Owners looking at options for ski lodge
By NANCY KIMBALL
Structural concerns close 38-year-old Alpinglow Inn
The Daily Inter Lake
Owners of the Alpinglow Inn have set an ambitious timeline to research and possibly decide what to do with the 1969-vintage hotel at Whitefish Mountain Resort.
The 54-room hotel, restaurant and lounge will close for the 2007-08 ski season, owners announced Friday. A preliminary structural engineering study had turned up concerns about the building's safety.
Now, a committee of five set its sights on Nov. 15 to report back to the board after talking with engineers, contractors and others with experience in similar ventures.
The basic problem involves the wooden poles the building sits on, Alpinglow Inn Board President Joe Bottomly said Monday.
"Structurally, they're not sufficient. I'm not sure they ever were sufficient," Bottomly said. "They don't meet code. They have stood all this time, but if a tremor came along or a snow load combined with wind," the possibility exists that the building could give way.
Seattle architect Charlie Morgan designed the slopeside building after Norm Kurtz lined up 54 people to pitch in $8,500 apiece for what was to become Montana's first condominium project at Big Mountain Ski Resort.
Winter Sports Inc. contributed an acre of land and construction began in 1968. Winter Sports managed the facility from its 1969 opening until the owners took over in 1989.
Bottomly said the owners' committee will look at all options - fixing it in some fashion, tearing it down to start over on the building, or even tearing it down and selling it.
"Our first preference is to keep it there," Bottomly said. "Most people got involved in this thing primarily for their own families. Most of the owners use it, so I think the preference would be to maintain it."
Alpinglow Inn has become known among ski-racing teams, university ski clubs and vacationing families as an affordable option over the years.
"Our niche has been a family-oriented, economy place where people can still afford a room or [dining at] the restaurant," he said.
The Alpinglow restaurant is a popular place for skiers to take a break for lunch or dinner and hold apr/s ski gatherings.
Bottomly estimated the facility's staff at 14, with some of them working part time. He said there are something like 45 owners now, with some owning multiple units and Winter Sports owning "a unit or two."
In addition to the hotel and restaurant/bar, the Alpinglow has a mezzanine as a second lobby on the top floor, an owners' lounge on the bottom floor, owners' lockers, and a steam room and hot tub for guests.
Bottomly said there are no buyers waiting in the wings.
"We're not soliciting," he said. "We're hopeful it can be fixed, but we don't know the options."
If all reports are ready by Nov. 15, owners will begin the decision-making process.
He could not attach a cost for the potential fix just yet.
"The committee needs to figure out the cost," he said. "The owners could do it, or get a partner, or have someone else do it and have a minority interest."
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com