$100M Edgewood Tahoe project launches

STATELINE, Nev. — City, state and Edgewood Tahoe representatives gathered along with shareholders and community members on Oct. 1 to celebrate the official ground-breaking for the golf course’s new lodging facility.

The project is being described as a major step in both the revitalization of South Lake Tahoe tourism offerings and watershed and wildlife preservation.

“What we’re celebrating here is a 4,000-acre watershed project that happens to have a lodge,” Joanne Marchetta, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, said during the ceremony.

In an interview with Tahoe Daily Tribune following the groundbreaking event, Marchetta further explained, “This has elements of virtually all of our environmental needs here in the basin.

“They have been pursuing this very responsibly,” she said of Edgewood planners.

The $100 million-plus price tag includes addressing environmental issues such as energy efficiency, runoff and other water-quality concerns. The resort is scheduled to open in the summer of 2017.

When finished, the new development will include 154 hotel rooms in a new main lodge along with 40 private cabins that are expected to function under fractional ownership. The facility will also include a lakefront pool and dining offerings, as well as a 10,000- square-foot convention center and a spa.

Plans additionally include a new public beach and trails connecting Nevada and California lakefront trail systems.

A news release described the LEED-designed 169,000-square-foot project as increasing “local overnight lodging opportunities and guest experiences with a lodge reminiscent of the great national park facilities.”

“I think what you heard today is that this will be kind of a flagship property for us,” said Carol Chaplin, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, who was at the event.

She explained that Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority believes Edgewood Tahoe fills a gap in current South Shore lodging offering. The new hotel will cater to guests looking for more than the motel experience and who might prefer not to stay at casinos.

“It really is a project that we think is world class and will appeal to a broad tourism group,” she said.

According to Marchetta, approval for the project involves a transfer of lodging development rights.

“When you get a project like this, this is not new growth. This is transferred development where we take down old blighted motel units that are not being used — perhaps they have very little occupancy; they are not up to today’s environmental standards. You transfer those development rights to a project like this and they revitalize and make it new as well as remove some of the old blight.”

Many in attendance at Edgewood Tahoe’s celebration also called it a successful collaboration between multiple agencies.

“This is one region, one market,” said Chuck Scharer, president and CEO of Edgewood, addressing past struggles with development proposals in the Tahoe Basin during his speech. “The state lines needs to disappear.”

Construction at Edgewood was already under way prior to groundbreaking.