A plan is now in place for someone – anyone – to redevelop Sugar Loaf Resort resort from the “brownfield” that it currently is into a new “resort center” for Leelanau County.

The estimated capital investment required will be around $40 million, according to consultants who drafted a “Brownfield Plan” for Sugar Loaf on behalf of the Leelanau County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (LCBRA).

Officials from the engineering consulting firm AKT Peerless presented a series of reports for review by the LCBRA at a meeting Friday at the county Government Center. The centerpiece “brownfield” plan indicates that it will cost more than $2.5 million just to clean up what remains of the decaying resort, including more than $893,000 in demolition costs. Most of those costs, however, are “reimbursable” through state and federal grants if the developer is working through the LCBRA.

A separate “property condition assessment report” prepared by AKT Peerless after engineers conducted a series of site visits and investigations late last year, indicates that the foundation of the main lodge at Sugar Loaf is “structurally solid,” but that saving the building will require immediate action to fix the roof and replace mechanical systems in the building at a cost of around $2 million – for starters.

“Is it worth $2 million to salvage that structure?” LCBRA chairman David W. “Chauncey” Shiflett asked rhetorically after hearing from AKT Peerless engineer Dave VanHaaren. “When that building was shut down (in 2000), it wasn’t mothballed well.”

Several other structures on the resort property were recommended for demolition. Ski lifts will require total re-engineering and rebuild, according to the report.

AKT’s reports – paid for through part of a $25,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant – include a comprehensive “financial incentive overview” that might attract a developer to the project. The incentives include a variety of state and federal grants and loans and well as a variety of special tax incentives that could save a developer millions of dollars.

The brownfield redevelopment plan was based in part on public input gathered during a series of “visioning sessions” conducted last summer. The draft plan includes a lodge and condominiums; a retail and spa center; a bunkhouse; an air strip; a golf course; sports facilities; an equestrian training center and recreation trails – to say nothing of downhill ski and snowboard facilities.

“So, we now have a brownfield redevelopment plan in place and a long list of programs that would provide incentives for someone to come in and redevelop Sugar Loaf,” said Shiflett.

He acknowledged that the LCBRA’s efforts and those of the consultants using taxpayer money have “added value” to the Sugar Loaf property – and have primarily benefited its current owners so far.

Although Leelanau County native Kate Wickstrom is listed as the owner of Sugar Loaf, documents now on file in the county Register of Deeds office show that her mortgage on the resort is being controlled by Hanna Karcho-Polselli and her husband, convicted felon Remo Polselli who was a former owner of the resort.

Polselli served time in a federal prison for tax evasion in connection with one of his downstate hotel properties in 2003 and is the subject of a continuing Internal Revenue Service investigation as well as a bankruptcy case and a potential criminal case in federal court.

If a 2007 property tax bill isn’t paid on Sugar Loaf Resort by March 31, Leelanau County could take ownership of the resort under state law. A mortgage on the resort is currently being held by First Place Bank of downstate Southfield, having been transferred there by Hanna Karcho-Polselli. Wickstrom has indicated she has no more money to pay the resort’s bills.