Sugarloaf to announce family-focused expansion plans this week

COURTESY / SUGARLOAF Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley is expected to announce major expansion plans this week.

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By Catie Joyce-Bulay

The Sugarloaf resort in Carrabassett Valley is scheduled to preview major expansion plans — including 140 acres of ski terrain, a skier services building and 196 new housing units — in a public meeting on Thursday.

The expansion, totaling 460 acres in the West Mountain area, is part of the resort’s Sugarloaf 2030 plan, announced last February. The project, now in the design phase, will build out terrain on West Mountain, a smaller subpeak of the resort’s property with a more mellow gradient, according to marketing director Ethan Austin.

Austin told Mainebiz the development of more beginner and intermediate trails and the real estate build-out away from the busier slopes are an effort to attract more new families to the mountain.

Expanded summer services

Construction is planned to begin in the summer of 2022, contingent on the project's approval by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. In addition to the build-out, the plans call for new alpine trails, snowmaking and a high-speed, high-capacity lift transporting guests from West Mountain Road to the on-mountain Bullwinkle’s Bistro.

The West Mountain real estate development will consist of 40 duplex units, 52 single-family house lots, and four condo buildings with 26 units each, proposed for just south of West Mountain Road, and east of the West Mountain chair lift, on the west side of the Sugarloaf Ski Resort property, according to the meeting’s public notice.

The project will expand the resort’s summer services with the addition of a lift-serviced mountain bike park and year-round access to Bullwinkle’s, which will open for weddings and conferences.

The Sugarloaf 2030 plan is an extension of Sugarloaf’s 2020 vision plan, which included the Burnt Mountain expansion, which doubled the size of the resort.

Sustainability initiative

Sugarloaf is owned by Boyne Resorts, which purchased it in 2018. Boyne, the third largest resort company in North America, is working to improve sustainability across all its properties. At Sugarloaf, the 2030 vision plan supports a sustainability initiative with a goal of having a net zero carbon footprint by 2030.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the King Pine Room at Sugarloaf, and is part of the application process with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which also includes an ongoing environmental impact study.

Public comment will be accepted throughout the application process, and the application will be filed for public inspection at the MDEP’s Augusta office and at the Carrabassett Valley municipal office.