{"id":149573,"date":"2026-03-02T11:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149573\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:49:18","slug":"inside-the-50m-push-to-reconnect-north-creek-gore-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149573\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the $50M push to reconnect North Creek, Gore Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among David Cronheim\u2019s favored artworks is a stylized overview of North Creek from the 1930s, when hundreds of people from the Albany area shrugged off the scourge of the Great Depression and boarded excursion trains that dropped them off a few hundred yards from the foot of Gore Mountain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sketch is brimming with joy and energy, as skiers sling their boards over their shoulders and make their way through the streets of town to waiting trucks that promised they could \u201cdrive up and slide down.\u201d Maybe it\u2019s art, maybe it\u2019s shameless promotion, but what stands out to Cronheim, a commercial real estate attorney from New Jersey, is that there\u2019s no delineation between streets and slopes. North Creek, the largest hamlet in the town of Johnsburg, presents as a classic European ski town, where visitors in colorful sweaters and rosy cheeks merrily eat, drink and shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NorthNorth Creek Depot lined with trains and cars as people prepare to head to the ski slopes from the Winter Sports Excursion Train. This postcard is part of the Adirondack Research Library of the Kelly Adirondack Center at Union College, and was provided by Protect the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n

The snow trains didn\u2019t survive the war, and, in time, neither did Gore Mountain\u2019s relationship with the town. Decisions that make sense at the time can be fatal to golden geese.<\/p>\n

The heritage gap<\/p>\n

Gore\u2019s central lodge moved a couple of miles up the road, no longer within walking distance of the commercial district. In the 1960s, a broad new Route 28 didn\u2019t just bypass North Creek, it bisected it, with its businesses on one side of the high-speed thoroughfare, and Gore Mountain on the other. Finally, a highway department sand pit grew into a high-bermed moonscape that cut off sight lines between the Ski Bowl and the town.<\/p>\n

These moves, however well-intentioned,\u201cdisconnected the town from its heritage,\u201d Cronheim said. \u201cIt feels like an inheritance we never got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, locals say only 1 or 2% of the 250,000 people who recreate at Gore Mountain each year find their way into the town. If that increased to 10%, the benefit would be exponential.<\/p>\n

Now, a cluster of Johnsburg partisans are aiming to get that heritage, and those skiers, back. Their success matters not just for North Creek and for Johnsburg, but for the entire Adirondacks, where many hamlets face similar trouble parlaying world-class natural assets into anything resembling an economic pulse.<\/p>\n

\"MindyMindy Preuninger, Johnsburg board member and chair of the Johnsburg Economic Development and Marketing Committee, at the top of Main Street in North Creek. Photo by Eric Teed<\/p>\n

Mindy Preuninger, Johnsburg board member and chair of the Johnsburg Economic Development and Marketing Committee spearheading the initiative, said the holistic vision for North Creek dates back nearly a century. At that time, people with a deep and abiding love for the town were inspired by the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics, and began brushing out ski trails of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really unique community at that point,\u201d Preuninger said. \u201cI think we need to build on that, because sometimes we forget our history, and what a grassroots effort looks like, and how it brings the community together when everyone was participating.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is optimism that North Creek can at last blossom into a vibrant community it is well founded, or at least well-funded. In January, the state opened an 18,000-square-foot lodge<\/a> called The Station at the historic Ski Bowl on the edge of town, part of a $40 million initiative that also includes a speedy chair lift that connects the Ski Bowl with the main trail network.<\/p>\n

The infrastructure anchor<\/p>\n

This spring, the town will begin connecting homes and businesses to a $10 million public sewer project, and in anticipation of that \u2014 and perhaps most telling of the hamlet\u2019s potential \u2014 private investors are putting up their own money to renovate and reimagine downtown North Creek with hotel space, food and beverage opportunities, shopping, outdoor fire pits and such.<\/p>\n

The optimism is palpable, but not unbridled. At a November economic development forum, a shopkeeper said she\u2019s seen millions of dollars in grants and investments come to town before. Today, she looks around and wonders where all that money went.<\/p>\n

Preuninger understands. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it over 35 years, people will say \u2018yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go, go, but then they pull back,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fast starts always seem to come to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s different this time can\u2019t be measured in statistics or bought with grant money. It is a core of people with a vision for North Creek, all pulling in the same direction.<\/p>\n

