Landmark Telemark Lodge Closer To Remodel, Reopening

A Florida-based hospitality company has reached a deal with the owners of an iconic northern Wisconsin resort. HK Hospitality Management plans to invest $47 million in remodeling the Telemark Lodge in Cable.

After several years, Jim Kelley, managing partner with HK Hospitality, said they reached a purchase agreement with current owners Mount Telemark Partners last week.

“We may have been the tortoise in the race, but we’re the ones coming across the finish line,” he said.

Kelley said they plan to remodel Telemark into a 250-room resort with around a dozen condominiums. The 1,000-acre property will include downhill and cross-country skiing, a conference center, food and wine events and more. The company hopes to add 500 more acres to provide a golf course and lake access. Kelley credited the support of the surrounding communities and the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation for bringing all the pieces together.

“We are so excited and enthused and pleased at the way we’ve been received,” he said.

Kelley said he’ll be in Madison next week to support a bill that would allow the Town of Cable to create a tax incremental financing (TIF) district for the project.

“We expect that to go through the Legislature by the end of the year and pass,” he said.

He expects they will close on the sale after the first of the year and begin demolishing soon after. If all goes well, he said they may be open in time for the American Birkebeiner Ski Race in 2019.

Telemark property manager Rick Carpenter said the current owners have been looking for a buyer that has the community’s best interest in mind.

“It really hasn’t ever been about money for the owners … Somebody could offer double what HK Hospitality has offered. If they couldn’t prove to the owners that they had the talent, expertise, or the money to succeed going forward, they would turn that down,” said Carpenter.

HK Hospitality plans to create up to 180 full- and part-time jobs and generate around $25 million in visitor spending through the remodeled resort.