The longtime owner of the North Hero House Inn & Restaurant plans to redevelop his lakeside hotel into luxury housing — a project that would create some of the first new multifamily housing in Grand Isle County in more than 15 years.
Walt Blasberg’s plans include building nine new condominiums along Lake Champlain and making the inn’s main building either a single-family house or a restaurant.
The entire property has been for sale for about $2 million for about a year. If Blasberg finds a buyer for the inn, he won’t build the housing. But even if the housing is built, he’s still going to sell the property after.
“They’re alternate exit strategies for a man who wants to retire,” he said.
Blasberg has owned the 26-room North Hero House since 1997. The inn was founded in 1891 and mainly served steamship passengers in its early days.
It has three buildings along the lake and a main building just across Route 2. The existing buildings around the lake would be demolished and replaced, Blasberg said.
The condos would each be between 1,600 and 2,200 square feet, and all would have large decks.
North Hero’s Development Review Board has discussed the project multiple times. One issue, raised in June, was whether the planned single-family house could be used as a short-term rental, such as Airbnb. Under current bylaws, Blasberg said, it could not.
Blasberg said he still needs to finalize the estimated construction cost of the project and receive additional permits before moving forward.
“We haven’t started advertising yet, and we’ve had many interested parties,” he said. “We’ve had some people sign reservation agreements.”
One factor benefiting the project is that the inn already has a septic system, Blasberg said. He said the Islands’ heavy clay soil makes it difficult to install septic tanks in many places. Other developers in the region have said the Islands’ bedrock presents a hurdle.
In South Hero, for instance, planners of the senior housing development Bayview Crossing struggled to find a location that could accommodate a large septic system.
Andy Julow, executive director of the Lake Champlain Islands Economic Development Corp., said the islands need more housing of all kinds.
“It would be great if we could build more dense housing here in the islands,” he said, “but that septic capacity is always a tough thing to overcome.”
North Hero has become a popular place for people to own vacation homes, Julow said, which drives up the overall cost of housing.
“It’s become hard to find housing here,” he said. “Just like everywhere else in Vermont.”
Corrections: An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect year for the inn’s founding and overstated the plans for the number of buildings to be demolished. Challenges surrounding septic system installations have been clarified.
