WILMINGTON- Hermitage Inn owner Jim Barnes hosted a luncheon for local real estate agents to present his plan for his latest acquisition, the Haystack Club.

Barnes, a successful businessman involved with companies that gross over $1 billion in annual sales, recently completed the sale of the Haystack Golf Course and the Haystack Club, which includes Haystack Ski Area. In 2007 Barnes’ Connecticut-based Oak Leaf Waste Management company was sold for $655 million, more than doubling the return for the company’s investors, according to Lisa Beaudoin-Mirando, of Barnes’ Hermitage Realty company.

Barnes has also acquired Haystack properties that will connect the Hermitage Inn properties to the Haystack Ski Area.

Barnes has essentially adopted the Haystack Club plan proposed by previous owner Bob Foisie and his 1 Cornell Inc. property development company, but with a few differences. Club memberships will be about $60,000 less - $25,000 ($20,000 for the first 100 sold) as opposed to $85,000. And Barnes is inviting local realtors to sell memberships, from which they’ll earn a $2,000 fee for agents, and $1,000 for brokers. Brokers are also being offered a four percent commission on the sale of Haystack real estate, which will include town homes and “executive homes” at Haystack, as well as luxury homes at the Hermitage. “We want this to be good for all of us,” he said, noting that the four percent brokerage commission was “unheard of in the industry.”

Memberships have a $4,900 annual fee, which includes all skiing, golf greens fees and cart rental, and other amenities. The Haystack Golf Course will remain open to the public.

Barnes said there’s one townhouse unit available now, three more will be available by December 15, and four more will be ready for sale in seven months. Construction has already started on the second four-unit building.

For skiers (local skiers, anyway) the good news is that Haystack Ski Area will be in operation this year. Under the terms of the original sale from Mount Snow to Foisie, the Haystack Club can to sell up to 250 lift tickets per day to local skiers, and Barnes says he intends to honor that agreement.

Within the next few weeks, Barnes said, snowmaking operations will begin. “This year we’re bringing in 25 new fan guns,” he said, “portable ones that we can move around and put where they’re needed.” The goal for this year is to get the “center” trails open, which will be served by the Hayfever lift.

Although the previous Haystack owners engaged in a legal battle with Mount Snow over access to snowmaking water, Barnes said he has been negotiating with Mount Snow. “We’d like to solve that issue so that everyone in the valley can get the water they need,” Barnes said.

“Next year we’ll have snowmaking coverage over the entire mountain,” Barnes told realtors. Also next year, Barnes will install a gondola in place of Haystack’s Barnstormer lift.

One realtor asked if the real estate and mountain infrastructure construction was dependent on revenue from sales. “Is this dependent on membership? No,” he said. “We want to get this done.”

Barnes’ plan also includes a ski trail connecting Haystack with the Hermitage. Work is already being completed on the trail, which will allow club members direct access from units at the Hermitage area and the Inn itself. Club members will be able to ski down to the Hermitage area, and return by snowcat or shuttle van.

The Hermitage will become the Haystack base area – including amenities and necessities such as first aid.

In addition to regular club memberships, Barnes is offering a “founder” membership starting at $250,000, which includes an investment in the club. For a $1 million membership, members get a seat on the Haystack board of directors and an executive home site on the mountain. “We already have a verbal commitment for four memberships at the $1 million level,” Barnes said.

Barnes plans to launch sales of his 38 executive ski homes, located on two- to three-acre sites, in 2012; a Haystack Club Hotel in 2013; and a Haystack Club lodge in 2013.

Realtor John Redd asked if snowmobilers would be accommodated at Haystack. Barnes, noting that he and his wife are snowmobilers, said there would be snowmobile access “to the door” of the Haystack units.