Northstar celebrating its 40th anniversary as a ski resort has been the inspiration for TMRRE doing The History of Northstar Blog Series. During festivities back in December, at a holiday breakfast hosted by Tahoe Mountain Resorts Foundation, Harry Frampton of East West Partners sent a video message to Tahoe reviewing EWP’s presence at Northstar over the past 10 years, the benefit of having Vail Resorts as its operator, and the bright future that is still to come. Click here to see a video of his address.
So far in this blog series, we have looked at the history of Northstar and the Martis Valley starting with the Native American presence, through mining then homesteading then logging, to the creation of Northstar Ski Resort with its various owners and operators, and finally East West Partners’ real estate development conducive with the resort’s ultimate vision for the future. So, here we are in the present with Vail Resorts operating the one of the country’s top resorts with a thriving European-style Village, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel located mid-mountain, and East West Partners offering on-mountain, ultimate ski lifestyle residential opportunities.
This picture looks pretty good. A strong foundation, along with a lot of recent capital investment, helps to instill confidence for the future of Northstar Resort. For example, Vail Resorts, since acquiring Northstar in 2010, has invested $30 million in improvements including the new on-mountain Zephyr Lodge, the Promised Land Express chairlift on the Backside of the resort, new trails and additional outfit for snowmaking (making Northstar’s snowmaking one of the best in CA). Moreover, more than $1 billion has been invested by various parties at Northstar over the past decade to create and update aspects such as the above mentioned on-mountain improvements, The Village at Northstar, The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe, and other real estate development, etc.
Now, let’s look at what’s happening and still to come at Northstar, both with regard to the residential development of East West Partners and also Vail Resort’s intention for mountain improvements/expansion of the ski resort…
East West Partners’ latest venture at Northstar is their on-mountain community called Northstar Mountainside Residences, commonly referred to as simply Mountainside. This community has set a precedent for on-mountain living which has not been experienced in California before. Two neighborhoods currently exist with real estate offerings available within this community: Home Run Residences and Martis 25.
Located near The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe, and intimately woven into the ski runs of Northstar, Home Run consists of 16 luxury ski-in/ski-out residences. The first phase (eight residences) is completed and only 2 currently remain available for sale. Each home is built for the active ski family, with 3-bedroom/3-bath and 4-bedroom/5-bath options available. All residences feature a two-car garage. Home Run is designed to achieve a Silver LEED Certification Standard as designated by the U.S. Green Building Council. East West Partners is currently in the planning stage for the second phase.
Martis 25 is a gated neighborhood consisting of 25 custom estate-sized homesites overlooking the Martis Valley with amazing views of the Pacific Crest and Carson Range mountains. The layout of each homesite has been chosen and created for its unique features, as well as to optimize the mountain setting and views. With ski ways built through the entire neighborhood, each home built will have ultimately convenient ski access. Of the homesites that are in contract, several homes are already planned out and should break ground this spring.
In addition to having The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe “in the neighborhood”, the Mountainside community plans to have a swim and fitness facility of their own. This clubhouse, called Treehouse, is currently being designed by Walton Architecture & Engineering to include fitness, pool, recreation facilities and panoramic views that only Mountainside can offer.
That’s a lot of information, so we will pick up next week with the Master Plan that Vail Resorts has for mountain improvements, etc. at Northstar.
