6 minute read
Eagles Nest: Reaching high
Eagle’s Nest
TREE HOUSE RESORT
Clifford Kistner is CEO of Eagle’s Nest Tree House Resort and is seeking investment to create the world’s largest treehouse resort. With plans for 160 treehouse units and an additional 40 commercial/ retail spaces with room for expansion, Eagle’s Nest is set to become a truly one-of-a-kind location. Glamping Business Americas Editor Will Rusbridge caught up with Clifford to ask about the project.
“I am a visionary and I have a deep desire to make a difference in the world and bring joy to the lives of others. This all came from the pure joy I felt as a child in the treehouse I built in my backyard.” Clifford’s enthusiasm is contagious and his dreams are big.
The property that Eagle’s Nest Tree House Resort will be built on is located on the East Coast of the United States, in North Carolina, “The land borders with the states of Tennessee and Georgia, making it a very unique but perfect, exquisitely beautiful location nestled in the convergence of the Blue Ridge Mountain Range and the Great Smokey Mountains.
The property consists of 400 acres of old woodland that abuts to 640,000 acres of U.S. Forestry land which is known as the Appalachian Trail. This trail is a 2180-mile-long footpath that traverses the scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild and culturally resonant lands of the eastern United States from Maine to Georgia.”
Treehouses are incredible structures that can withstand all kinds of weather and capture a sense of magic and nostalgia, but they are also among the most difficult types of accommodation to build. Clifford adds, “As a builder and an environmentalist, I have always had an affinity to nature and specifically to trees. As a kid growing up in small town in Massachusetts, I loved the magic of treehouses. Kids in the neighborhood always came to me to build a treehouse, a secret space to let our imaginations run free.
As my vision took shape, I shared my ideas with others. Most became enamored by the idea of being high in a treehouse and once again feeling the freedom and joy of being a child again. One of the first questions I would be asked is when my resort would open? I could hear the eagerness and excitement as they began to imagine what the
experience would be like. Their joy in hearing about it made me even more excited and determined to make my vision a reality. I want to create this special place for the world to come and see what has been so dear to me, beginning when I was a child. I want to offer others a life experience like no other. I have envisioned a unique place that people from all walks of life can come and connect to their inner feelings and take with them the joy that only a treehouse and the forest can give.”
When it comes to the treehouses, Clifford has a very clear vision, and sees each of them with a unique atmosphere. “Each treehouse will have its own personality and style. Some will feature an extravagant style while others will be more whimsical. All will offer fully functioning amenities such as kitchens, bathrooms, running water, electricity, heat and cooling features for the complete comfort of our guests. We will feature designs from around the globe and bring our distinctive structures to the scale of our trees.”
As well as the treehouse accommodation, there will also be a number of free-standing buildings located throughout the grounds of the resort. “These will include restaurants, breweries, wine tasting rooms, venue services including a concert hall for entertainment and conferences such as TEDx conferences, kitchens and multi-use buildings on our mountain tops. We plan to include movie theatres, horse stalls, self-awareness classes, infinity pools, salt rooms, laundry and cleaning facilities and service stations, storage stations, ecological maintenance buildings, and more. We plan future acquisition of more land to accommodate guest parking, limousine services and parking for mobile homes and recreational vehicles that guests may be traveling with. We intend to be 90% self-sustaining for our energy needs. We intend to utilize wind power, water turbines, solar energy, thermogenic energy and grid energy.”
Services on offer to guests of the resort will include, “restaurants, meals delivered in person or by drones, venue services for conferences and entertainment, horseback riding, infinity pools, shopping centres leased by private businesses to sell their products on site, an artist venue, rope and tree climbing instruction, zip lines, education classes about eco involvement and climate change, mediation, archery, and other activities.”
Hosting large scale events at glamping sites and resorts is a difficult endeavor as it requires dedicated infrastructure to be built to accommodate not just a large amount of people, but also the equipment that is needed by the event organizers. Eagle’s Nest will open with this infrastructure already in place, “We are planning to accommodate large scale events such as TEDx conferences and other types of conferences, concerts and theatre events, some held in the forest and under the stars. World conferences and summits may also be accommodated on site.” Currently, Clifford is seeking investment to make Eagle’s Nest Tree House Resort a reality. “The investments I am seeking are sponsorships from major contributors in return for affiliation and advertisement space, seed investors, crowd fundraising, angel investments, Venture Capitalists, as we execute 2834 phases of buildout of our treehouses while concurrently installing landscaping, infrastructure, engineering and implementation of our plans. The timescale for the project will be five years from ground-breaking to completion of the entire project.” Discussing the potential of working with other people on the project, Clifford said, “I am open to the prospect of partnership if it is the right opportunity. I have plans to work with a professional hospitality firm to manage the resort.”
Clifford’s overall vision for the project is to, “create a one-of-a-kind world class treehouse resort that people from all over the world can discover and enjoy. We want this to be a once in a lifetime experience with memories they will cherish for the rest of their lives.” But perhaps more importantly, “One of the biggest intentions of Eagles Nest Tree House Resort is to help create economic stability and job opportunities in an area that is facing an unprecedented economic crisis. The world pandemic has only worsened the crisis. These are communities in crisis. This project will bring much needed economic relief to this distressed area. Our project would like to contribute to the revitalization project of Cherokee County, North Carolina and help it to flourish with economic vitality.”
To find out more about Eagle’s Nest Tree House Resort, you can find the website at eaglesnesttreehouseresort.com.
