reasons for all the ownership changes

[ski_resort_observer]

A thought crossed my mind while pondering the recent sale of Jay Peak. Unlike most of the other sales the Jay Peak sale was from within rather than to a private equity firm or a national resort developer. Was the timing of some of these ownership changes in light of the current economic headwinds a cause for concern?

In the past two years here a short list of some of the resorts/companies changing ownership in the last two years or so:
Killington
Mt Snow
Loon
Attitash
Sunday River
Sugarloaf
Intrawest
Burke
Bretton Woods
Ragged
and most recently Jay Peak and Mt Abrams

Anyone have any theories why this has occurred? I think the ASC resorts reasons is pretty obvious but what about the others.

 

[snoseek]

Just a guess-it's more about the real estate than the skiing. Even more so than in the past.

 

[marcski]

If you take the aftermath of the ASC resorts...have there really been that many that changed hands % wise compared to other industries? And I think a lot of it has to do with like snoseek mentioned...real estate and the market.

 

[thetrailboss]

Who bought Mt. Abram?

 

[tjf67]

My thought is that they need cash.

Ski resorts are like golf courses you dont make money until you sell them.
Tim

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Who bought Mt. Abram?

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/13/ap5115535.html

 

[Warp Daddy]

Probably re-fi's or other liquidity issues at work i'd guess and yes it is about the real estate IMO

 

[riverc0il]

A thought crossed my mind while pondering the recent sale of Jay Peak. Unlike most of the other sales the Jay Peak sale was from within rather than to a private equity firm or a national resort developer. Was the timing of some of these ownership changes in light of the current economic headwinds a cause for concern?

In the past two years here a short list of some of the resorts/companies changing ownership in the last two years or so:
Killington
Mt Snow
Loon
Attitash
Sunday River
Sugarloaf
Intrawest
Burke
Bretton Woods
Ragged
and most recently Jay Peak and Mt Abrams

Anyone have any theories why this has occurred? I think the ASC resorts reasons is pretty obvious but what about the others.

Killington, Snow, SR, Loaf, and Attitash were all ASC. Burke and Ragged were financial (Burke has always struggled, nothing new). Intrawest is a massive corporation with skiing being a small part. That leaves the Loon and Bretton which were similar types of sales, IIRC? There is no correlation with those mountains. With Jay Peak, perhaps MSSI is capitalizing on a low US dollar and reinvesting into their core resorts? Odd they would dump Jay Peak after all the build up to Hotel One and the expansion. Every year one or two ski areas are transacted it seems

 

[billski]

Me thinks the owners that do it purely for the love of the sport are long gone. It's investor-think now days. Try to make a go of it for N years. When that time come, cut bait and move on.
So clearly, there are still money-losing operators hoping to hit the jackpot. I say (In a hushed voice) we still win, as long as the resort stays open. It's a tough business, if you just focus on the skiing.

 

[kcyanks1]

Me thinks the owners that do it purely for the love of the sport are long gone. It's investor-think now days. Try to make a go of it for N years. When that time come, cut bait and move on.
So clearly, there are still money-losing operators hoping to hit the jackpot. I say (In a hushed voice) we still win, as long as the resort stays open. It's a tough business, if you just focus on the skiing.

Win seems to be doing it in part for the love of the sport. Maybe not "purely," but close enough from a customer's perspective. Hopefully Stenger will be the same way at Jay.

 

[ctenidae]

It'd be interesting to see when the last time those resorts was sold was. I wonder if there's a cycle in it, like an average hold of 7 years or something.

Other than that, I'd say most were sold at the top of the real estate bubble, sort of a "Get out while the getting's good" idea. ASC was having problems already (interestingly, possibly because of being too early on the real estate play, but more likely because the management was doing it wrong), but we may see Boyne running up against the bubble bursting in a few years.

 

[Marc]

It'd be interesting to see when the last time those resorts was sold was. I wonder if there's a cycle in it, like an average hold of 7 years or something.

Other than that, I'd say most were sold at the top of the real estate bubble, sort of a "Get out while the getting's good" idea. ASC was having problems already (interestingly, possibly because of being too early on the real estate play, but more likely because the management was doing it wrong), but we may see Boyne running up against the bubble bursting in a few years.

So now that interest rates and land is dirt cheap, which one are we going to buy?