilt collections of condos, don’t work anymore,” Otten says. The Balsams team surveyed potential buyers on some different options.

The result: A new plan for financing the renovation of the Hampshire House. “The two biggest obstacles in our mind,” Otten says, “are one, people hate the revenue split with the resort, and two, they hate the carrying costs.” So The Balsams created ownership options that simplify life for owners.

In this scheme, Century Club buyers (up to 400) purchase a 100-day block of time in a one- or two-bedroom Hampshire House residence. Prices range from $100,000 for a one bedroom to $280,000 for a two-bedroom suite. They also receive a variety of perks, such as passes for skiing/riding, spa and hot bath, and golf, and 50- percent discounts for friends’ lift tickets.

They can also choose one of three use patterns. They can keep all their days. Or, they can retain 50 days for themselves, return 50 days to the resort, and eliminate all HOA fees. Or, they can retain 20 days, return 80 days, and eliminate all HOA fees, taxes, and membership dues. This “Cost Reduction Program” will run for 10 years. The first 150 buyers become “founding” members, and receive even more perks.

There’s actually a fourth usage option. “If you don’t use your unit at all, we pay you for renting your space,” Otten says.

As of late March, nearly 60 people had bought into this concept.


Tapping the Market
The Balsams has access to large markets. In addition to its proximity to Boston, it’s about two and a half hours from Montreal. Sherbrook, Que., a metro area of 200,000, is just over an hour away. There’s even a 5,200-foot airport in Berlin, N.H.

Of course, those markets have closer options. Jay Peak is an hour closer to Montreal; Loon and Bretton Woods are closer to Boston by at least that. Yet Otten is optimistic. “No one was going to go to Sunday River, either,” he recalls being told.

Otten’s aim is to appeal to a wide audience, from snowmobilers to culture fans, and provide a high level of service and quality. “I need a room someone’s going to be comfortable spending $400 for,” says Otten, “as well others for $100 to $150 a night. We have to appeal to as broad an audience as we can.”

Norden believes that The Balsams will also appeal to a younger set. “Gen X is alive and well, they want family vacations with kids. That’s our market. They bike, swim, ski, ride. We forget that they are growing up. They are not the lazy, poor group we think of.

“Think Silicon Valley. Or Stowe, with its young, affluent crowd. Boston is really on fire, too. As are a lot of places. And they are here to stay. With health care, financial services, biotech, it’s a different economy and market. It’s not the stodgy, frugal old New England.”

Will The Balsams’ plan be sufficient to lure these visitors past other, closer-to-home resorts? Stay tuned.