Busy Beaverites Resurrect Elk Meadows Resort

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15 September 2010

Push to The Latest: No

SAM Magazine-Beaver, Utah, Sept. 15, 2010-The once defunct Elk Meadows Resort in Beaver, Utah, is stirring. It's been nine years since the southern Utah resort gave a lift up to riders, but new management has had the chairs recertified, the lifts painted, the runs cleared, and the lodges remodeled.

The new Eagle Point Club, as it is tentatively named, will open this winter. "We just want to get people up here," said John Gadbaw, Eagle Point's acting general manager. The resort posted notices throughout the Web in September, hoping to fill positions from operations manager to cashier. "We'll open when there's snow and we'll be competitive. Extremely competitive," Gadbaw added.

They'll have to be. There'll be no snowmaking, and no high-speed lifts. What they will have-what they've always had-is advanced and expert inbounds and backcountry terrain that rivals most runs in the Wasatch.

In the past, the mountain itself wasn't enough to keep the area running. Since it closed in 2002, it's been plagued by financial turmoil, fraudulent lenders, and a grandiose plan to turn the resort into a private club, a la the Yellowstone Club in Montana. That alienated locals, who had been the resort's bread and butter. The recession and real estate collapse destroyed any hopes of establishing a Yellowstone-style club.

Finally, in December 2009, after bankruptcy proceedings, the 1100-acre property and structures valued at more than $5 million, sold at auction for just $1.9 million.

The new buyers include some of the partners in the previous failed management. XE Capital Management, a hedge fund and private equity group run by Shane Gadbaw, is the new owner; XE Capital was involved with the previous owners, Mount Holly Partners, so they've had an interest in the resort all along.

While XE Capital hasn't completely abandoned its luxury-resort dream-it hopes to build 800 luxury homes surrounding the resort next year-John Gadbaw, Shane's dad, said they're working moment to moment. This season, anyone and everyone is invited. For the future, John Gadbaw said the new owners "hope to structure some sort of private/public ski area."