QUECHEE — Amid a tight labor market, the Quechee Club has announced plans to expand due to increased demand for programs and activities by the club’s younger members.

In the past few years, the 52-year-old club has seen the average age of its members drop from about 65 to 58, as older members have taken advantage of the booming real estate market to sell and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, younger families from more urban areas have sought refuge in rural Vermont, general manager Brian Kelley said.

Kelley, who became general manager in July 2020, said he’s seen “the club changing by the month.”

Given the club’s new demographics, Kelley said it was time to revisit a master plan that had been in the works for more than a decade. Some of the elements of the plan — which the club’s members recently approved — focus on improving amenities.

But underpinning all the upgrades to the club’s amenities is one thing.

The “most important part of this entire plan is the employee housing concept,” Kelley said. “We can’t expand without team members. It’s hard to bring somebody in from outside the Upper Valley. (There) are no homes to buy.”

Those that are selling are often going for cash and more than asking price, which is not something “normal human beings” can afford to do, he said.

The first phase of the project is expected to cost $8 million and will be funded through a mix of membership dues from its 1,400 households and bank financing, Kelley said. Groundbreaking is slated for this fall and completion planned for 2025.

The project is to include a new racket sports complex; an expansion of the recreation camp barn used for children’s activities; showers and locker rooms for Lake Pinneo; and a golf cart barn for the club’s fleet, which it plans to convert from gasoline-powered to electric. A second phase, to be revisited once the first is complete, would include a multi-use ski and golf building.

The Quechee Club encompasses 5,500 acres and some $26 million in assets such as trails for hiking and biking, an indoor/outdoor pool, Lake Pinneo, a ski hill, golf club and racket sports courts, Kelley said.

It is staffed by about 300 workers in the summer and half that in the winter.

“Everybody’s fighting over the same employees,” he said. “That’s what’s causing the wage inflation.”

Earlier in the pandemic, the club was able to recruit just eight employees from abroad through the J-1 temporary visa program, but that number is up to 16 this year, as pandemic-related restrictions have eased. This year, the club is renting condos from some of its members to house the international workers.

The new housing, which is slated to sit near the club’s main campus, could be used for temporary workers or for more permanent ones, if the club is able to recruit locally. Kelley said the dormitory will be designed to be flexible. The 16 rooms could be singles or doubles.

The club worked with Methuen, Mass.-based Club Benchmarking, an “industry leader in business intelligence,” and Rhode Island-based JBD JGA Design and Architecture to develop the master plan, according to an April 21 news release announcing the club’s adoption of the new master plan.

Now, Kelley said, the club is working with a general contractor and civil engineer with the goal of getting a “shovel in the ground” this fall.

Jo-Ann Ells, Hartford’s zoning administrator, said she hasn’t seen any formal filings for the club’s expansion yet, so she couldn’t say if and which permits might be required.

“I couldn’t comment until I see it,” she said.

But the plans primarily focus on adding to the club’s existing structures.

The “only new structure really is the employee housing building,” Kelley said. It is slated to be located where the club’s elevated paddle courts are off Quechee Main Street.

PJ Skehan, executive director of Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce, lauded the club’s expansion plan.

It “sounds like they’re being very forward-thinking, which is obviously great,” he said.

The employee housing component stood out to him.

It’s “obviously a major issue for every business in the chamber (and in the) town of Hartford,” Skehan said. “People can’t afford to live here. There’s not enough housing.”

Skehan said the club is a big part of Hartford’s community. While some of the residents are second homeowners and come up only on weekends, others live there full-time or have spent more time in Quechee during the pandemic.

The club has, at times, come in conflict with the town in the past. There was a dispute a few years back about milfoil treatment and public access at Lake Pinneo, the club’s man-made lake on Murphys Road. But Kelley said Lake Pinneo now is open to Hartford residents each summer, and the club has completed the final treatment for the milfoil.

The “water quality is fantastic,” he said.

Like Kelley, Skehan said he’s noticed more families in the Quechee area in recent years. The chamber collaborates with the club on its annual event, the Quechee Balloon Festival, which is held on Father’s Day weekend in June. In addition, Skehan said club members volunteer their time in various ways. There’s an active garden club, he said.

Especially during the pandemic, Skehan said club members “became more and more part of the community.”

Angela Moore, the co-owner of the Quechee General Store in the Quechee Gorge Village, said she collaborates with the club on an annual golf tournament to benefit the homeless. Amid the changing conditions due to the pandemic, Moore said the club has been “very accommodating” with scheduling the tournament.

“It feels like a community spirit there that we like,” she said.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.

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