Renovation plans for the historic Balsams Grand Resort Hotel located in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, were approved by the Coos County Planning Board Tuesday, March 26. The complete remodeling project will cost around $35 million.
According to Curbed, complete plans have not been sketched out yet. However, as the owners of the resort were approaching an April deadline to apply for federal tax credits that required the board's approval, the project plan was pushed along.
Apparently, of the 400,000 square feet area, the new plan will preserve 123,000 square feet and add new construction of around 80,000 square feet while scaling down the rest of the place. The resort will mostly look like the old grand hotel but will now have modern amenities. Plans have been approved for 149 rooms, building a larger conference center and an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, reports WMUR.com.
New cost saving and energy efficient methods will also be adopted in the new project. A new biomass heating system will be incorporated in the hotel rooms that will use wood from balsams and bring down the heating costs from the current $1 million to just $100,000, reports New Hampshire News.
"The big idea here is we are taking the old historic hotel and bringing it up to 2013 standards. All these things you come to expect at a resort that didn't exist at the Balsams before -we're putting a lot of effort into that," Scott Tranchemontagne, spokesperson for Balsam said in a statement.
The hotel is currently closed. Renovations will start once the owners gather enough money to finance the project. Dan Herbert, one of the two owners of the legendary hotel said that the financing was almost complete and once the funds are gathered, the project will be completed within 18 months of its commencement, reports New Hampshire News.
About Balsams
The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel first opened just after the Civil War as a 25-room inn. In 1895, the inn was purchased by Henry S. Hale, a Philadelphia based industrialist and renamed "Balsams." He added luxury amenities to make it a fully fledged resort. In 1918, Hale established the famous "Hampshire House", doubling the resort's accommodation capacity.
The hotel features 95 kms of ski-trails, a terrain park, five glade areas, a 16 trail airplane ski area, a 9 -hole golf course and an18-hole championship course designed by famous golf course designer, Donald Ross, called "Panorama". The resort's Ballot room is where the first primary votes are cast in any presidential election. The resort is also included in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Correction: A previous version of the article wrongly stated "95000 kms of Ski trails" which has been duly changed. Also, plans have been approved for 149 rooms, they are not an extra addition and the pool area's size has also been changed.
