CARRABASSETT VALLEY — After four years of a stop-and-go financing process, resident Kerry Audet’s proposed development of a $2.1 million family entertainment center and sports pub received a green light from state and municipal officials.
The plan calls for a 10-lane bowling alley, a golf simulator, game room, sports pub with 25 high-definition screens and a 100-seat restaurant on the site of the Carrabassett Valley Inn. Audet said hopes for a July 21 closing on the property, an Aug.1 groundbreaking and a Christmas week opening.
Audet, originally from Winslow and a businessman in southern Maine, said that locally, he saw few options to attract non-skiers, local residents and visitors from spring through fall.
“Not to take away from Sugarloaf, of course, but when the seasonal jobs dry up, there’s not much else for people to find for work,” he said.
When he moved permanently from Windham to Carrabassett Valley, he started working on an idea for the SugarBowl Family Entertainment Center and Sports Pub. He initially proposed building the entertainment center on Sugarloaf property, but his funding sources balked at the proposal, because he would not have owned the land and the building.
With help from Carrabassett Valley selectmen, Planning Board and Town Manager David Cota, he received voters’ support for a revised plan to buy and tear down the Carrabassett Valley Inn on Route 27.
“I can’t tell you how much work other people have put into this planning and the applications,” he said. “David Cota was right there and knew what to do whenever things looked like we were hitting another wall again.”
The $2.1 million family entertainment center hit another critical stumbling block when the request for a federally funded economic development grant for $450,000 was turned down. Cota helped him appeal the decision, and Maine’s Department of Economic Development approved a $300,000 grant instead.
The Planning Board amended its zoning ordinance to allow commercial recreation development.
He also received approval for a secured bank loan for the project’s costs, and the Finance Authority of Maine signed off on the loan to insure it. The Carrabassett Valley Inn’s owners, Jeff and Mary Jacques, were ready to sell, so the constant starting and stopping of the financial guarantees left everyone in a sort of limbo, he said.
Audet had to guarantee at least 10 full-time jobs that will pay at least minimum wage, and more for highly skilled positions.
That won’t be a problem, he said.
“We’ll be open 13 hours a day, at least, and seven days a week, so we’ll have more positions to fill,” Audet said.
Now, Audet hopes for a July 21 closing on the Jacques property, and he and Cota will start what he calls Phase 2 of the project. He still expects to open the new complex during Christmas week, he said.
His general contractor, H. C. Callahan of Auburn, will handle subcontracting components of the construction phase. Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection will do permitting and engineering work, but much of the information will be the same that was required of the inn.
“We’ll move all of the inn’s equipment to storage before we demolish the building, ” he said.
He hopes to have a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 1, with as many of his supporters and financial backers as possible there to join him. When the project is finished, he said, the galactic bowling alley will be something of a modern marvel, with special lighting and features that should dazzle all ages. The restaurant will serve New York-style pizza, and the golf simulator will allow customers to play any course in the world, even during the middle of Maine winters.
“We’ll offer Project Graduation parties, have an outdoor fire pit and will feature events around the Super Bowl, World Series and other sports competitions,” he said.
The facility will be next to the ITS 81 stop on the trail system, so he’ll draw both snowmobilers and ATVers throughout the year.
“We want to have an entirely new and vibrant feel to the SugarBowl that will blend in with the area and add to the local economy all year around,” he said.
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