Developer has big plans for Brown County - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

On pristine, hilly property in the heart of Brown County, local architect Burt Perdue sees huge potential.

"When I look at it, I can see a completed project," Perdue said.

It's a proposed $250 million project called Schooner Valley Village. It would span 180 acres on the old Ski World site that closed in 2004.

Schooner Valley Village is, by all accounts, ambitious. You can see that from one look at the project's master plan.

"I'm confident it will happen," Perdue said. "I've got seven grandkids that want to see this happen, so if I don't pull this off, I'm gonna have to leave the country."

Over 15 years, and several phases, Perdue plans to build a live-work-and-play community, featuring all styles of housing from apartments to single-family homes to condos and vacation homes. There would also be amenities like churches, community centers and retail space.

Plus, Perdue plans some big family attractions, including ziplines, canoeing, and an adventure park. The centerpiece is a year-round ski center using specialty snow.

"It's a new concept. It's been used in Europe, but is fairly new to this country," Perdue explained. "There's one at Liberty College in Virginia that's very successful. It uses something called Snoflex. It's a synthetic surface that you mist and you can ski on it in 90 degree heat."

Perdue says housing and the ski center is just phase one.

"There's an indoor, 60,000 square-foot indoor waterpark that's attached to a resort hotel and conference center. We'll have indoor skydiving, indoor rock climbing. There's a skateboard BMX park," he said.

The project also promises to create nearly 500 jobs for an area that desperately needs them.

"The jobs alone would be a huge boon to our county," said Brown County Commissioners' president John Kennard. "With our economic situation, I was just ecstatic."

Brown County, which is dependant on tourism, took a big hit in the economic downturn. It not only lost Ski World, but also some shops in Nashville, and the Little Nashville Opry and the For Bare Feet sock factory to fire. Those all took tourists and hundreds of local jobs away.

"So if you look at those factors and you figure somebody's coming in here and wants to work with you and offer you 300-500 job positions opening, it's just gonna be huge," Kennard said.

There's still a lot of work to make the vision happen, including infrastructure, permits, investors and financing. Perdue says several investors already have expressed interest. He's currently working on the development plan for infrastructure engineering. He says he has a great start and Brown County leaders vow to see it finished.

"We don't want this to go away. This is too valuable an asset, or potential asset, for us," Kennard said. "Any other county in Indiana, if they had hills, would be just screaming, 'Hey come look at me! Come look at me!' and thank goodness we're one of the few that have hills, so we've got first choice."

Meetings are scheduled with city and county leaders this summer, as they develop financing options. Perdue hopes to break ground in 2013.

Schooner Valley Village