Nevada Governor visits Lake Tahoe for Tahoe Beach Club groundbreaking

"It's going to be an interesting journey," then-TRPA director Juan Palma told Bob Mecay back in 2002. Little did Mecay know then that it would take until 2016 to see completion of that journey.

Mecay, President of Tahoe Beach Club, unveiled the end of the journey in a beachfront groundbreaking ceremony Monday in a spot that will see 143 condominium residences, a private beach club, two to five-bedroom condominiums, a private pier, lakefront clubhouse, health club, spa and pool.

The condominiums, priced from $1 million to $4.5 million, are being built in a spot that once housed the Tahoe Shores Mobile Home Park at the end of Kahle Drive at Stateline. At its height, 155 mobile homes made up the 20-acre parcel which hadn't seen improvements in years.

Tahoe Beach Club has addressed numerous environmental concerns by preventing 11,000 pounds of sediment from entering lake annually, eliminating 7,720 tons of carbon emissions, restoration of two acres of stream environment and becoming
Silver LEED certified.

"What we're witnessing are the beginnings of a renaissance in out built environment," said TRPA Executive Director Joanne Marchetta during the groundbreaking ceremony. "This is a shining example of environmental redevelopment."

The area the new project is being built on was once the runway for an airport that ran through nearby Rabe Meadow, and then the trailer park who's beach once housed the Kingsbury General Improvement District water treatment plant. The plant was moved into a $19 million new building at the southern end of the new development.

Also on hand for the groundbreaking was Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a longtime friend of Mecay.

"It's not often I can stand here and see something from a dream to reality," Sandoval told the crowd gathered at the beach. "I compliment him (Mecay) on his patience and sticking with the project. This will be a great compliment to whats happening next door at Edgewood."

Sandoval, who spent his childhood at the 4H camp next door, highlighted the benefits of a "quality" project, one that protects Lake Tahoe's clarity, something the state of Nevada has been spending millions on in recent years.

"This project is what Nevada has tried to do for the quality of the lake," said Sandoval. "$30 million bike path at Incline Village and water quality projects involved on new roads along the east shore. Nevada is doing its share and this project will do the same."

Anyone that is involved in building at the lake understands the time, and money, it takes to satisfy the environmental regulations. Mecay told a story Monday that showed the time that has passed since conception of the Beach Club.

"Lew Wolff (Chairman of Maritz, Wolff & Co, owners of Four Seasons, Fairmont and Ritz-Carlton hotels, and owner of the Oakland A's) flew into South Lake Tahoe to see this property for me," recalled Mecay. "He asked me how old my son was, and I told him 'seven.' Well maybe this will be built by the time he graduates from college. He graduates in December, so Wolff was right."

The Tahoe Beach Club, which, along with the new Edgewood hotel project, received no objections from environmental watchdogs. This will be the first full ownernership residential project in over thirty years at Lake Tahoe.

Also included with the project will be 54 deed restricted workforce housing units, 39 of which will be considered affordable, 15 for moderate incomes.

Bob Mecay is the president of KBM Enterprises which has developed, constructed, managed and marketed over 100 separate real estate projects over the last 30-years. These include residential and commercial properties, both ground-up construction and rehabilitation. Mecay’s companies have operated in Minnesota, California and Nevada.