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When Roger Wittenberg gazes at the Tahoe Biltmore and the former site of the Tahoe Mariner in Crystal Bay, he envisions an opportunity for economic, environmental, aesthetic and community change — a change that could begin with the development of Boulder Bay and ripple through the North Shore of Lake Tahoe.
“It’s more of a self-generated success story,” said Wittenberg, CEO of Boulder Bay LLC. “I think it’s a spiral up, rather than a spiral down. I think this area has been in a spiral down for a while and I am very hopeful this will turn that the other way.”
Boulder Bay’s future location is proposed for the Tahoe Biltmore and the Tahoe Mariner sites. If the project develops according to the plans submitted to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, it it could cover about 15 acres of land.
Boulder Bay has slated 366 hotel and fractional ownership units, 21 whole ownership units and 34 workforce housing units on those 15 acres. An underground parking structure will replace 60,000 square feet of asphalt parking lot. Boulder Bay would also house 30,000 square feet of retail and dining businesses, a 20,000-square-foot spa and a 10,000-square-foot casino.
Instead of keeping the Tahoe Biltmore’s current height and the casino location just seven feet from Highway 28, Boulder Bay proposes to built its height into the slope of the mountain and move the casino off the street frontage. Developers envision a walkable village with shopping and dining for visitors.
The vision is to create a “destination resort” in Crystal Bay, where visitors can come to revitalize themselves with the beauty of Lake Tahoe, Wittenberg said.
Wittenberg said he hopes the resort will be visited throughout the year, instead of peaking during the summer and winter.
“We have to smooth the experience. We have to create something attractive to the visitor during the fall and the spring,” Wittenberg said. “We have one of the greatest assets in the world, Lake Tahoe, at our feet.”
To create that experience, Wittenberg said, effective, wide-spread mass transit needs to be established to different attractions on the North Shore. Boulder Bay, as planned, would have no direct access to a ski slope or a beach. He envisions a transit system that would be attractive, easy-to-use and could connect different amenities across the North Shore.
“The way the North Shore has developed, everything has spread out so far that you literally need to get in a car to go from one place to the next to have a rounded experience,” he said.
Although the developers have not pinpointed what type of transit system Boulder Bay should use, they know it is vital to their project, said project manager Brian Helm. Whether the company develops its own shuttle service, or connects with existing transit options, there will be a shuttle stop on the Boulder Bay property.
“You really know what someone is going to do when their interests are aligned,” Helm said. “Our interests in the success of the project absolutely mandates and requires that we have a successful, efficient, easy-to-use transportation project that connects visitors to the lake.”
That efficient transportation coupled with a multi-use resort would result in a less than 2 percent increase of vehicle trips over an entire day, but a 13 percent decrease in vehicle trips during the peak hour of a day, according to a traffic study of the project done by LSC Transportation consultants, a Tahoe City-based traffic analysis firm. The study determined Boulder Bay would reduce the site trip generation by 25 percent over the course of a day and 35 percent during the peak evening hour.
This traffic reduction is accomplished by giving visitors more things to do on the property, increasing the on-site lodging and residential units and by reducing the size of the gaming floor, an activity which attracts off-site visitors, Helm said.
According to the LSC traffic study, those three elements result in more trips inside the site (from hotel room, to casino, to shopping) instead of trips from outside the site (driving from another casino or residence to the property).
Boulder Bay plans to reduce the size of its gaming floor from the Tahoe Biltmore’s current 22,400 gross square feet to 10,000 gross square feet.
The 22,400 is a number derived by Helm from measurements from the building’s blueprints. A 2008 Nevada Gaming Commission document lists the Tahoe Biltmore’s gaming area as 10,480 square feet. However, the Nevada Gaming Commission does not have a standard for measuring gaming floor area and does not usually audit numbers submitted to them by licensees, said Frank Streshley, a senior financial analyst with the Nevada Gaming Commission.
