MountainSide at Schweitzer
February 28, 2011An eco-friendly slope side community
This isn’t news; no one has been immune to the changes in the economy in the past few years. Every person, organization and business entity has had to adapt or die. Resort real estate is no exception.
It’s a truth, many of us would rather not believe, however, most ski resorts rely on real estate sales to fund their ski resort operations. The chairlifts and ski runs are an amenity.
So, what are resorts in smaller more remote markets doing to capture attention and sell real estate?
Schweitzer Mountain Resort is a ski and summer resort located 11 miles outside of Sandpoint, Idaho and 90 minutes from the nearest airport, Spokane International Airport. The resort has released MountainSide, a 34- lot community with a mix of fractional homes, single-family homes and premium lots for custom construction.
The original plan at this site, named Trappers Creek at the time, was a collection of premium home sites with design guidelines in place for spacious, whole-ownership, single-family homes. The idea was to sell these premium home sites adjacent to and above the alpine ski village allowing buyers to build exactly what they wanted, with their own design/build team. At that time, there was a market for bare land. “We weren’t in the development business at that time,” explained Schweitzer CEO Tom Chasse, “but we’ve adapted.”
Schweitzer Mountain pulled the Trappers Creek community from the market, took a hard look at their buyer, and their preferences, and rolled out a new product with a new name in the same premium, ski-in/ski-out location.
MountainSide at Schweitzer
“We planned a community for the eco- and price- conscious buyer. Something with a smaller footprint, lower maintenance costs, less impact on the environment, and a smaller price point.”
Their market research showed that buyers were having a hard time visualizing what their home would look like. Buyers wanted to simplify their lives; they wanted to be conservative in their spending and in their consumption.
This process allowed Schweitzer officials to change their thinking and develop a product that meets the demand of buyers in the new economy.
Phase I fractional residences at MountainSide, designed by Sun Valleybased Ruscitto, Latham and Blanton, are 3-bedroom, 3 ½ bath stand alone homes with timber ceilings and eastern facing windows and terraces with stunning views of the sunrise over the mountains and Lake Pend Oreille below. At just under 2,000 square feet, the floor plans dedicate more space to open living areas and kitchen.
The exterior design combines simple contemporary architecture with a variety of roof lines and an exterior material palate of timbers, glass, stone and cedar siding. The design blends these elements into an architectural composition inspired by simplicity and grounded by its mountain environment.
