Foreclosure sale of Big Tupper and three other parcels brings in close to $1M for Franklin County
By James M. Odato
A pair of entrepreneurs from New Jersey won the biggest prize at a Malone foreclosure auction Thursday, taking control of the former Big Tupper ski resort in Tupper Lake. They envision reopening the defunct downhill facility for recreation.
The Jackson, N.J. pair bid anonymously as “lovetupper” on four Tupper Lake parcels auctioned because of tax delinquencies. Franklin County recorded the bidders later as Emerge Investment Management LLC, according to public records.
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Josh Parnes and business partner Martin Schapira of Jackson, N.J. are behind the Emerge bid and own a residence on County Line Island in Tupper Lake, they said in an interview.
They say they hope to get the ski resort back open with the county and town involved. “A real motivation was to be assured that a developer didn’t come in there and start developing high density housing and closing access to the community,” Parnes, 45, said. Schapira, 42, said he envisions creating a four-season recreation site. They said their wives and children enjoy the Adirondacks as much as they do and they’ve gone “bananas” for the region, Schapira said.
He said he and his partner respect and enjoy nature and hope to build something beautiful that the community will take pride in, including a restoration of the lodge at the ski center.
With a pledge of $650,000, the pair outbid Stanley Rumbough and captured the Big Tupper property in the northern Adirondack Park. It consists of a few hundred acres on Mount Morris on the outskirts of Tupper Lake. The now-defunct skiing attraction is dear to the region.
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Rumbough, who has also been investing in Tupper Lake real estate in recent years, is separately trying to obtain 5,800 acres adjacent to the mountain. He seeks to revive a major residential resort project known as the Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR). He gave up bidding on Big Tupper at $625,000.
Three other parcels contained in the ACR plan were also auctioned at the Franklin County Courthouse, with the big bidders working strictly online. Emerge Investment (Parnes and Schapira) took two: Cranberry Pond, a long-ago public water supply, for $45,000, and a former marina on Tupper Lake for $170,000.
A fourth parcel, a piece of land that is mostly a wetland, went to Anna Klimek of Monroe, N.C. who bid under the handle “cocoharnas.” Klimek’s $50,000 offer topped competitors, including Emerge Investment.
Rumbough, bidding as “propertybuyer75,” and Emerge Investment competed for Big Tupper. Taxes and fines owed the county for the property was almost $469,000.
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Rumbough’s lawyer, Jay Creutz, said Rumbough hopes the mountain becomes part of a private/public partnership that leads to a renovation and reopening of the skiing facility.
Tupper Lake Mayor Mary Fontana said she doesn’t know who the winning bidders are or their intentions. But getting the mountain out of foreclosure and back on the tax rolls alone is a good thing, she said.
“The community has been so emotionally invested in Big Tupper; there’s so much nostalgia,” she said. “It’s so important to the history and the future of Tupper Lake.”
Timothy Larkin, a town of Tupper Lake board member, bid on behalf of the town in attempts to gain Cranberry Pond as a water source for the town’s cross-country skiing center and golf course. He was authorized to bid as high as $35,000.
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He said he is fine with the outcome of the auction, but was surprised Big Tupper went for less than $1.5 million. Auctioneer AARAuctions.com listed the property as having a full market value of $2,269,000.
To restore it to an alpine facility, an owner would have to spend millions of dollars, according to town officials.
The mountain and three other parcels carried $649,686 in taxes and penalties owed. The combined amount for the four properties brought in $915,000 at the auction.
About ACR
The parcels were part of a 6,400-acre project that collapsed from financial problems of developers who couldn’t afford taxes and left several lienholders. Described as the biggest commercial development ever proposed in the Adirondacks, the club and resort project was hailed by local government as a potential boon to the Tupper Lake region.
The village government described it in financial documents as a $500 million plan for up to 700 condos, vacation homes and luxury “great camps,” along with a 60-bedroom hotel. “The developers plan to revitalize an existing ski slope (Big Tupper), a golf course and a marina,” the village reported to the bond investors in 2017.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include information about the winning bidders.
Top photo: The Adirondack Club and Resort was envisioned to be built on timberlands near the Big Tupper Ski Area.
Photo by Carl Heilman II
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What condition are the buildings at Big Tupper?
I cannot believe these prices ! One bidder dropped out by $ 25, 000 ? These are large parcels of LAND and one is lake shore ! You could build a house there ! I realize that it will take millions of dollars to breathe Big Tupper into life again but this looks like more flim flam for Tupper Lake. Like, what is going on at Oval Wooden Dish ?
It’s an auction. Not flim flam. Anyone who wants can bid as much as they want. If it is so valuable there should have been higher bids.
That is such great news! With Rumbaugh buying properties and other investors like the guys who bought the old wooden bowl factory moving forward, hopefully, Tupper will be the beneficiary of a new wave of investors who bring back the ski area and many of the other needed kinds of development to get Tupper back on track for a great four season resort area again.