By Susan Elise Campbell
Hotelier Robert Gregor has plans to transform two properties adjacent to one another on Lake Avenue and Canada Street so that year-round guests can enjoy the amenities of an Airbnb with the classic services of a hotel in one rental experience.
Gregor is a litigation attorney who splits his work week between home in Lake George and a firm in Ithaca. About 11 years ago he started purchasing motels in the community where he is raising his family.
The two properties are Lake Haven Motel and Motel Montreal, which Gregor describes as “mom and pop motels that have been good to me,” but which are “tired and typical.”
Lake Haven and Motel Montreal will be razed so that Gregor can create a single vacation resort out of the properties and their combined 1.58 acres.
The first round of sketch plans will be presented to the local planning board and Gregor is prepared this spring to make his case for helping Lake George grow as a year-round destination with the construction of this project.
“I’m optimistic we have the right infrastructure to keep the drive for a year-round tourism industry going,” he said.
Gregor said it has been “a strong winter exceeding projections by about 25 percent” for his Sundowner Motel on Canada Street that he purchased in 2016.
“Even April has been surprisingly busy, but business is not like it is in the summer,” he said.
In the Lake George market, as well as for hotels in general, properties have high fixed costs whether they are open or closed, he said.
“But if you can exceed your variable costs during winter, you float money to the bottom line to cover those fixed costs that otherwise would have been a zero-revenue game,” he said. “No one is going to come to the Sundowner in winter just to be at the Sundowner. They are coming for events like Winter Carnival, and if we can keep giving our guests different things for them to do, they will keep on coming. Business breeds more business.”
Updating the older structures is part of that commitment, and Gregor is making a $7 million dollar investment by tearing down Lake Haven and developing 30 two-story cottages surrounding a main hotel building with three stories and 60 guest rooms.
Gregor said the project will actually reduce the number of rooms now available to rent, but aims to appeal to the broader combined audience of traditional hotel guests and Airbnb vacation renters.
“Hotels are standardized, cookie-cutter, cold and impersonal,” he said. “Airbnbs give guests a great deal of charm and the features they have at home, but there are not enough amenities for the fees they pay.”
Combining the experience creates more choices and economies of scale. Gregor related the recent example of a guest at the Sundowner Motel who had a maintenance issue during the night.
“Because the motel is centralized, we can scale up across multiple rooms and have someone on staff overnight to solve problems immediately,” he said. “If that guest were staying at an Airbnb, they would be sitting on the problem until the next morning.”
“Yes, you are at a hotel with daily housekeeping, a front desk and other amenities. But also, each room at Sundowner is unique with different features and décor, like an Airbnb,” Gregor said. “Because I get better margins staffing as a hotel than as separate Airbnbs, I can offer our visitors a better price.”
Gregor plans to run Lake Haven and Motel Montreal as-is for another two season and start demolition after in September 2024, with a projected completion date of May 2025, he said.
A&C Construction out of Corinth has been doing work at the Sundowner, and Gregor said “the team is incredibly creative and has the Adirondack vibe down pat.” He said he hired A&C for the new project because his preference is “to use local firms and they are all lifelong residents of the North Country.”
Gregor said that he discovered quite accidentally a new market reality: to book rooms year-round, they have to have the flexibility to offer the configurations customers want.
“In summer, two-bedroom suites go quickly, but no one wanted single king rooms,” he said. “It’s the exact opposite in winter. The studios sell but not the family rooms.”
He said the lodge will maximize the winter business with as many king suites as they can fit, while the cabins have two bedrooms.
Plans call for new landscaping with trees lining the entire perimeter, Gregor said.
“When you enter the property it will feel like you’re escaping into the mountains,” he said. “It will offer a sense of privacy and strategically placed fire pits will offer views of the stars. We want guests to feel they are a little bit isolated from Lake George,” he said. “But they are also just steps away from the village, so they can park their car once and walk anyplace they want.”
Gregor said neighbors and fellow hotel owners are excited about the new project.
“That’s the beauty of Lake George,” he said. “Other hotel owners are so cutthroat, but we have a good bunch and a supportive neighborhood.”