“Square footage isn’t rocket science,” Streshley said. “There is no strict guideline to where your pit area ends to where Keno stops versus slots and pit tables. We rely on the licensees to give something accurate. We don’t go out and remeasure.”
The reduction in gaming, in addition to the retail area, spa and possible hiking and biking center results in visitors staying longer on the property, Wittenberg said.
“Let’s say you come up and stay in this hotel. It has a spa, it has pools, it has restaurants, it does have gaming, are you going to spend a lot of time going elsewhere?” he said. “I’m not saying you would never drive but you would be less likely to drive than if you were staying at the Biltmore the way it is now.”
The Tahoe Biltmore is part of the Community Enhancement Program, a new TRPA initiative that offers leeway in areas such as height and density to developers who bring community-minded, innovative and environmentally-conscious projects to the table. There are nine projects lakewide being considered for the CEP. As part of the CEP, Boulder Bay also needs to make environmental improvements to its property to gain benefits such as extra tourist accommodation units.
Some of those environmental projects include reducing coverage on the site by 11.6 percent and installing water filtration systems to catch 150 percent of the 20-year stormwater totals from the property.
The CEP has also required that the early stages of the Boulder Bay permitting process become more public with at least three community forums to discuss the project, one Incline Village/Crystal Bay Community Advisory Board meeting and several TRPA meetings.
“You have to look at all of these issues with a lens of stewardship,” said Wittenberg. “We have to have stewardship over the environment and the lake. We have to have stewardship of how we impact the community with traffic and jobs that might be created.”
Boulder Bay will be slightly smaller than the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe in Incline Village. Here’s how the numbers compare.
Hyatt Boulder Bay
Land 19.1 acres 15.1 acres
Hotel & Fractional Units 482 366
Whole Ownership Units 0 21
Workforce Units 0 34
Casino Area 26,364 square feet 10,000 square feet
Spa 20,000 square feet 20,000 square feet
Meeting Space 26,579 square feet 12,500 square feet
Retail & Dining 15,652 square feet 28,250 square feet
Parking 646 spaces 670 spaces underground
“It’s more of a self-generated success story,” said Wittenberg, CEO of Boulder Bay LLC. “I think it’s a spiral up, rather than a spiral down. I think this area has been in a spiral down for a while and I am very hopeful this will turn that the other way.”
Boulder Bay’s future location is proposed for the Tahoe Biltmore and the Tahoe Mariner sites. If the project develops according to the plans submitted to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, it it could cover about 15 acres of land.
Boulder Bay has slated 366 hotel and fractional ownership units, 21 whole ownership units and 34 workforce housing units on those 15 acres. An underground parking structure will replace 60,000 square feet of asphalt parking lot. Boulder Bay would also house 30,000 square feet of retail and dining businesses, a 20,000-square-foot spa and a 10,000-square-foot casino.
Instead of keeping the Tahoe Biltmore’s current height and the casino location just seven feet from Highway 28, Boulder Bay proposes to built its height into the slope of the mountain and move the casino off the street frontage. Developers envision a walkable village with shopping and dining for visitors.
The vision is to create a “destination resort” in Crystal Bay, where visitors can come to revitalize themselves with the beauty of Lake Tahoe, Wittenberg said.
Wittenberg said he hopes the resort will be visited throughout the year, instead of peaking during the summer and winter.
“We have to smooth the experience. We have to create something attractive to the visitor during the fall and the spring,” Wittenberg said. “We have one of the greatest assets in the world, Lake Tahoe, at our feet.”
To create that experience, Wittenberg said, effective, wide-spread mass transit needs to be established to different attractions on the North Shore. Boulder Bay, as planned, would have no direct access to a ski slope or a beach. He envisions a transit system that would be attractive, easy-to-use and could connect different amenities across the North Shore.
“The way the North Shore has developed, everything has spread out so far that you literally need to get in a car to go from one place to the next to have a rounded experience,” he said.
