Windham Mountain Club’s proposed luxury hotel has become a focus of a broader debate over the town’s future, dividing business owners over whether the resort’s move toward exclusivity is bringing opportunity or driving visitors away.

At a packed Oct. 1 Planning Board hearing, supporters said the 26-room hotel could attract customers and encourage investment. Opponents questioned the need for more lodging and urged the board to slow its review, describing concerns that extended beyond the hotel to the town’s dependence on the mountain.

“We don’t want Windham to be the host of a ghost ski resort,” said Nick Bove, who owns Windham Mountain Outfitters, a ski and bicycle shop, and The Gas Hole, a gas station. Bove, who ran unsuccessfully for town supervisor in 2017, added: “That’s what we’re all scared about.”

The hotel and a four-bedroom villa would replace eight townhouses off Resort Drive included in the club’s master plan, which received preliminary plat approval in April. Club President Kristen Leach has said rooms could cost $1,000 to $1,200 a night. The hotel would be open to the public and club members, with a small café and valet-only parking.

The board issued a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act in September. Site plan approval is still pending. At the Oct. 1 meeting, the board kept the public hearing open until its next meeting on Oct. 15 and is accepting written comments in the meantime.

Three Planning Board members are eligible to vote on the club’s proposals: Chair Lisa Jaeger, member Nate Holdridge, and alternate John O’Neill. The remaining Planning Board members have a conflict of interest. Ray Curtis, a ski instructor; Michael Troccoli, a club member; and Claudia Lane, whose employer is connected to the club, must recuse themselves.

The dispute comes three years after Windham Mountain became Windham Mountain Club, adopting a semiprivate model that kept skiing public while reserving some restaurants and wellness facilities for members. Standard year-round membership costs $250,000, plus annual dues; members receive extended skiing hours and priority lift-line access.

For businesses that depend on Windham’s tourist economy, the question is whether the club’s wealthier clientele will spend enough in town to offset a potential decline in visitors.

Charley McGuffog, co-owner of Hickory Hill Market, said the proposed hotel could help “raise the bar” for other businesses. He pointed to the redevelopment of the Thompson House into Wylder, a 110-room hotel, bakery, and restaurant, as an example of investment that changed the local lodging market.

McGuffog recalled that guests at his son’s wedding stayed at hotels across the mountaintop before Wylder opened. Had it been open, he said, many would have stayed there instead.

“That’s competition,” McGuffog said. McGuffog is also on the board of directors of the Windham Foundation. His family was identified as part of the resort’s continuing ownership group in Windham Mountain’s April 2023 announcement of new investment.

Since the hotel proposal’s first public hearing in June, owners of Wylder, Albergo Allegria Hotel, Eastwind, Union and Post, and Christman’s Windham House have challenged Leach’s contention that the area needs a luxury hotel, citing low occupancy at their properties.

Bove urged the board to allow more time for public input, even if the proposal ultimately wins approval.

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t go through,” Bove said. “It means we have more time. We look at it deeper, we think about the economic impact, we work together, we move together. I don’t know what the rush is to move this forward, but this is important for this community. Let’s think about this.”

A Sept. 24 gathering at Wylder brought residents and business owners together to discuss the proposal. A website and petition called Our Windham followed, urging the board to pause its review. Wylder owner John Flannigan did not provide a signature count in an Oct. 5 email.

Flannigan has also criticized the planning board’s process. At the hearing, he said comments Jaeger and O’Neill made at an Aug. 24 meeting showed they had “pre-judged” the application. Jaeger and O’Neill didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. At that meeting, the two indicated they didn’t think the hotel would have more environmental impact than the townhouses it would replace.

Flannigan also faulted the board for not posting meeting minutes online within two weeks, as state law requires.

Connor Exum, Democratic candidate for Windham Supervisor, argued that Jaeger’s dual role as chair of the Planning Board and the Windham Chamber of Commerce, where Leach sits on the board of directors, is a conflict of interest.

Business owners at the hearing described different experiences in town.

Malgorzata Zdanowicz closed the Main Street storefront of Studio Minimale, her boutique and lifestyle shop focused on Japanese minimalism, in April. The shop opened in June 2023 and still operates online. Zdanowicz said it had initially been profitable but began losing money after foot traffic declined.

“I was kind of forced to close my business because I was losing money,” she said. “The first two years of my operations, it was really good.”

Zdanowicz said she wanted to run a business in Windham again but didn’t see an opportunity now.

Not all local business owners see the Mountain Club as detrimental to local business. 

Todd Grubbs, a Prattsville resident who owns Clutch and Throttle, a cookie shop and cafe on Main Street, said his year-to-date sales were up 32% compared with the same period last year.

“We moved to Manhattan, COVID happened, we came up here,” he said. “We stayed quiet, we kept our head down, we put the work in. Whether the mountain is successful or not, I will be successful.”

Antonia Schreiber, a Windham-Ashland-Jewett High School graduate and owner of The Windham Spa, described a first-time visitor’s assessment of the town as having an identity crisis, uncertain of how far it wanted to move upscale.

“That scared the living daylights out of me,” Schreiber said.

Dasha Goettsche, who has worked at the resort’s spa for 12 years and used to be married to Town Councilperson Kurt Goettsche, said restrictions on resort amenities could create opportunities for businesses elsewhere in town.

“I think it gave opportunity to local businesses to take those clients who cannot access our spa,” she said. “Same with restaurants. Those who can’t make a reservation at Cin-Cin, I think it gives opportunity to local restaurants to take more reservations.”

Cin Cin is Windham Mountain Club’s members-only Italian restaurant, located midway up its West Peak.

Karen Matteo, who works at a Main Street restaurant and as a court clerk, said she’d welcome another hotel, affordable or high-end, if it brought more visitors into town on weekend nights.

“People are very excited to come here,” she said.

Leach disputed suggestions that the club was responsible for local businesses’ struggles.

“The days of trying to blame the mountain when your business isn’t doing well, there’s only a small sliver of that that I think is our responsibility,” she said in an interview after the hearing. “You’ve got to do the work. You have to have a good work ethic. You have to have a good business plan, and you have to invest in it.”

She also called for more dialogue with business owners and residents.

“After all this is said and done, wherever this meeting lands, we should get together and really be proactive about how we can work together and everyone can be successful,” Leach said. “That has to happen. There’s no way around that.”

Schreiber, the owner of The Windham Spa, echoed that call for collaboration, urging business owners and resort officials to listen to one another.

“Please, can we collaborate?” she said. “Can we listen to each other and have meaningful, productive conversations and not attack each other? Because we are at a crossroads as a town, and it’s not pretty, but they’re hard conversations that have to be had.”

Connor Greco is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Windham, Hunter, and surrounding Greene County communities. Send correspondence to connor@theoverlooknews.com.