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Whiteface Club plans $45M gated community

LAKE PLACID – Whiteface Club & Resort is getting ready to build 22 high-end homes.

The new subdivision is being called the Forest Brook Estates and will be located at the southern end of the club’s property, on the side of the golf course toward Saranac Avenue. The area where the 22 homes will be built is currently undeveloped and can only be reached by a dirt road.

The project’s anticipated cost will be $45 million, Whiteface Club & Resort General Manager Mark Sperling told the Enterprise Tuesday. He said the company has seen steady growth over the past 12 years and is expecting to continue to build in the future.

“It’s time right now quite honestly to move into it because we need the lots,” Sperling said.

Once finished, each home will have between 1 to 3 acres, and many will have a view that overlooks the nearby mountain landscape. The new subdivision will be secluded and will offer more privacy than some of the other properties at the resort, Sperling said. It will be a gated community within the resort.

Two of the homes are expected to be completed by Oct. 1. Three lots have already been sold, Sperling said.

The Adirondack-styled homes in the Forest Brook Estates will be on the high end of the resort’s price scale – $2 million and up, including the land.

The subdivision was planned years ago as part of the resort’s master plan.

“That land was acquired in the 1990s,” Sperling said. “It was permitted from the (state Adirondack Park Agency) – I believe that was granted in 1998 – along with the town planning board. Its all been approved in advance.”

A company pre-construction meeting will begin next week to start planning the work. The first phase of development will include installing water, sewer, underground electric, cable television and Internet lines, followed by trees being cut on each lot and then construction of the homes.

In total, the club is permitted to develop about 207 residences. Its property is about 500 acres, and it currently has 130 residences, according to Sperling.

Sperling said the resort plans to continue to build more homes in the future.

“We have about 65 or so more residences to build,” he said.

The Whiteface Club & Resort originated as the Westwide Hotel in 1881 and was renamed the Whiteface Inn in 1891. In the 1980s, the hotel was demolished and replaced with condominiums.

It’s owned by Vermont Friesland and PEG Enterprises, with the latter having a controlling interest in the resort. PEG Enterprises is owned by a partnership of businessmen including three from Lake Placid: Pat Barrett, Greg Peacock and Mirror Lake Inn owner Ed Weibrecht.

(Editor’s note: The name of the subdivision, Forest Brook Estates, and the number of homes expected to be built this year have been corrected.)

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