Albemarle Supervisors get update on Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park spans about 110 miles across the Blue Ridge Mountains with about 300 linear miles of boundary that touches eight Virginia counties.

“[That’s] 190,000 some odd acres,” said John Mahoney, chief of commercial services for the park. “Roughly 14,000 of those acres fall within Albemarle County.”

Mahoney appeared before the Albemarle Board of Supervisors on September 3 to give an overview of the park.

Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed a secretarial order to strengthen partnerships between the National Park Service and local government entities referred to as “gateway communities.”

“These communities often provide critical infrastructure and services for System unit operations and visitors, including lodging, food services, emergency response, transportation, and recreation-related amenities,” reads the order.

The park is a major driver of tourism for many of its neighboring communities. Mahoney said a recent economic impact study found that the park generates $104 million in economic activity in the eight gateway communities and supported 1,240 jobs.

“Last year, 2024 visitation, we had about 1.7 million people come through the park last season. That’s a little bit of a downward trend from our peak bubble during COVID which was around 2 million annually,” Mahoney said.

In May, the administration canceled a contract for a firm to operate concessions in the park that had been awarded to Delaware North Parks and Resorts. That firm is currently on an extension while bids come in on a new request for proposals issued later that month and bids are due next Friday.

“That contract is for all lodging, food and beverage, all four campgrounds in the park, which was a huge thing for us,” Mahoney said. “Gas station, Lewis Mountain Cabins, three fast casual restaurants, Big Meadows Lodge, Skyland, you name it. The full gamut is in there. That contract is valued at close to $530 million gross revenue over 15 years with the minimum franchise fee back to the National park service of 14 percent annually.”

One of those campgrounds is called Loft Mountain and is located within Albemarle County. That property has been under the management of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Mahoney said that is soon going to change when the campgrounds are privatized under the new concessions contract. That will have an upside for the county coffers.

“There will be an opportunity for taxable revenue there under the lodging tax,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney said that Page County currently brings in about $1.3 million in lodging tax from over 300 hotel rooms at Skyland and Big Meadows.

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