Hope Lake Lodge opens its doors
A $42 million project is being unveiled in Cortland County. Hope Lake Lodge Resort is the newest addition to Greek Peak Mountain. The lodge opened for the first time on Friday. Our Allison Lazarz gives us an inside look, and got some first impressions.
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CORTLAND COUNTY, N.Y. -- The weather outside is, getting frightful, but inside the water park at Hope Lake Lodge, the temperature is always warm and toasty.
"We have a little saying that that the water park is 82 degrees year round," said Jeff Kryger, the hotel sales and marketing director for Hope Lake Lodge.
The brand new lodge opened Friday for what the company calls a "soft launch."
They've invited those who worked on the building, lodge employees, and area residents to get the first glimpse of the rooms, spa and water park.
"We have a survey that they get when they checked in as well as interaction with all the managers are here and present to kind of hear how things are going," said Kryger.
Nathan Keever was involved with the architecture of the lodge. He and his family got the chance to check it out before the grand opening on Thursday.
"It seems like a very nice place to bring the family. Got little hiccups with starting up but that's to be expected," said Keever, a Maryland resident.
If you're into music, you might try balneotherapy while you're at the lodge's spa. You just hook your favorite tunes right up to the bath tub and it actually vibrates to the beat of your music.
"The spa is open to the public, it's a 5,000 square foot spa with some really unique things to the area that we're excited to offer," said Kryger.
With our unpredictable central New York winters, the lodge can help off-set some of the cost of its counterpart, Greek Peak Ski Mountain.
"If the winter doesn't get started quite as well we have this, or if we have a really, really good winter then we have a place for people to come and stay and sleep over," said Kryger.
"Me and my husband actually ski so it would be kind of nice to come and enjoy everything, ya know? The water park is great and parents can get in the hot tub while the kids are going down the water slides," said Lori Knapp of Elmira.
The lodge employs about 250 seasonal and regular employees. A few years down the road, a golf course is in the works to be built right next to the lodge.