Big plans for Bear Lake: Developers plan a 4,000-acre ski and water resort

Bear Lake and the nearby mountains may seem bucolic, but a planned three-part development could turn the area into a center for shopping, snow- and water-skiing, hiking, fishing, snowmobiling, swimming, tennis, horseback riding, sailing, golfing and dining.

The founders, managers and investors of Black Bear Resort on Thursday unveiled plans for a 4,000-acre development that could take decades to complete on the Idaho side of the lake.

Bruce Barrett, president and co-founder of Black Bear Resort, said the developers visited many resorts to determine what to include in their membership community, which will have some portions open to nonmembers.

"What we wanted was something a little bit different, something that was family-oriented, that was safe, that operated much more like a golf-course community, but was on a larger scale and had more activities," Barrett said during a news conference in Salt Lake City.

Black Bear Resort's development will begin with a Mountain Village, set atop a plateau about 12 miles northwest of the lake. The Lake Community will come next, followed by The Ranches, several miles away from the mountain phase.

Black Bear Resort came about after Bradley Auger, now the development's co-founder and construction president, and Barrett bought the plateau property in 2004 with plans to create hunting lodges. But the possibility of securing enough water caused them to think about a resort community, and they set about acquiring more property.

The Salt Lake City-based developers have received permission to start building streets, a model home and a sales office. The Bear Lake County Commission gave its approval for an overall development plan last week.

Barrett and Auger still have to show they have enough water rights for thousands of houses. They are making final adjustments to the water transfer plan, in response to comments from the Idaho Department of Water Resources. Barrett said the resort, at complete build-out, would need about 600 acre-feet of water annually, an amount equivalent to what's needed to grow 220 acres of alfalfa.

Ted Galovan, the development's chief financial officer and investor, said Thursday that a Bear Lake County survey last summer showed that 71 percent of residents favored a four-season resort. Construction alone would be an economic boon in a county that currently has only 50 construction jobs, he said.

A University of Utah study indicates that the resort will generate nearly 16,000 jobs in Bear Lake and surrounding counties over the next 10 years. The figure includes 15,900 new construction jobs and 313 full-time operations positions.