Several years ago, I took the 90-minute drive from Toronto to the Blue Mountain area of Ontario to spend a few days on Georgian Bay, which has the longest freshwater beach in the world. The beach was great, but the accommodation and local attractions left much to be desired. That's all changed with the development of The Village at Blue Mountain, the latest resort from Intrawest Corporation of Vancouver, B.C.

The company just opened its third new hotel in The Village at Blue Mountain, a five-hectare, multi-million dollar development. By the time the entire development is complete in 2010, it will include 1,200 privately owned condominium hotel suites, 800 privately owned resort homes in surrounding golf communities, more than 70 shops and restaurants, and 115,000 square feet of conference and trade show facilities.

Coincidentally, 2010 is also the year that downhill ski events at the Olympic Games will be held at Whistler Blackcomb resort in British Columbia, north of Vancouver. Whistler, the first and best-known Intrawest resort, had an integral role in the bid to get the 2010 Olympics and company founder Joe Houssian was in Prague as part of the bid team when the location of the Olympics was announced.

Houssian founded the company in 1976 as a residential and urban real estate firm. In the mid-1980s, he met Hugh Smythe, the president of Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises Ltd., and the merger of resort operations and real estate expertise resulted in the development of Whistler Blackcomb.

Intrawest now owns or is involved in 15 mountain resorts in North American and Europe, along with two warm weather resorts in the United States. The company also has an interest in Alpine Helicopters Ltd., owner of Canadian Mountain Holidays, the largest heli-ski operation in the world. Club Intrawest is the company's vacation ownership division, and its real estate and marketing arm is known as Playground. The firm now boasts more than 20,000 employees.

In Canada, Intrawest also developed a resort village at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, about 90 minutes north of Montreal. Tremblant is known as a top ski and golf resort, and it also home to many special events during the year.

When the Blue Mountain project is completed, it will be about the same size as Tremblant. The company says that it spends 80 per cent of its time planning each resort village and 20 per cent executing the plan, and that there is no "typical" Intrawest resort.

It says sunlight and view orientation are two of the most important factors in creating the master plan. "The placement of the buildings will establish view corridors -- vertical elements that frame views, like a painting," says an Intrawest news release.

At Blue Mountain, the village's two, three, and four-storey building designs are inspired by the architecture and culture of nineteenth and twentieth century Ontario, strung together with cobblestone streets.

Blue Mountain has always been best known as a ski resort, but Intrawest says more visitors actually come to the area during the warm summer months. In addition to the activities available on Georgian Bay and the nearby golf courses, Blue Mountain offers mountain bike tours, rock climbing, caving, sky diving, windsurfing and horseback riding. The Bruce Trail, a continuous 725-kilometre hiking trail, also winds through the region.

The first condominium hotel, the 187-suite Grand Georgian, opened in 2001, and Weider Lodge, a 91-suite lodge at the base of Blue Mountain, was finished last summer. Both sold out quickly, as did phase one of Seasons at Blue, the latest hotel. Seasons at Blue will open a second phase next summer. Intrawest says that a March sales event for the project "sold out almost 90 per cent in one day, proving that the resort real estate market is thriving."

Published: July 31, 2003

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Jim Adair is editor of REM: Canada's Real Estate Magazine, a business publication for real estate agents and brokers. He has been writing about Canadian real estate, home building and renovation issues for more than 30 years. You can contact Jim at .