Developer planning ‘another village’ at Lake Tahoe’s South Shore

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — A mix of commercial and residential development above and behind The Chateau at the Village is scheduled to begin this summer at the Nevada/California state line at Lake Tahoe’s South Shore.

In April 2017, Marin County developer Kawana Meadows Development Corporation closed on the sale of 8 acres of land and building entitlements owned by Tahoe Stateline Venture.

Tahoe Stateline Venture is responsible for the development of The Chateau at the Village and the high-end condominiums and retail space at the neighboring Zalanta.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Kawana Meadows CEO Will Oswald presented his plans for what he calls “another village” across from Heavenly Village.

The development, known as The Resort at Tahoe, includes roughly 240 condominiums, 135 hotel rooms, a rooftop pool, spa, retail shops, restaurants, bars, and possibly a high-end bowling alley and outdoor movie theatre.

“Our original plan was to build 387 condos. That wasn’t a good fit for South Lake Tahoe,” said Oswald. “We don’t want to build something the city doesn’t want. This is going to make a big impact in South Lake Tahoe.”

The hotel rooms will book for around $550 a night, while the condos will range from $850 a night for a one-bedroom to $2,500 a night for a four-bedroom.

“The nightly rates seem high, but we based this off of Zalanta,” said Oswald.

The condos at Zalanta are whole-ownership, but rented out to vacationers through a management team from Vail Resorts.

The project also includes around 650 parking spaces.

Oswald said there will be shuttle services to and from the Lake Tahoe and Reno-Tahoe International airports and electric golf carts transporting people to the gondola and beach.

“Once you park here, you shouldn’t have to drive anywhere again,” he said.

Construction of the first 16 retail units, built as a second floor above the existing Chateau at the Village tenants, will start this summer, according to Oswald. The entire project will likely take 3.5 years.

Gary Midkiff of Midkiff & Associates, a Stateline-based planning and permitting consulting firm, presented the financial impact this could have on South Lake Tahoe to City Council: an estimated $13 million in transient occupancy tax (TOT) and $1.4 million in sales tax, annually.

“You would change the entire makeup of the town if we’re able to achieve these numbers,” said councilmember Austin Sass. “This might be the motivation that someone like Vail [Resorts] would need to rip down the California Base Lodge and put a village up there or other projects like that because they would see the clientele they need to have to be as successful as their other resorts, which is why we’re not getting any capital investment right now.”

Midkiff requested 15,770 square feet of Commercial Floor Area (CFA) for the project from thecCity of South Lake Tahoe’s pool of banked development rights at no cost. CFA is one of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s commodities used to control development in the Tahoe Basin. It is required for any commercial project.

Most recently, the city granted Blue Granite Climbing Gym 4,873 square feet of CFA at no cost.

After hearing the presentation, City Council decided to approve the allocation of the CFA to The Resort at Tahoe project with the stipulation that if the project does not go through, the CFA is returned to the city.