Birchmont hotelier Ashok Patel is flanked by attorney Andy Dean (left) of Cooper Cargill Chant of North Conway and principal project engineer Ian MacKinnon of Beach and Jones Engineers of Stratham following last Thursday’s Conway Planning Board meeting. (Photo by Tom Eastman, Conway Daily Sun)
The Conway Planning Board on Nov. 14 gave unanimous conditional approval to the owners of the Birchmont Resort and Spa (formerly known as the Red Jacket Mountain View) to rebuild its fire-damaged South Wing to its original footprint and make other improvements.
Voting in favor were board chair Ben Colbath, selectmen’s representative Steve Porter, Eliza Grant, Bill Barbin, Ted Phillips, Erik Corbett and alternate Nat Lucy, who sat in for vice chair Ailie Byers, who was absent.
In a hallway interview at town hall after obtaining approval, hotelier/owner Ashok Patel of JHM Conway, LLC said that he would hope that if all came to plan that the renamed, to-be rebuilt resort could possibly re-open in summer 2025.
“That’s our hope,” said Patel, flanked by attorney Andy Dean of Cooper Cargill Chant of North Conway and associate principal/project engineer Ian MacKinnon of Jones and Beach Engineering of Stratham.
In a followup interview, MacKinnon gave further details, noting, “The goal is once we obtain building permits from the town to start on the north wing by the end of the year and on the south wing this winter, and that if they are aggressive, the hope would be to get the north wing completed by summer and the south wing also by summer.”
The board okayed phase 1 of the rebuild. Phase II is to include townhouses on the back, eastern side of the property.
Colbath thanked the developers for separating phase 1 from phase 2 in their presentations before the board.
An earlier controversial, conceptual proposal floated at an informational session last April before the board to build up to 25 apartments and 89 condominium townhouses on the western front lawn is no longer part of the latest plan.
Now known as the Birchmont, the property’s name prior to the building of the Red Jacket in 1970, the inn’s south wing was burned in an April 30, 2022, major fire that also caused smoke and water damage to the central lobby and north wing.
The charred south wing was razed after the fire and that wing is to be rebuilt by the property’s new owners to the same footprint, according to town planner Ryan O’Connor.
O’Connor in his prepared notes to the planning board said the new owner proposes to remodel the north wing of the existing hotel and reconstruct the 14,000-square-foot, three-story, 72-room southern wing that was destroyed in the fire.
Before the board last Thursday, MacKinnon acceded to a request from Grant to explore planting arborvitae or some other type of vegetation close to the reopened Kahuna Laguna indoor water park to attenuate noise from the its mechanical equipment, long a source of complaint from neighbors.
He also agreed to remove a certain section of a planned fence that runs along the southern edge of the Red Jacket property, acceding to a request from an abutter.
The approved application also includes plans to construct a 925-square-foot entrance area near the north wing and a 20-by-20-foot canopy at the existing pedestrian hotel entrance. Improved ADA access is also part of the parking plan. It also includes a plan to build a patio on the western side of the core area.
The improvements are also to include upgrades to the White Mountain Highway/Route 16 and the access leading to the hotel entrance and parking area, MacKinnon said.
He noted that the access from Route 16 is to become two-way, and that plans include regrading some of the steeper sections by making it a more serpentine, switchback kind of route that have a 10 percent grade at its steepest point compared to the 15 to 20 percent it has in parts of its current configuration.
The goal is to lessen the traffic that exists the property under the current longtime configuration via Locust Lane. Internal signs will direct traffic to use the new to-be-built two-way access, he said.
According to MacKinnon, they are currently awaiting approval from the state Department of Transportation.
MacKinnon said the plan includes a proposal to construct a gravel emergency vehicles only access from the south side for to service the western front.
Selectmen’s representative to the planning board Steve Porter said that when the core section was renovated and expanded by the original owners in ‘90s, that gravel access along the western front was impeded.
MacKinnon said both the north wing and the to-be-rebuilt south wing will be retrofitted with fire suppression according to state standards.
He said the hotel is working with New Hampshire Electric Cooperative to possibly bury part of a transmission line that runs across the property and that the ultimate goal would be to possibly bury all of the line when phase 2 is developed.
Barbin questioned what type of siding the hotel will use. That point was also later raised by former planning board member Mark Hounsell during public comments.
MacKinnon said the new south iwng will follow the roofline of the north wing and that the architect will use materials that adhere to the town’s requirement for New England style architecture.
During public comment, an abutter raised questions about the lighting pollution that spills over. MacKinnon said he would look into that and report back.
O’Connor in his report to the board said that storm drainage improvements are part of the plan.
O’Connor in his report to members noted that the town’s current commercial building moratorium approved by voters April 9 does not apply.
“The proposal,” O’Connor wrote, “to reconstruct the portion of the facility, which was previously lost to fire, and complete minor improvements to the existing structure are determined to be in compliance with exemptions from the moratorium or considered a natural expansion to the current structure.”
Patel, of Jamsan Management of Lexington, Mass., purchased the former Red Jacket in February. He also owns the Home2Suites, the Fox Ridge Resort and the Yankee Clipper and is also involved with the Cambria Hotel, all in North Conway. Jamsan owns and/or manages 80 hotels in Massachusetts and southern New England.
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