Sugar Loaf owner’s St Clair Inn will reopen soon

Photo: Jeff Katofsky enjoys the view from atop Sugar Loaf mountain in November 2018

From staff reports

Jeff Katofsky’s iconic St. Clair Inn on the St. Clair River is scheduled to re-open in phases later this month and into the fall. The Inn will host a wedding on Saturday, Sept. 21.

That’s important for Leelanau County residents, because Katofsky also owns Sugar Loaf, the derelict and mothballed ski resort that has been closed since 2000. Katofsky, a California developer, attorney and Minor League baseball team owner, has long said that he’ll turn his attention north toward Sugar Loaf once the St. Clair Inn is open.

Five weeks of rain this spring set the St. Clair Inn project back by three months, Katofsky told Leelanau County commissioner Patricia Soutas-Little late last week. Soutas-Little is his primary liaison here. Now that the prized development in southeast Michigan is rounding third and headed home, the Sugar Loaf property may begin to see changes in late 2019, or more likely in 2020.

Katofsky and his team still hope to develop a plan to secure the property from vandalism by the end of September, according to a downstate PR official representing him. But no demolition is likely within 30 days.