Adk Jeff wrote
Oddly, we still don't know what Greg Norman's involvement in the ACR is. Is his organization providing marketing / branding of the ACR, is he providing financial backing, is he a purchaser of a Great Camp lot? All of the above?
The Adirondack Daily Enterprise article that broke the news stated: "It's a big deal for Tupper Lake," Lawson said, adding that he plans to issue a press release containing the details of the arrangement along with a few other announcements over the next few days. That was Thursday night last week. It's Monday night now, 4 days later, and no press release or further information. You would think that if a deal had actually been inked, a press release would have been issued immediately following Lawson's announcement Thursday night. Red Flag.
Agree Jeff, Lawson has "said" lots of things over the past years that have shown to be a lot of BS. This however may be a good thing if Norman is really "in" on the project. Hopefully they would abandon their plan of using a PILOT program to finance their infrastructure, after all, Norman is reportedly worth $300 Million, why should the FCIDA forfeit tax revenue to help out a guy as rich as he is. That would be a big relief for the local taxpayers if the PILOT is taken off the table.
But don't expect anything to happen right away, ACR still has no permits from the various agencies looking over this, including the DEC,DOH, AG's office, ACOEs and actually the APA. The APA has issued various "orders" which require certain conditions are met before the actual permits are issued, and those conditions have not been met as of now.
There is a lot of skepticism out there, check out the comments on the ncpr article. Normans' involvement may be a good thing if he really is bringing some big cash to the table, unfortunately for us skiers I just don't think Big Tupper will see any major improvements for a long time, if at all. Even Though that has been touted as a "Centerpiece" of the project.