Steamboat Lawsuit Settled for $5.1 Million
American Skiing Company (ASC) will pay $5.1 million to settle its lawsuit with Triple Peaks, LLC, stemming from ASC’s last-minute termination of the proposed sale of the Steamboat Ski Resort to Triple Peaks in 2001. In return, Triple Peaks has agreed to a full dismissal of all claims relating to the sale.
Under the terms of the settlement, ASC will pay Triple Peaks $3 million as soon as the agreement is executed, and an additional $2.14 million by April 15, 2005. According to ASC, it has built a settlement account sufficient to pay these amounts.
Triple Peaks had signed a contract to buy the Steamboat Ski Resort for $91.4 million. However, American Skiing Company cancelled that deal and opted instead to sell Heavenly, Calif., to Vail Resorts. Colorado District Judge Richard Doucette ruled in favor of American Skiing Company in December 2002, but the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the District Court and found in favor of Triple Peaks in 2004.
Silverton Might Expand
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has given the OK to Silverton to host unguided skiers, up to 475 a day. Concentrating on avalanche safety for three years, the Bureau conducted a survey of the area before it rendered its recommendation.
The fly in the ointment, however, is the recommendation is now put to the public, which has 30 days to comment, and then the Bureau renders a final decision. Aaron Brill, owner of the back country ski area, is not expecting to open up to unguided skiing for most of the 2004/2005 season, but rather operate within the 80 allowable guided visits per day.
Bombardier Sold Again
Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. is selling its industrial vehicle division, including snow groomers, to Quebec component-maker Camoplast Inc., which produces rubber tracks and components for groomers and other heavy-duty tracked vehicles. Terms of the transaction were not released. The sale was expected to close by the end of August.
Gray Rocks to Close
Gray Rocks Inn and ski area will close its doors on October 10, marking the first time in a nearly a century that the Gray Rocks Inn will be closed for the winter.
Owner Phillip Robinson blamed the extreme cold and the general tourism slump for the area’s losses last winter. But the area has lost money for several years. Robinson, 79, hopes to sell the inn and ski hill and retain control of the inn’s golf courses, which have remained profitable.
Mountain High Buys Sunrise
Mountain High Resort purchased neighboring Ski Sunrise for about $375,000. The 97-acre area, located about one mile from Mountain High will be used, in the short term, as a teaching and snow play (tubing and sledding) area.
In the long run, Sunrise could become a more complete piece of the Mountain High puzzle, offering skiing and riding on a larger scale with a major snowmaking expansion as well as lift upgrades. The 850-vertical-foot area currently includes 24 marked runs, one chairlift, two cable lifts, a paved parking lot for 480 cars, restaurant facility, lodge, rental and retail shops.
Brodie Sold for $2.6 Million
Silverleaf Resorts purchased Brodie Mountain Ski Area, Mass., for $2.6 million from the owners of neighboring Jiminy Peak. Silverleaf plans to build 332 time-share condo units on the 589-acre parcel. The sale comes on the heels of an ill-fated attempt to resurrect Brodie Mountain by Jiminy Peak. Recent plans included a waterpark, but trouble finding financing forced the sale of the parcel.
In the meantime, Jiminy Peak will continue to operate the snowtubing at Brodie for the upcoming season.
Tremblant Undertakes $1 Billion Expansion
Intrawest announced an ambitious expansion at Mont Tremblant over the next 10 years. The $1 billion project will develop Mont Tremblant’s Versant Soleil and Versant Nord. Developers have already expanded the area since 1991, when 400,000 visitors came to the area, to welcoming 2.3 million today. Once the project is completed, Intrawest hopes to host more than 4.5 million vacationers.
On-hill improvements will expand Tremblant’s terrain from 600 acres to 1,000 acres, increasing the resort’s capacity from 12,000 skiers per day to 20,000.
Off-hill development at Versant Soleil will include a pedestrian village with six hotels totalling 1,500 condo-hotel units. In addition, a 95,000-square-foot convention center will be constructed. Versant Nord will add a further chunk of condo-hotel and residential units—totalling 1,500—to the mix.
