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STATELINE, Nev. (AP) — A multimillion-dollar resort will put roots down on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe's south shore.
The layout for the hotel with no gambling facilities includes a spa, restaurant and conference center. Among the planned amenities is a small public beach bordering the lake-front golf course that has hosted the American Century Celebrity Championship televised each July on NBC-TV since 1990.
The $100 million-plus price tag includes addressing environmental issues such as energy efficiency, runoff and other water-quality concerns. The resort is scheduled to open in the summer of 2017.
"Like grand lodges of the American West, we hope it will inspire awe with its views and location," Chuck Scharer, president/CEO of Edgewood Companies, told about 100 people gathered Thursday at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course clubhouse.
Edgewood Companies is owned by members of the Park family, descendants of pioneer cattle ranchers who settled at south Tahoe more than a century ago.
"Our (golfing) guests have asked us to bring in a resort, and we're always looking for ways to meet customers' expectations," Scharer said. "It's the right time for the company and it's the right time for the Tahoe market. We're hoping our project will be a catalyst for more investment in Tahoe."
He said he received many questions regarding the brand and management of the lodge, but the owners settled on their own Edgewood Companies with the same name brand the Park family put on the golf course when it was built in the 1960s.
"The answer was obvious. We are going to build on 45 years' reputation and brand equity that is Edgewood Tahoe, the Edgewood team," Scharer said. "It's our brand, it's our team."
Preliminary infrastructure work has already begun on the site north of U.S. Highway 50 near the California border. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the bi-state entity which oversees Tahoe-area development, approved the project in 2012.
Hal Cole, mayor of South Lake Tahoe, said the development might be on the Nevada side, but the Stateline area is "becoming more blurred as tourism grows." Both sides are wise to work together, he said.
"Edgewood needed to have hotel rooms. We are truly one shore," he said.
The Edgewood resort is "sorely needed" for helping grow the Tahoe basin's recreational tourism market, Claudia Vecchio told the Reno Gazette-Journal (http://tinyurl.com/q8qgueh ). Vecchio is director of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.
"Gaming continues to be the No. 1 reason people come to Nevada," she said. "But we talk more and more about recreation, and this is the perfect property for those travelers we want to bring to Nevada."
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Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com
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