\"JakeJake Gaechter, chef and owner of Izzy\u2019s Market and Deli in North Creek. Photo by Eric Teed<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that it can all come together,\u201d said Jake Gaechter, who came to town to ski, stayed as a chef and is now owner of Izzy\u2019s Market and Deli<\/a>. \u201cWe have people saying that this promise of a big booming ski town was made 25 years ago, so when\u2019s it going to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaechter believes it\u2019s starting to happen now. \u201cWe get a lot of the families, the mothers, the kids, the babies, that don\u2019t ski,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a lot of the skier crowd here likes to ski from opening until maybe 11; they\u2019ll ski in the morning, and then they\u2019re done, and they\u2019ll come have lunch in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others come too, including 41,000 people who ride one of Revolution Rail<\/a>\u2019s four railbiking routes in Warren County, and another 10,000 rafters and tubers on the Hudson River. The railroad and the Hudson are also an integral part of the town; its historical bellcow is Teddy Roosevelt\u2019s dash from the flanks of Mount Marcy to the North Creek train station to assume the presidency following the assassination of William McKinley.<\/p>\n

But what was true 150 years ago, when the station was a jumping off point for city vacationers heading to lake country, is true today \u2014\u00a0 the trick has never been getting people to come to North Creek, the trick has been getting them to stay.<\/p>\n

Anna Bowers, a Johnsburg board member and chair of the comprehensive plan committee, said conquering the physical barrier that is Route 28 is key to making that happen. \u201cThe goal is to have multiple safe and very clear points of access for pedestrians, and cyclists and skiers, so that they can go from the Ski Bowl and get to this side of the town safely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ideally there might be a traffic circle, or some other traffic-calming obstacle \u2014 although the state Department of Transportation would have to sign off. Mainly there needs to be an overall reduction in speed. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see what\u2019s happening at the town or what\u2019s happening at the Ski Bowl at 55 miles an hour,\u201d Bowers said.<\/p>\n

Once skiers cross the highway there\u2019s a lot to see, including the Tannery Pond Center for the Arts, Riverfront Park and the North Creek Depot Museum. Tannery Pond, said Executive Director Candice Murray, is an outlet for artists and also a window into the beauty and creativity of the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s photography, it\u2019s painting, theater and music,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThat\u2019s just another piece to that puzzle that we don\u2019t always think about. It\u2019s the extra cultural experience that you can enjoy, even if you\u2019re not a skier, hiker or biker. It\u2019s a great anchor for the downtown.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tannery Pond<\/a>, built in 2002, also serves\u00a0 as something of a community center for locals and visitors alike, with educational programming from documentary movies about skiing to discussion of threats to rural health care. Bill McKibben has spoken on solar energy, and Melanie Sawyer on woodland foraging.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A private-investment wave<\/p>\n

Private investment would round out the picture, and developers believe they have spotted a market inefficiency that is making North Creek property a bargain.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Cronheim, a commercial real estate attorney from New Jersey, is planning to build a craft distillery, with a European style ice garden and winter market in North Creek. Photo by Eric Teed<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an economic standpoint, there\u2019s a tremendous mismatch between the quality of the skiing and the pricing of the real estate,\u201d said. Cronheim. \u201cIf you look, there is not a ski town in America \u2014 and I mean this after doing a great deal of research \u2014 that has the property values that North Creek has in such close proximity to skiing, any skiing, much less great skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronheim is partnering with a premium distiller in New Jersey to build a craft distillery, as well as a European style ice garden and winter market where visitors can sip warm beverages, play a form of curling and relax around a fire pit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to come up with something that celebrates winter in North Creek in a way that pays homage to its history, but also brings in some of these wonderful alpine traditions from around the world of skiing.<\/p>\n

