New Big Mountain lodge planned

More changes to the landscape of

Whitefish Mountain Resort’s upper village are brewing.

A small group of Winter Sports Inc.

shareholders, including majority holder Bill Foley, has plans to

build a slope-side lodge where the Ed & Mully’s restaurant

currently stands. The Snow Ghost Lodge will feature about 38

hotel-style units, a restaurant and bar open to the public,

ticketing and some retail, and it will house the Big Mountain

Club.

The resort owns the land where the

lodge will be built, but the project will be financed by the group

of shareholders through sales of the hotel units.

“The mountain is going to benefit

greatly from this,” resort marketing director Nick Polumbus said.

“The project is independent from the resort, but our services will

be improved. That’s the key — it’s not a financial risk to the

resort at all.”

Foley has played an integral part in

resort upgrades since becoming the majority holder in 2005. He was

involved with building the $11.5 million Base Lodge and upgrading

two high-speed quad chairlifts.

Posters and banners advertising the

Snow Ghost Lodge are hanging around the resort now, but there’s no

timeline set for when ground will be broken.

“It’s a project we’re trying to assess

at this point,” Polumbus said. “We’re trying to gather a

decent-sized list of people who say they’re interested in buying a

unit. When and if we have enough, we’ll take the next step.”

If enough interest is shown,

construction could begin as early as this year.

Ross Pickert, president of Glacier

Sotheby’s in Whitefish, says they’ve seen positive feedback from

potential buyers. Sotheby’s is the broker for the new lodge and is

handling the marketing.

“I think interest will only grow,”

Pickert said. “We’ve had great activity, it’s very

encouraging.”

Pickert noted that the lodge is in the

predesign phase, and that they’re looking for public comment.

“Nothing is set in stone,” he said.

While there’s nothing wrong

structurally with the current Ed & Mully’s building, Polumbus

said, the resort envisions the new lodge’s aesthetics fitting in

better with other buildings in the Upper Village.

The classic Glacier Park-style lodge

designed by CTA architects in Missoula will be one story shorter

than the adjacent Morning Eagle Lodge and will be built in nearly

the exact footprint of Ed & Mully’s.

Renderings show a mixed façade of stone

and wood. Hotel units will be 450 square feet and offer views

toward the Flathead Valley or Big Mountain. The levels on grade

with the ski slope and street level will feature a restaurant,

retail and an outdoor heated patio.

The slope-side hotel units are

projected to sell in the mid $200,000 range. Suites will be wholly

owned.

Polumbus said the Snow Ghost Lodge will

fit in with the resort’s long-term plans to improve the mountain’s

overall skier services.

A new lift to be installed this summer

will connect the Base Lodge with the Upper Village, with dirt work

extending Russ’ Street through the trees that separate the Toni

Matt and Big Ravine slopes. As it is now, the only way to get from

the Base Lodge to the Upper Village, other than by foot, is by

shuttle bus.

“A green-circle skier could take one

lift up from the Base Lodge and ski to the Upper Village,” Polumbus

explained. “If we put in that new chair and this new hotel, and

then move Chairs 4 and 5, it’s all improving the skier

experience.”

Dirt work also is planned to improve

skier access to Chairs 1, 2 and 3 from the site of the proposed

lodge. Skiers will travel slightly downhill from the lodge to those

chairs when the work is done.

There is also a demand for more hotel

lodging beyond what is offered now. Currently, there are about 200

on-mountain condos and town homes, with hotel lodging at the

Hibernation House and Kandahar Lodge. When the Alpinglow Inn was

torn down last summer, there was a gap in lodging options, Polumbus

said.