Big Tupper Update

ADKskier

Looks like some news finally surrounding the failed project. There might still be life as Stanley Rumbough a prospective investor and entrepreneur from New York City purchased the foreclosed land and town marina.

https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/lienholders-fighting-tupper-lake-development-land-decision

lotsoskiing

Wake me when it's over and the lifts spin again. Honestly, I have lost track of all the twists and turns in this mess. I still think they will have a very hard time making a go of it as a ski area, but who knows. I hope it opens again, as I have always wanted to ski there.

ski_it

What I got out of that was he purchased the 14 acre marina and Camp. He bought the mortgage on 5800 acres surrounding the mountain but does not own it but would buy it. several parties would like to appeal the mortgage purchase. The county wants to use the same strategy to purchase the mountain and then preferably have the town buy it. If they don’t buy it Mr Cereal fortune heir indicated he would.

lotsoskiing

ski_it;c-65328 wroteWhat I got out of that was he purchased the 14 acre marina and Camp. He bought the mortgage on 5800 acres surrounding the mountain but does not own it but would buy it. several parties would like to appeal the mortgage purchase. The county wants to use the same strategy to purchase the mountain and then preferably have the town buy it. If they don’t buy it Mr Cereal fortune heir indicated he would.

A lot of 'ifs'...lawyers will make money, for sure.

ADKskier

ski_it;c-65328 wroteWhat I got out of that was he purchased the 14 acre marina and Camp. He bought the mortgage on 5800 acres surrounding the mountain but does not own it but would buy it. several parties would like to appeal the mortgage purchase. The county wants to use the same strategy to purchase the mountain and then preferably have the town buy it. If they don’t buy it Mr Cereal fortune heir indicated he would.

Yes thank you for clarifying.

ski_it

ADKskier;c-65330 wrote
ski_it;c-65328 wroteWhat I got out of that was he purchased the 14 acre marina and Camp. He bought the mortgage on 5800 acres surrounding the mountain but does not own it but would buy it. several parties would like to appeal the mortgage purchase. The county wants to use the same strategy to purchase the mountain and then preferably have the town buy it. If they don’t buy it Mr Cereal fortune heir indicated he would.
Yes thank you for clarifying.

Hey I know sarcasm when I see it

lotsoskiing

ADKskier;c-65330 wrote
ski_it;c-65328 wroteWhat I got out of that was he purchased the 14 acre marina and Camp. He bought the mortgage on 5800 acres surrounding the mountain but does not own it but would buy it. several parties would like to appeal the mortgage purchase. The county wants to use the same strategy to purchase the mountain and then preferably have the town buy it. If they don’t buy it Mr Cereal fortune heir indicated he would.
Yes thank you for clarifying.

What are the odds Mr Cereal Heir would then open it? Gonna cost a lot of Cheerios to get it up and running.

rickbolger

Where's the cereal bit come in? I thought he was Colgate-Palmolive, via his father, great grandson of founding Colgate, but mostly his money is from EF Hutton via his mother, actress Dina Merrill, daughter (and him grandson) of EF Hutton? If it's the same Stanley Rumbough, and if he eats any cereal, it's definitely with a silver spoon

lotsoskiing

rickbolger;c-65333 wroteWhere's the cereal bit come in? I thought he was Colgate-Palmolive, via his father, great grandson of founding Colgate, but mostly his money is from EF Hutton via his mother, actress Dina Merrill, daughter (and him grandson) of EF Hutton? If it's the same Stanley Rumbough, and if he eats any cereal, it's definitely with a silver spoon

Wasjust going of Ski_It comment

ski_it

lotsoskiing;c-65334 wrote
rickbolger;c-65333 wroteWhere's the cereal bit come in? I thought he was Colgate-Palmolive, via his father, great grandson of founding Colgate, but mostly his money is from EF Hutton via his mother, actress Dina Merrill, daughter (and him grandson) of EF Hutton? If it's the same Stanley Rumbough, and if he eats any cereal, it's definitely with a silver spoon
Wasjust going of Ski_It comment

Boy Rick and I had thought you knew how those hyperlinks worked in detail. ;) It was in the ADK Explorer article on the marina purchase from 2022. It also said he purchased the mortgage on a great deal of land near Big Tupper back before that. And that article has another link to more info. I haven't done any other internet stalking... I'm sure he is a nice guy.
"He is the heir of Wall Street, cereal and soap fortunes as well as the grandson of E.F. Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post, whose Adirondack great camp, Topridge, on Upper St. Regis Lake, he visited as a child."

z1000307470

Big Tupper will never reopen.
There might be money to be made if the great camps section can be developed. That was what the previous developers were trying to do while dangling reopening Big Tupper as bait. There are plans for the largest 8 great camps ranging from111acres to 1225 acres and another 18 lots ranging from 19 acres to 40 acres. The master plan calls for 649 units in total with many of them at the base of Big Tupper. The previous developers were so underfinanced that they had to sell off the relatively new (at the time in 2000) BT snowmaking system for pennies on the dollar. Some of the stuff was bought by Plattekill.

Pretending to care about a ski area opening in the East while selling off the existing snowmaking equipment is all you need to know about this scam project.

lotsoskiing

z1000307470;c-65336 wroteBig Tupper will never reopen.
There might be money to be made if the great camps section can be developed. That was what the previous developers were trying to do while dangling reopening Big Tupper as bait. There are plans for the largest 8 great camps ranging from111acres to 1225 acres and another 18 lots ranging from 19 acres to 40 acres. The master plan calls for 649 units in total with many of them at the base of Big Tupper. The previous developers were so underfinanced that they had to sell off the relatively new (at the time in 2000) BT snowmaking system for pennies on the dollar. Some of the stuff was bought by Plattekill.

