Plans call for spending up to $8 million over four years to add summer biz   11/26/2004 by Wayne Nelson

Ski Magazine recently anointed Lutsen Mountains on Minnesota’s North Shore and its Granite Peaks affiliate in Rib Mountain State Park near Wausau, WI among the Midwest’s best downhill venues.

Buoyed by his own $11 million recent remake of Granite Peaks that’s tripled its ski traffic, Duluthian Charles Skinner and his Lutsen Mountains partner Thomas Rider are embarking on a major transformation at their North Shore property. Skinner and Rider plan to spend between $5 million and $8 million at Lutsen over the next four years, turning it into a year-round destination resort.

“The plan for Lutsen won’t have quite the same dramatic effect (as at Granite Peaks), but it’s the same dynamic,” Skinner said in early November.

Included in the Lutsen building plan are major ski improvements at its four peaks, including a $2.5 million high-speed chair lift on either the front or backside of Moose Mountain and a new summit chalet and new base lodge there; upgrading the historic chalet on nearby Eagle Mountain; and widening and expanding of the trail system from about 80 to more than 100 runs.

“Essentially, we’re building a new ski experience,” he said.

Skinner and Rider, 50-50 partners, also plan additional amenities to turn Lutsen Mountains into a year-round, Western-style ski resort. “Summer traffic is just 20 percent of our business now,” Skinner said.

Construction has begun on the Moose Mountain summit chalet which will include a year-round, 5,000 square-foot restaurant with facilities to host weddings and other group business during the off-season.

Also planned is a new “outdoor adventure center” offering winter cross country skiing, snow shoeing and ice skating, and in summer, sea kayaking on Lake Superior, guided hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail, mountain biking, rafting in the Poplar River and outdoor rock climbing.

“That’s where the North Shore needs to go to be a destination,” he said. “We’re on the edge of the Superior National Forest, the Superior Hiking Trail and trout fishing. But most North Shore visitors don’t experience these activities. Outdoor programs need to be part of the North Shore experience.”

Skinner and Rider also plan to remake Eagle Mountain’s base, site of the popular Papa Charlie’s restaurant and nightclub, into a pedestrian village with more shopping, dining and entertainment.

But a major chunk of the project budget is earmarked for expanded lodging — currently the limiting factor in attracting more ski traffic to Lutsen, Skinner said. About 90 percent of Lutsen’s ski traffic is from the Twin Cities.

Skinner said the real estate boom on the North Shore has largely ignored its hospitality sector. “Most of the development has been in the area of second homes. Bed base growth hasn’t been that significant. We’re still constrained by lodging,” he said.

Current lodging capacity in the Lutsen-Tofte area is about 1,200 units with 75 of those units at Eagle Ridge Resort, part of Lutsen Mountains. The owners initially will add 25 more units and sell some as vacation homes to help finance the expansion. Their longer-term goal for Eagle Ridge Resort is as many as 250 units, Skinner said.

Other lodging operators in the Lutsen-Tofte Tourism Association applaud the planned improvements at Lutsen Mountains. But Skinner’s assessment that it’s time to build additional lodging right now is hotly contested.

With 140 units of hotel and log home style lodging, Caribou Highlands is the only ski-in, ski-out property at Lutsen Mountains.

“You always can sell 500 more rooms on the North Shore on New Year’s Eve,” said Andy Woodrick, general manager of the property of Duluth-based Odyssey Deve-lopment. “But there’s no need now for increasing the supply. We’re overbuilt … day-in and day-out, there are a lot of rooms available. More units are going to dilute everybody’s business,” he said.

“It’s great to have those new amenities on the mountain,” he said. “We’re all optimistic that demand will continue to grow.”

Useful links:

Lutsen Mountains

Granite Peak Resort

Lutsen-Tofte Tourism Association

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