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onstruction of the Waldorf Astoria project in Crystal Bay, which is planned to be built over the old Biltmore Lodge and Casino, has been halted and is uncertain.

EKN Tahoe LLC, the project’s leading developer, was notified of default for an unpaid balance of $82 million. However, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has informed us that the developer and the agency are fully committed to completing the project. The permit remains active.

Residents are worried that the proposed project is unsuitable for Crystal Bay and that there are better alternatives. Currently, it is considered a blighted property, with unfiltered water draining into the lake and concerns about squatters and fire hazards. However, a groundskeeper is maintaining the building.

Nevada’s Tahoe Biltmore, first opened in 1947, got its latest in a series of owners in October of 2021.

When purchased after a previous developer, it ran into financial problems. A new Southern California based developer pledged a “marquee branded destination” in Crystal Bay set to open in 2025.

Months later, it acquired beach front property in Tahoe Vista for future guests to enjoy.

In spring 2022, the new owner closed the old hotel and casino and promised community members at local meetings that it intended to complete all demolition, excavation, roads and utility work in 2023 with vertical construction beginning in fall of 2023.

In April 2023, EKN presented a massive Waldorf Astoria luxury project to the TRPA governing board, leaving many residents concerned that the 12-year-old environmental impact statement did not take into account more traffic and new wildfire evacuation concerns.

“This project did have an environmental impact statement (EIS) created back then [2012], and everything was updated with things like traffic, and things like that happening in the community. But, it is really important to know that TRPA is always monitoring environmental quality and all of the environmental thresholds. We produce a threshold report every four years,” said Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Public Information Officer Jeff Cowen.

TRPA tells us that EKN can proceed with the updated scope of the project that was approved by the agency’s governing body last year. This project entails a large-scale environmental redevelopment that will result in significant improvements in water quality, scenic beauty, and affordable housing. The property in question had been inactive for a long time and was not able to serve the community as effectively as it can now.

“These kinds of projects are all over the basin right now. They were built in the 1950s and need a lot of investment to come up to today’s standards, so what we’re typically seeing is property owners coming in with really big plans because that’s what is going to help pay for those environmental improvements. Those complex projects, they do face hurdles, and obstacles, and challenges sometimes, so we are just going to stay behind them and hope for the best. ” said TRPA Public Information Officer Jeff Cowen.

However, community members tell us that the now stalled project has missed several development milestones, and the old hotel remains boarded up and unattended.

“It’s not realistic, and it’s not in scale with what our community needs, which is just basically a re-do of the old Biltmore, with 140 rooms and some gaming and a pool. You know that was the appropriate size for this community,” said planning consultant and former TRPA staff member Kristina Hill.

The proposed project’s size has increased significantly from around 125,000 feet, the size of the Biltmore, to around 734,000 square feet.

“When I worked at TRPA in the 1980s, we set environmental thresholds, had the bi-state compact, and denied projects,” said Hill.

During our continuing coverage of this story, concerns have been raised that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is deviating from its fundamental mission of ensuring lake clarity and public safety.

“The new view seems to be concentration, increased height, increased density, and increased concentration of construction, and there is an assumption that that is going to improve evacuation risks,” said Diane Becker, chair of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Advisory Board.

TRPA confirmed that it is encouraging larger town center projects with higher density, as they would significantly improve water quality, scenic views, transportation, and affordable housing.

“We need to meet people a little bit closer to halfway where if they’re going to invest so much in water quality improvements, then we don’t want to meet them with strict standards that say oh you have to remove half of the units, you have to reduce your coverage by 50 percent, you have to take a couple of stories off a building,” said TRPA Public Information Officer Jeff Cowen.

Furthermore, Cowen tells us that current blighted properties around the basin, such as the old Biltmore, indicate the area’s inability to score development because of too stringent regulations.

“This is really telling of the kind of environmental situation that’s been happening in the basin for a long time. Property owners who were locked in by development standards in the past weren’t really making any investments, so we were seeing older properties stay, becoming more blighted,” said Cowen.

For perspective, the proposed Waldorf Astoria project is about seven times larger than the old Biltmore, which could produce some congestion challenges on State Route 28, a main wildfire evacuation route heading west for Incline Village and Crystal Bay.

Tahoe regional planning is a complex topic with many facets, and we will continue to cover it.

Josh Meny

Anchor/Reporter