November 15, 2018

Recent attention in the cold weather resort space has been focused upon the consolidation of resort and area ownership. What’s happening in the realm of real estate development at ski areas and resorts has fallen off the newswires. The following is a bit of what is going on in the world of cold weather resort real estate development.

April 21, 2018

Vail now owns Whistler/Blackcomb and Stowe in addition to its Colorado, Utah, California, Europe and Australia properties.

The Intrawest resorts are now owned by a partnership which includes the Crown Family, the owners of Aspen, and KSL, the Owner/Operator of Squaw and Alpine in California. Note that until now Crown and KSL had geographically limited holdings in Aspen or in North Lake Tahoe. This partnership also has Mammoth and the two areas in Big Bear Lake that Mammoth bought from Dick Kuhn. Industry analysts that have a basis for their analysis now believe these two operators, Alterra & Vail, will be statistically equal in skier visits.

Mirus Resort Advisors is pleased to have facilitated two sell side transactions which have closed so far in 2017.

Lookout Pass/Route of the Hiawatha on the Idaho Montanan border closed early Summer 2017.  The operations included a winter ski and snowboard center and a summer bike operation.  The bike operation is noted as one of the most unique and scenic in North America.  It follows a rail line, on a 5% grade over trestles and through tunnels in Montana and Idaho.  

The sale process  run by Mirus Resort Advisors generated multiple offers for the Ownership Group, which was comprised of multiple shareholders.  The offers to purchase came from both operators of existing resorts and those wanting to become operators of a cold weather resort.  Ultimately, two of the original Lookout Associates, LLC shareholders bought out the  other shareholders and retained Phil Edholm as President/Managing Partner  of the operations.

Mt. Shasta Ski Park in Mt. Shasta, California was sold this July to the Merlo family of Redding California.  The Merlo family, which also owns the Mount Shasta KOA, Merlo Family Estate Vineyards in Trinity County and are partners in Silverthorn Resort on Lake Shasta, has purchased the ski park.

The Young and Aguilera families had owned Mt. Shasta Ski Park since 2004.  The Merlo family plans on keeping the existing core personnel on board to run the ski area operations and has recently hired   on a bike park manager to reinvigorate the summer operations.

Mirus Resort Advisors generated multiple indications of interest for the ski area and summer bike park as a result of its marketing and sales efforts.  

Looking to buy or sell?  Want an idea of how resorts are being priced?  Give a call and I’ll share what I know.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer, the Autumn and my very best for a fantastic 2017 2018 season.

Page 1 of 3