Pretending to care about a ski area opening in the East while selling off the existing snowmaking equipment is all you need to know about this scam project.

That's what I thought. No way you'd recoup the $ needed to get trails, lifts, and snowmaking back in order. Too bad...

rickbolger

OK thanks I must've missed that. Yes Post Cereal married Colgate Palmolive, whose offspring married the movie star daughter of EF Hutton, who produced this fellow. I only went to public school, so I don't know for certain, but I imagine he could figure out a way to restart the ski area if he wanted to.

ADKskier

ski_it;c-65331 wrote
ADKskier;c-65330 wrote
ski_it;c-65328 wroteWhat I got out of that was he purchased the 14 acre marina and Camp. He bought the mortgage on 5800 acres surrounding the mountain but does not own it but would buy it. several parties would like to appeal the mortgage purchase. The county wants to use the same strategy to purchase the mountain and then preferably have the town buy it. If they don’t buy it Mr Cereal fortune heir indicated he would.
Yes thank you for clarifying.
Hey I know sarcasm when I see it

Im just here to paste links :D

justkeepmovingne

Recent update as of 8/19 per the ADK Explorer. The bulletpoint summary:
-County is putting the property to auction
-Original plan was to offer Town of TL first offer for the back-taxes (~300k)
-Town will no longer bid essentially because a a US Supreme Court case ruled that when buying a foreclosed property, the excess funds go to the old owner (failed developer). Liability is ~450k - town of TL doesn't have the funds to go that high.
-Land can still go to auction, but it won't be bought by the town.

https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/public-auction-for-big-tupper-ski-center-moving-forward

justkeepmovingne

Big Tupper as well as surrounding lots of land (including the marina nearby) are up for auction November 7th. Anyone got a spare $468,000 lying around to purchase the mountain, and another few million to refurbish it?

In all seriousness, is there *any* chance ORDA purchases the mountain before/at auction, and if not, what seems to be most likely scenario for it? Even if there is no lift served skiing, does anyone believe the public will be allowed to legally access it at some point in the near future for earned turns?

https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/big-tupper-ski-facility-land-auction-set-for-nov-7

obienick

Unfortunately with the layout of the mountain, if they want 100% terrain open and 100% vertical they must run 3 chairlifts. That's a tough ask for an area with only 53 skiable acres in the middle of nowhere. At this point everything needs to be rebuilt from the ground up (maybe the lodge can be saved). I don't have any hope it reopens.

ADKskier

an excerpt from Unofficial Networks

"With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the town no longer had first rights to the mountain at the likely discounted price. In his August ruling, Franklin County Court Judge Carriero confirmed that the Big Tupper auction had to proceed in accordance with the Supreme Court’s Tyler decision.

While the news was disappointing to town officials, Tupper Lake town Supervisor Rickey Dattola said that the town is hopeful that whoever places the winning bid for Big Tupper will rehabilitate the ski center, as the town intended to.

He said he had been approached by two potential developers who expressed interest in re-opening the ski area and were curious about avenues of support available to them.

“Both of them are very much of the mindset that ‘We want to open this as a ski center.’ It may take a little time, but they were both very adamant about opening it as a ski center,” Dattola said.

He added that the potential buyers saw the mountain as a four-season resort, mentioning hiking and mountain biking options for the ski area’s off-seasons, a common theme among Adirondack ski resorts, as a means of generating additional revenue and remaining viable.

Dattola said that when the town was considering taking over the property, they estimated the cost of re-opening Big Tupper as a ski area to be around $15 million."

Sounds like there is some interest that whoever purchases wants to reopen.

lotsoskiing

ADKskier;c-66295 wrotean excerpt from Unofficial Networks

"With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the town no longer had first rights to the mountain at the likely discounted price. In his August ruling, Franklin County Court Judge Carriero confirmed that the Big Tupper auction had to proceed in accordance with the Supreme Court’s Tyler decision.

While the news was disappointing to town officials, Tupper Lake town Supervisor Rickey Dattola said that the town is hopeful that whoever places the winning bid for Big Tupper will rehabilitate the ski center, as the town intended to.

He said he had been approached by two potential developers who expressed interest in re-opening the ski area and were curious about avenues of support available to them.

“Both of them are very much of the mindset that ‘We want to open this as a ski center.’ It may take a little time, but they were both very adamant about opening it as a ski center,” Dattola said.

He added that the potential buyers saw the mountain as a four-season resort, mentioning hiking and mountain biking options for the ski area’s off-seasons, a common theme among Adirondack ski resorts, as a means of generating additional revenue and remaining viable.

Dattola said that when the town was considering taking over the property, they estimated the cost of re-opening Big Tupper as a ski area to be around $15 million."

Sounds like there is some interest that whoever purchases wants to reopen.

I think $15 million is on the money to get it fully operational, plus deep pockets to absorb the losses every year. Sadly, I don't have that kind of money...

z1000307470

It is the same old developer song. It is complete BS. The main face BT is maybe 700 vertical. There is nothing special about the place. Only a fool would drop $15 million (probably more) on Big Tupper.
There are still a few of these smaller, old school ski areas operating in and around the Adirondacks if you want that experience and they are all closer to the population areas (Royal, Oak, Snow Ridge, McCauley, Willard just to name a few).

The ORDA takeover is just wishful thinking.