New Hope for Sugar Loaf?

Ever since Sugar Loaf Mountain Resort closed its doors in 2000, it’s been a magnet for drama – one complete with big lawsuits, empty promises, and a colorful cast of characters – but never the hoped-for happy ending: the purchase, redevelopment and re-opening of Sugar Loaf ski resort.

That might be changing. The Leelanau County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (LCBRA) recently made a small but meaningful move in the hiring of AKT Peerless. The Saginaw-based consulting firm’s mission: to market and make use of a $1 million dollar revolving loan fund granted to LCBRA by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Roughly 80 percent of the fund would be available to developers to help with up-front and long-term environmental clean-up costs in the county, a tantalizing incentive LCBRA hopes will make redeveloping the resort more attractive to potential developers.

But what exactly needs to be cleaned up? And how much will it cost?

Leelanau County Planning Director Trudy Galla tells The Ticker that the project wouldn’t be easy – or cheap: “The buildings are falling into disrepair … There are issues with mold, water intrusion and a bit of asbestos. There was also a septic backup in one of the buildings. It looks like the Tennis Barn will need to come down, and there are old underground storage tanks that need to be removed.”

She says the last property condition report for the site was conducted in 2009, and there would need to be an updated report if there was a reason to move forward on re-development. But the prevailing estimate for getting the resort up to snuff and open for business tends to top the $10 million mark.

Any potential developer would need to secure loans from an outside lender to cover construction, remodeling and retrofitting costs, but the promise of the county’s biggest RLF offering yet – as well as the potential for additional brownfield-related grants, tax incentives and tax increment financing – gives the county good reason for optimism.

Says Galla: “There are lots of financial tools available to potential developers when dealing with a site like this with environmental concerns.”