Tahoe Living

New condos, plus a luxury hotel, are in the mix at Northstar-at-Tahoe

By Laura Del Rosso

More construction projects are scheduled to start in the coming months at Northstar-at-Tahoe, the Truckee-based ski area that is expanding into a destination resort to draw vacationers year-round.

Among the projects is the 172-room Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, which will be part of an area called The Highlands. Developer East West Partners of Beaver Creek, Colo., and its partner, Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. of Fort Worth, have contracted with Vail, Colo.-based Booth Creek Resorts, Northstar's owner, to develop The Highlands. The area will include the hotel, 75 Ritz-Carlton condominiums and townhouses, a spa, swimming pools, restaurants, shops and 11,000 sq. ft. of meeting and event space.

It is adjacent to the ski area's day lodge "on a beautiful knoll on the mid mountain with great views," said Blake Rivas, East West's senior partner.

A Ritz-Carlton Club with 77 residences sold as fractional ownership is scheduled to be developed separately by Ritz-Carlton.

"This provides a new opportunity for people to enjoy a mountain experience at Northstar that comes with a Ritz-Carlton Hotel," Rivas said. "From a regional perspective, it will attract new visitors who previously did not consider Tahoe a destination resort. Traditionally, this has been a drive-in market."

A new gondola will connect The Highlands to the newly expanded Village at Northstar, which contains 100 condominiums and 100,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and an ice rink. A second entrance and roadway will be added from Highway 267 to connect directly to The Highlands.

Construction of the $300 million project is expected to start this summer and be completed in late 2009.

The project is a joint venture between Swinerton Builders of San Francisco and Q+D Construction of Reno.

"It's a large project and we wanted to make sure we had the right contractor in place to build in a mountain environment," Rivas said. "Q+D is a respected firm with the background to take on a project of this magnitude."

The architecture of the The Highlands is by Mark Hornberger of Hornberger + Worstell of San Francisco and Stanford Hughes, principal of Brayton & Hughes Design Studio in San Francisco.

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Hornberger said the concept is to replicate the look and feel of old mountain lodges, combined with using modern "green" building techniques in both the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the accompanying residences.

"It will be a contemporary mountain lodge that has its design roots grounded in the traditional high-mountain lodges such as the Ahwahnee in Yosemite," he said. "There will be steeply pitched roofs, the use of natural stone from local quarries, and shingle siding. But it will also be contemporary in that there will be lots of windows for the views."

He said the hotel will be LEED certified and will use recycled materials and include environmentally friendly underground parking instead of outdoor asphalt lots.

"The roof will be recycled rubber tires in a chevron pattern that looks like green slate," Hornberger said. "It's something developed in the industry recently."

The Highlands is the latest of East West's projects at Northstar. The first phase of its Village at Northstar is nearly complete.

Construction is well underway on the second phase, which includes 113 condominiums and 35,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and is scheduled for completion this winter. Construction is by GE Johnson of Colorado Springs, Colo.

The third phase will be 34 townhouses and 103 condominiums, built on the north side of the Village.

The company handling the $30 million Village North expansion is Robert Marr Construction of Truckee. Groundbreaking is expected in late summer and completion in summer 2007.

"We were brought on board because of our experience with East West at Old Greenwood (a nearby golf course community)," said Gerry Rodriguez, Robert Marr's senior project manager.

The mountain construction season is shortened by restrictions that limit moving soil to the period between May 15 and Oct. 1. Rodriguez said the company expects to have Village North foundations in place by Oct. 1 so that framing can occur during the winter months.