Blue Mountain Resort in Ontario is planning a major expansion

Blue Mountain Resort is gearing up for a major expansion that will add new hotel property, condos, retail, and public spaces to what is already Ontario’s largest ski resort.

Freed Hotels & Resorts filed plans for the massive expansion with the City of the Blue Mountains in February 2023, hot on the heels of the company’s December 2021 acquisition of Deerhurst Resort, Horseshoe Resort, and the remaining development lands at Blue Mountain Resort, all for the cool sum of $330 million.

Answering pressing demand for hotel space at the always-packed resort, Freed is proposing a significant departure from a 2018-approved plan for undeveloped lands at Blue Mountain, seeking a major increase in scope from the townhome plan pitched years earlier.

Freed is proposing to up approvals from the agreed-upon five-storey cap up to a group of three buildings rising seven storeys, and increase the number of residential units permitted on the three development sites.

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The new trio of seven-storey buildings feature designs from B+H Architects with peaked rooflines that directly reference the mountain that looms above Blue Mountain Village and the timber architectural style of the Alpine skiing destinations the resort is themed after.

A total of 682 units are proposed in the larger complex, with an additional 370 planned in the third building to the north.

Units within the development are to be sold as residential condos and entered into a rental management program in a condo/hotel model. As such, the complex will be equipped with back-of-house hotel areas and hotel-style amenities serving guests staying at the resort.

These spaces include an impressive Great Room punctuated by a spiral staircase. A second-floor spa will include an outdoor deck with a heated pool that will offer views of the ski runs during winter months.

In addition to hotel/condo space, Freed’s plans also call for a more than doubling of commercial space within the ski resort village from an approved 9,300 square metres (7,432 square metres of which already exist) to 21,000 square meters.

The project applied for Official Plan and zoning by-law amendments back in February, and was presented to local officials in April pending a council decision this summer.