Base Camp to Bring a New Ski-On, Ski-Off Real Estate Offering to Killington Ski & Summer Resort

Once approved, the development will offer the first true ski-on, ski-off housing units at Killington Resort in the past 15 years, according to Prestige Real Estate, which has the exclusive listing for Phase 1 of the proposed project. There will be a mix of single-family homes, multi-family homes, and duplex townhomes. Architectural renderings and the site plan can be found at www.basecampatbearmountain.com. All the homes will have a mid-century modern design with neutral earth tone colors and neutral-colored roofs with low E Dark Sky lighting fixtures.

Under current plans, 12 duplex buildings will be constructed during the first phase, offering 24 townhomes. These will be adjacent to the Bear Cub Trail at Bear Mountain with garage parking, a gated entrance and mountain views.

Multi-family homes will be constructed in the second phase, totaling 72 units in four buildings with 18 units each. Six single family homes, totaling about 4,000 square feet each, will be constructed in phase three.

The Act 250 permit for the project was submitted by Ottauquechee Realty Advisors (Ottauquechee) and Killington/Pico Ski Partners about a year ago. The Killington Development Review Board gave approval for phase one of the project and approval of the master plan on June 1, 2021.

“We’ve addressed all the considerations with regard to wildlife habitat, traffic impact on the project, burden on town services — those have all been addressed,” said Steve Malone, one of the project’s development partners. An estimated 300 jobs will be created in the process, according to a report from Economic and Policy Resources in Williston.

The idea for the development has been 15 years in the making. Discussions started in 2007, back when Killington Resort was owned by American Skiing Company. Killington was purchased by Powdr Corp. in February 2007 and Malone said the project stalled shortly thereafter, but the timing is much better now, Malone added. The market declined in 2008.

“It was actually fortuitous that we didn’t buy the property at the time,” Malone said. “We kind of lucked out. We waited for the right time to come back and have discussions with Killington and POWDR. We waited almost 10 years to even discuss it again. There was nothing to talk about during the Great Recession.”

Malone’s business partner Richard Saunders said they surveyed 120,000 season pass holders at Killington prior to submitting the Act 250 permit application. Demand was strong with about 8,000 people expressing they were interested in the Bear Mountain properties.

"There's a huge amount of demand for this type of project,” Saunders said. "We were really able to design from the ground up what people said they want.”

"What we’re really creating is a place to create family memories,” Saunders said. “That’s what people want — they want to buy a place their kids and grandkids can grow up in.”

Malone hopes to have a permit for the Base Camp project by mid-winter. The project will be developed on about nine acres of land.

Ottauquechee is now accepting non-binding reservations for the right to enter into a purchase agreement with a $10,000 fully refundable deposit. Sixteen of 24 units for phase one are now under deposit. He hopes to start construction of phase one this spring and expects it will take about two years to complete the entire project.