From the moment the heavy pine carved doors open, guests of the renovated Black Butte lodge west of Redmond will experience a nod to the past and an embrace of the future.

The past is embedded in the design of the $20 million rebuild of the lodge. It’s in the stone fireplaces, the ponderosa pine tables created from a felled tree harvested from the site and in the hand-carved entry door.

The future is in the sleek glass and wood A-frame covered in a charred wood exterior. The lodge has mountain and meadow views, is Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant and has a state-of- the-art kitchen. It opens to the public on Monday.

“We’ve got better space for events than we’ve ever had in the past,” said Shawn McCance, Black Butte Ranch CEO. “We’re a unique homeowner community, but a destination resort with a legacy following. People come year after year for family reunions.”

The ranch, built in the 1970s, is a unique property of individually owned homes, some of which are available for rent, spread out on 1,800 acres off U.S. Highway 20 near Sisters. It’s become a favorite for group travel, meetings and weddings.

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“The new lodge at Black Butte Ranch is a very exciting addition to Central Oregon’s tourism offerings,” said Julia Theisen, Visit Central Oregon CEO. “The new lodge will provide a beautiful space with sweeping mountain views to host events, weddings and meetings. The additional event space will be invaluable for attracting visitors to the region.”

The ranch caters to a unique visitor who doesn’t want a lot of commercial activities on site, but can go into the town of Sisters for shopping or entertainment, said Todd Montgomery, Oregon State University-Cascades Hospitality Management program executive-in-residence.

“We hope the lodge will become the place where memories are made,” said Kim Kohn, Black Butte Ranch director of sales and marketing. “We tried to save as much character from the old lodge as we could. So there’s nooks and places to grab coffee or a glass of wine.”

Reinvesting in properties like this keep the destination fresh in visitors’ minds, Montgomery said.

“This is definitely a destination,” he said. “Particularly where it’s located on the pass and in Sisters. That part of the forest and the access is quite unique. It’s a stunning and beautiful place.”

In Central Oregon, where there is a plethora of outdoor activities, the visitor industry thrives on offering a variety of accommodations and resorts each targeting a different traveler, Montgomery said.

“This is different and that’s what people want. It’s accessible to Sisters,” Montgomery said. “It has a lot of positives.”

The ranch is a rare business model for a destination. There are no hotel rooms, no big commercial enterprises. Instead there is an association of homeowners, some of whom rent out their properties, said Mark Pilkenton, a homeowner since 2000. About a quarter of the homeowners rent out their home and the rest choose to come and go. Some retain ownership of the vacation homes from generation to generation, Pilkenton said.

In 2015, the ranch opened the Lakeside Recreation Center that includes an outdoor pool, hot tub, fitness center sauna and food and beverage service.

Five years later, the ranch added The General Store near the main entrance to the ranch. That same year, the ranch completed the Little Meadow Putting course.

“We attract golfers and weddings,” Pilkenton said. “Family reunions too. Fly fishing and bike paths that go to the nearby rivers and lakes. We don’t want to over market and try to strike a balance between lifestyle and commercialization.”

The lodge, a cornerstone of the property, needed renovation for years, Pilkenton said. The owners decided in 2018 that it was time to rebuild it because it wasn’t sustainable nor American with Disabilities Act compliant, he said.

Plans were developed and a design agreed upon, and the plans were put to a vote among the 1,253 owners. About 70% agreed to the rebuild and split the cost among reserves, ownership funding and financing. But then the pandemic hit. Supply chain issues surfaced and the costs rose, Pilkenton said. A second vote of the owners was necessary because costs rose by $4 million. It too was approved by an even wider margin, he said.

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“It took a lot of us on the task force working on this,” Pilkenton said. “We wanted to take advantage of the best views of Central Oregon, the ponderosa pines and aspen trees, the lake and the view of the Three Sisters mountains. That was our primary goal, our mission, at the ranch. We wanted to provide families with an experience that supports their enjoyment with limited commercial activities.”