DAVID Cronheim, commercial real estate attorney<\/p>\n

Another goal of investors is to transform Gore Mountain from a day-skiing venue to an overnight destination.\u2029\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a couple months into the COVID pandemic when Keir Weimer\u2019s Weekender hotel group bought its first North Creek property, the 19-room Alpine Lodge \u201cagainst the better advice of nearly everybody,\u201d he said. The lodge opened its doors after a complete renovation, and for a time it looked like nearly everybody was right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was super quiet for the first few months, and I thought, \u2018oh no, did I make a mistake here?\u201d Weimer said. But as COVID receded, business picked up to the point that the Alpine is among the leaders in Weimer\u2019s Adirondack portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe leaned into this independent boutique approach to hospitality that was very much focused on connecting our guests to great adventures in the outdoors, wilderness and clean air environments,\u201d he said. \u201cAt that time you could see some cool things happening in North Creek and feel the energy might be changing. But a lot of my peers were still on the fence about whether or not it is a good area to invest in for a number of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Gerard (right), general manager of Weekender Hotels, giving a tour of the former Copperfield Inn, then becoming the Phoenix Inn, in downtown North Creek. Photo by Eric Teed<\/p>\n

Those reasons will sound familiar to most any Adirondack hamlet: unreliable cell service, weak wifi and no public sewer. \u201cThere was a very significant lack of just basic infrastructure at a municipal level that we would have had in other markets,\u201d Weimer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turning a page<\/p>\n

In late 2024, Weimer bought and began a complete renovation<\/a> on the one building in town that might be most representative of North Creek\u2019s economic fits and starts. Known as the Copperfield Inn, then the Phoenix Inn, before giving up the ghost altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the eve of its soft opening in February, Weekender area general manager Jason Gerard led a tour of the property, developed with financial assistance of the Warren County Local Development Corporation and the Warren County Industrial Development Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among other challenges, which again will sound familiar to many Adirondack towns, is building in enough upscale swank to impress city visitors, while also making it affordable and comfortable \u2014 and open \u2014 for locals in the off seasons.<\/p>\n

To that end, the reimagined hotel includes a health club, private dining room and restaurant with a show-kitchen where guests can watch their meals being prepared \u2014 but also a cozy tavern room that is little changed from its days at a local hangout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re bringing the property out of 1992, which is where it was kind of stuck,\u201d Gerard said.<\/p>\n

A long-awaited sewer project<\/p>\n

Town leaders believe these developments will fire the imaginations of others, the ultimate catalyst being the wastewater project. \u201cPeople talk about things. People say, well, I\u2019d love to open a brew pub, but you can\u2019t do that without a sewer,\u201d said Johnsburg economic development board member Mark Cartwright. \u2029\u201dSo it\u2019s limiting. People have ideas, people want to do things, but you can\u2019t do them without that sewer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Siplon, president of the Warren County Economic Development Corporation, said it\u2019s gratifying that North Creek will have a public sewer system, but what will be sobering to other Adirondack communities is how hard it was to get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a confederation of literally every possible source of funding, and it took an army of people to figure out how to piece this together,\u201d Siplon said. \u201cEvery day, we fought a battle to make sure that this project did not start to unwind. And that\u2019s not realistic for every community to be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Public Investment<\/p>\n

$40 Million: Total initiative for the Ski Bowl expansion, including the new lodge.<\/p>\n

$10 Million: Cost of the municipal sewer project<\/p>\n

250,000+: Annual visitors to Gore Mountain; the town\u2019s goal is to increase the local \u201ccapture rate\u201d from 1% to 10%.<\/p>\n

Silpon believes it should not be this hard, particularly when, for once, economic development and environmental interests both agree that growth should occur in hamlets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several things that we agree on that need to be done,\u201d he said. \u201cOne is that we need to be able to fully develop the hamlet, essentially repopulate the hamlet. But you cannot do it unless you have infrastructure, because in towns like North Creek, you are held hostage by the fact that you can\u2019t even add a bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compounding the problem, much vacant space in the hamlet couldn\u2019t be built upon, because that\u2019s where the septic system\u2019s leachfield was.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of public sewer, Siplon said there is $40 million worth of investment already underway or in the planning process. By contrast, when the state awarded a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant, it took a decade to realize that much growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow amazing that we were able to see roughly the same level of investment in less than a calendar year here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt tells you just how much pent up opportunity there is in these communities. And I think we need to do this again and again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among David Cronheim\u2019s favored artworks is a stylized overview of North Creek from the 1930s, when hundreds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37410,44965,9,11,10,49,51,50,54036,44966],"class_list":["post-149573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-gore-mountain","tag-johnsburg","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-north-creek","tag-north-creek-ski-bowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}