Big Mountain Takes Over Village Operations
Winter Sports, Inc., (WSI), operators of Big Mountain Resort, Mont., will take over development of its base village from the Hines real estate firm.
In 2001, Hines bought parcels of land from WSI for real estate development, but Hines has since shifted its focus to commercial real estate development and is moving away from resort development. Hines was able to complete, or partially complete, three projects. In the meantime, WSI will continue the development working with a variety of interested parties.
Obituary
John Chelius, long known for his promotional work for Ingersoll Rand’s snowmaking projects in the industry, died in June.
People
At Sugarbush, Bob Ackland will transition from his role as president of the resort division to become president of the real estate division. Win Smith, CEO and chairman, will take over as president of the resort arm.
In Colorado, John Norton has stepped down from the helm at Crested Butte in order to pursue consulting. New owner, Tim Mueller, will take over as president and CEO. . .Intrawest Colorado announced the promotion of Gary Rodgers to the new position of senior vice president of operations.
At Teton Mountain Lodge, Wyo., Christie Reinhardt was promoted to rooms division manager and Jennifer Honney has signed on as the national sales manager.
At Angel Fire Resort, N.M., Jon Mahanna becomes the new GM and Kevin Stickelman was appointed ski and snowboard school director.
Moving north, the new Tamarack resort in Idaho hired Jamie Seifert as director of mountain operations.
At the annual Intermountain Ski Areas Association conference at Brundage Mountain, Idaho, several regional figures were recognized: Warren Brown was given, posthumously, the Pioneer Award for his work at Brundage; Outstanding Contribution to the Sport of Skiing Award went to Onno Wieringa of Alta, Utah; finally, the Golden Wrench Award was presented to York Snow’s Bob Fisher.
In Canada, Whistler/Blackcomb restructured its senior team. Doug Forseth, senior VP of operations, will lead Bob Dufour, promoted to VP mountain ops; Rick Temple, maintenance; Lynda Edwards, F&B; Ken Derpak, finance; and Kirby Brown, employee experience. Stuart Rempel was promoted to senior VP marketing and sales and will lead newly-promoted Todd Friesen, VP rental and retail and Rob McSkimming, VP business development. Whistler also announced that it hired a new public relations and communications manager, Christina Allsop.
Georgian College, Ont., hired Rob Butler as a professor in the college’s ski resort operations program.
Supplier People
At Freeze magazine, editor Brian Rosa moved to the consumer marketing department. Taking over will be Jeff “Tern” Foss who becomes associate editor.
At Volkl/Marker/K2, John J. Rangel was appointed president of K2’s European operations. Mike Noonan was named president of Volkl Sport America and Chistoph Bronder becomes president of Volkl and Marker’s global operations. Lastly, Dudley Mendenhall became CFO of K2 Inc.
Malden Mills hired Michael Spillane as CEO and president.
At Rossignol, Kurt Hoefler is the Alpine division manager and Robert Lazzaroni is the nordic division manager.
Areco Snowsystem has added Kelly Bryan as midwest sales manager.
Supplier News
York Snow, Poma/Leitner and Torrent Engineering announce their 7th annual Snow Daze Event which will be held at Crystal Mountain, Mich., on January 25, 2005. PistenBully will also be hosting its Big Red Push and Pull program at the same event. Contact Dennis Schulz at (262) 249-1522 or [email protected] for more information.
Snowmaker Turbocristal and partner Snowstar have created a new North American division, to be run out of the Turbocristal office. For more information, contact Martin LaRicheliere at 1-800-613-4546, ext. 25 or by e-mail at [email protected].
K2 bought Volkl Sports Holding, Marker Group and Marmot Mountain Ltd. for a total of $208 million, plus assumed debt.
Spyder Active Sports was acquired by Apax Partners Worldwide for $100 million.
Burton has acquired four snowbrand brands from Four Star Distribution. The brands are: Forum, Special Blend, Jeenyus and Foursquare.
