Spa, resort, tennis remain open
Topnotch Resort and Spa will close its hotel for three months beginning in mid-March to complete a major renovation and 60,000-square-foot expansion. The rest of the resort — the spa and tennis center — will remain open. The restaraunt will close for five weeks.
The expansion includes a new south wing with 50 rooms, plus a lounge-café and conference room, a new wedding and events venue and an outdoor terraced area. The plans also include a new restaurant, a reconfigured parking lot and a geothermal heating and cooling system.
During the renovation of the original resort building, meeting and events rooms will be revamped and 68 existing guest rooms will be decorated in an English country manor style.
The Burlington architectural firm Truex Cullins designed the plan, which the Stowe Development Review Board approved last April.
Construction started last fall and is expected to wrap up in late June. The hotel should reopen by July.
The 120-acre resort’s spa, tennis facilities, and vacation homes will remain open; Norma’s Restaurant will close for five weeks starting March 31, and then reopen on weekends only for the duration of the renovation.
“Throughout the project, we’ve worked diligently to strike the right balance between a timely completion and an uninterrupted guest experience,” said Aaron Black, general manager for the resort. “As we ramp up to reveal the new Topnotch early in July, many things need to happen quickly to complete our new spaces and the many improvements that are planned within the existing hotel. To accommodate this, we’ve elected to take advantage of the slower shoulder season to close the hotel rooms and expedite our timelines.”
Black declined to share the project’s estimated cost, but described it as a “well-deserved, multi-million dollar improvement.”
While some employees will be laid off during the next three months, no jobs are being eliminated and no one is being terminated, Black said.
“Yes, it’s about doing something that’s good for the guests, but the reality is that this project also promises something that’s good for the employees and in turn, good for the community,” Black said.
The project sparked some heated debates during the local approval process. Owners of two Topnotch condos likened the design to a Hampton Inn and worried that it would worsen parking problems there.
Also, Topnotch is in a zone that restricts building heights to 35 feet. The expansion will be 49 feet tall, meaning a waiver was needed to build it. The development review board granted the waiver.
The original Topnotch building was constructed in 1959. Now one of four major resorts in Stowe — along with Stowe Mountain Lodge, Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa, and the Trapp Family Lodge — it has eyed expansion plans for many years.
In 2006, the former owners of Topnotch, the Cummings family, had planned a $60-million hotel, restaurant and spa expansion. But the collapse of the U.S. economy in 2008 and competition from the newly built Stowe Mountain Lodge forced the Cummings to give up ownership of the resort in 2010.
The resort is now owned by a subsidiary of Wyoming-based MetWest Terra Hospitality.
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