Posts

On Friday, Oct. 20, new Sugar Loaf resort owner Jeff Katofsky told the Glen Arbor Sun that he hopes to build a 4-star, year-round resort at Sugar Loaf but wasn’t yet sure about whether it would include downhill skiing.

Jeff Katofsky, who purchased Sugar Loaf resort last November, will return to Leelanau County on Friday, Oct. 20, and meet with the public at 11 a.m. at the Leelanau County Government Center where he will field questions about the path forward for the long-shuttered ski resort.

The identity of who controls the mortgage to Sugar Loaf resort has remained a mystery. Until now. The new owner is Jeff Katofsky. But the mortgage is held by an associate of previous owner Remo Polselli.

This is Sugar Loaf, once the region’s premier ski resort and Leelanau County’s largest employer. Three hundred once worked here. Located off M-22, the artery of the peninsula, Sugar Loaf pulsed with traffic and commerce during these cold, quiet winter months until it closed in 2000. This isn’t the story of those who ran Sugar Loaf into the ground. This is the story of her characters and personalities, how they reflect on the resort, and what they’re up to now.

Jeff Katofsky, the new owner of Sugar Loaf, visited the dilapidated onetime ski resort for the first time on Wednesday, Dec. 14 — a biting cold and snowy day in Leelanau County. Katofsky acquired Sugar Loaf from Remo Polselli this fall.

Jeff Katofsky — a Southern California attorney, property developer, and minor league baseball team owner — is on the verge of taking over Sugar Loaf from the ski resort’s longtime owner Remo Polselli. Katofsky told the Glen Arbor Sun he will close escrow before the end of October. According to Leelanau County code inspector Steve Haugen, the transaction could be official by the end of this week.

Leelanau County construction code authority Steve Haugen has notified Remo Polselli — and other potential stakeholders in Sugar Loaf — this week that action must be taken on the long shuttered ski resort’s decrepit lodge within 20 business days, or Haugen will take the case to the 13th Circuit Court. Polselli now has until early January, 2016, to inform the construction code of his plan for Sugar Loaf.

“Sugar Loaf is like a beautiful girl who wants to get married. But she keeps getting left by guys at the alter, so she keeps coming back to me.” — Liko Smith … But Sugar Loaf, the long-shuttered ski resort in the heart of Leelanau County, is no longer on the front of Liko Smith’s to-do list.

The most popular Glen Arbor Sun story of 2014 was an investigative article in February that featured a proposed canopy air walk in Kasson Township, near Burdickville, that never materialized. Local opposition to Mark Evan’s “air walk” was nearly unanimous, and passionate. Our story attracted thousands of views, and 55 comments.

Who’s to blame for the 20-month delay in transferring the title of Sugar Loaf resort from former owner Kate Wickstrom back to “new” owner Remo Polselli? Wickstrom received a contract back in March 2013 to transfer the deed.