ADK announced the sale in a statement on Thursday. It marks an abrupt about-face for the organization that bought the property three years ago. Executive Director Cortney Worrall said it was a hard decision.

“It’s not just the public who are disappointed,” she said in a statement. “Our staff poured an enormous amount of work, heart, and passion into the facility. But we know this is the right decision — one that allows us to refocus our energy on our core programs, people, and places.”

The Cascade Welcome Center is located at 4833 Cascade Road, about five miles southeast of downtown Lake Placid. ADK purchased the sprawling property — which includes a 12-kilometer groomed and maintained trail network and was operated as a full-service ski tuning and mounting shop, an outdoor gear store and rental center — from the Jubin family for about $2.5 million in 2022.

Worrall said ADK “went through the standard assessment process” to arrive at the $2.85 million sale price. The listing, which notes the property’s potential for development, is available at tinyurl.com/3betdf8e.

On Aug. 21, ADK announced that the welcome center would be closed this winter, but said it was temporary at the time. Worrall told the Enterprise on Monday that since then, ADK continued to assess the center’s viability, relative to the organization’s resources.

“We concluded that it was important for ADK to center its attention, staff time (and) its resources on our core facilities, which are at Heart Lake and then all the work that we do on the trails, and with schools,” she said.

In its statement announcing the sale, ADK said that while the welcome center was a draw for the area and expanded outdoor access, it “stretched ADK’s capacity beyond what was sustainable.”

“We’re a nonprofit running a ski center,” Worrall said on Monday. “A lot of nonprofits right now are really looking at their core functions.”

She cited concerns that federal grant money that ADK and other non-profit organizations have historically relied on, in part, to fund their operations will be harder to come by in future years, heightening the need to trim back on some of its operating costs.

Worrall said the decision was particularly difficult because of the expectations that came with providing its members and the Nordic skiing community with the skiing opportunities at the property. However, she said ADK was working to provide Nordic skiing terrain this winter around its Heart Lake property.

“We’re making sure that ADK will provide cross-country skiing,” she said.

A work day was held on Oct. 5. Volunteers cleared blowdown, debris and installed new trail markers on about five miles of trails.