Industry News
Big Moose Mountain, a ski resort in a remote area in Northern Maine, has now been listed for a standalone price just under six million dollars. The owner decided to sell the land after a $126 million development plan fell through this year. When fully operational, Big Moose Mountain features a 1,700-foot vertical drop from its summit at 3,200 feet, offering the fourth-highest vertical drop of any ski resort in Maine. The listing includes 1,700 acres, 1,200 of which are mountainside, along with private access to a 12-acre peninsula on Maine’s largest lake. Formerly, the resort was being sold as part of a larger $27 million property that included an additional 3,000 acres of surrounding land. It is listed by Folsom Realty Group.
There is a long history of management changes and trouble at Big Moose Mountain. Ownership groups seemed to come and go before James Confalone purchased the mountain in 1995 and has been the owner since. The last 30 years have not been free of drama, however, with Confalone allegedly logging portions of the property illegally, and closing the mountain in 2010 as the mountain fell into disrepair. The resort didn’t open again until 2012 when the non-profit group Friends of the Mountain picked up operations so that the mountain could be enjoyed again, and kept winter operations at the mountain alive by running one of the mountain’s two chairlifts.
Friends of the Mountain has also invested over $1 million in recent years to maintain the resort and perform a number of improvements. Another group, the Moosehead Outdoor Alliance, has also contributed by adding 14 miles of mountain biking trails to the area, further adding to the potential of the land to become a four-season destination.
The last couple of years have also been characterized by an ambitious development project that ultimately was unable to move forward. The developer, Perry Williams, set out with an ambitious project to turn Big Moose into a four-season resort. This also was not free of roadblocks, with the project seemingly moving forward, being put on hold, starting up again, and then stopping altogether. Williams obtained a permit from the state for his project in 2022 before putting it on hold the same year. He started moving forward with the project again earlier in 2024, but the high price of the $126 million plan made securing the needed investments difficult, and the plan fell through, leading to Confalone choosing to sell the resort and list it publicly.
Big Moose Mountain has a large influence on the nearby town of Greenville. Many have hoped that development of the mountain would lead to a needed economic boost in the area, while others have expressed concern over the scale of the previously proposed development, being far from any large cities and located in one of the least densely populated areas of the state. Regardless of what happens in the future, Big Moose Mountain has had a rough past and the community is anxious to see things change.