Although the developers have not pinpointed what type of transit system Boulder Bay should use, they know it is vital to their project, said project manager Brian Helm. Whether the company develops its own shuttle service, or connects with existing transit options, there will be a shuttle stop on the Boulder Bay property.
“You really know what someone is going to do when their interests are aligned,” Helm said. “Our interests in the success of the project absolutely mandates and requires that we have a successful, efficient, easy-to-use transportation project that connects visitors to the lake.”
That efficient transportation coupled with a multi-use resort would result in a less than 2 percent increase of vehicle trips over an entire day, but a 13 percent decrease in vehicle trips during the peak hour of a day, according to a traffic study of the project done by LSC Transportation consultants, a Tahoe City-based traffic analysis firm. The study determined Boulder Bay would reduce the site trip generation by 25 percent over the course of a day and 35 percent during the peak evening hour.
This traffic reduction is accomplished by giving visitors more things to do on the property, increasing the on-site lodging and residential units and by reducing the size of the gaming floor, an activity which attracts off-site visitors, Helm said.
According to the LSC traffic study, those three elements result in more trips inside the site (from hotel room, to casino, to shopping) instead of trips from outside the site (driving from another casino or residence to the property).
Boulder Bay plans to reduce the size of its gaming floor from the Tahoe Biltmore’s current 22,400 gross square feet to 10,000 gross square feet.
The 22,400 is a number derived by Helm from measurements from the building’s blueprints. A 2008 Nevada Gaming Commission document lists the Tahoe Biltmore’s gaming area as 10,480 square feet. However, the Nevada Gaming Commission does not have a standard for measuring gaming floor area and does not usually audit numbers submitted to them by licensees, said Frank Streshley, a senior financial analyst with the Nevada Gaming Commission.
“Square footage isn’t rocket science,” Streshley said. “There is no strict guideline to where your pit area ends to where Keno stops versus slots and pit tables. We rely on the licensees to give something accurate. We don’t go out and remeasure.”
The reduction in gaming, in addition to the retail area, spa and possible hiking and biking center results in visitors staying longer on the property, Wittenberg said.
“Let’s say you come up and stay in this hotel. It has a spa, it has pools, it has restaurants, it does have gaming, are you going to spend a lot of time going elsewhere?” he said. “I’m not saying you would never drive but you would be less likely to drive than if you were staying at the Biltmore the way it is now.”
The Tahoe Biltmore is part of the Community Enhancement Program, a new TRPA initiative that offers leeway in areas such as height and density to developers who bring community-minded, innovative and environmentally-conscious projects to the table. There are nine projects lakewide being considered for the CEP. As part of the CEP, Boulder Bay also needs to make environmental improvements to its property to gain benefits such as extra tourist accommodation units.
Some of those environmental projects include reducing coverage on the site by 11.6 percent and installing water filtration systems to catch 150 percent of the 20-year stormwater totals from the property.
The CEP has also required that the early stages of the Boulder Bay permitting process become more public with at least three community forums to discuss the project, one Incline Village/Crystal Bay Community Advisory Board meeting and several TRPA meetings.
“You have to look at all of these issues with a lens of stewardship,” said Wittenberg. “We have to have stewardship over the environment and the lake. We have to have stewardship of how we impact the community with traffic and jobs that might be created.”
Boulder Bay will be slightly smaller than the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe in Incline Village. Here’s how the numbers compare.
Hyatt Boulder Bay
Land 19.1 acres 15.1 acres
Hotel & Fractional Units 482 366
Whole Ownership Units 0 21
Workforce Units 0 34
Casino Area 26,364 square feet 10,000 square feet
Spa 20,000 square feet 20,000 square feet
Meeting Space 26,579 square feet 12,500 square feet
Retail & Dining 15,652 square feet 28,250 square feet
Parking 646 spaces 670 spaces underground
