Starwood Capital Group to Buy Mammoth Ski Area

[Charlie Schuessler]

The latimes.com is reporting that Starwood Capital Group to Buy Mammoth Ski Area

Dave McCoy relinquishes his interest in the eastern Sierra resort he started 60 years ago with one rope tow…..

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fi-mammoth5oct05,0,863763.story?track=hpmostemailedlink

In my opinion...this is not good for the skiing community...

 

[ctenidae]

I knew Intrawest was coming in on the re-do on Mammoth, but didn't know they'd been looking for a buyout, too.

I don't know that I agree it's a bad thing for the ski industry as a whole, or even for Mammoth. Starwood knows hotels and resorts, so they'll be able to run that side of teh house just fine, I think. Ski operations, though, will probably be left to the ones who run it now. I think it'll bring a much-needed shot of cash to Mammoth, adn the people around there. Better that McCoy sell it (his share is $80 million!) than get too old to run it and have it fall apart.

 

[JimG.]

Many Mammoth locals, including one who knows and boards with the new director of skiing operations, feel that Dave McCoy was very careful to choose the line of succession carefully to ensure that the mountain retains it's current feel. Many are bothered that the immediate online reaction is to trash the sale.

If they feel it's best to let the situation play out, that means to me that Mammoth will not suffer from the McCoy's departure.

 

[deadheadskier]

Intrawest did own something like a 49% stake in Mammoth for the past 4 years. I'm guessing they will continue to run the skiing ops and continue the real estate development, but Starwood will manage the timeshares and f&b.

Intrawest tries to get out of every aspect of resort operations that they can outside of skiing ops. The reason is that profits hard to come by in Food and Beverage and lodging when it is primarily time shares as the largest chunk of the pie gets returned to the homeowner, not the lodging company. Skiing operations are suprisingly profitable if you can rely heavily on part time seasonal staff and reduce the year round overhead.

Having worked for Intrawest, it is no suprise to me at all that they didn't go for a full take over of the operations.

Whistler Blackhomb is their flagship obviously. All of the lodging there is managed by a seperate company called Powderhound and outside of the on mountain restaurants, 90% of the village restaurants are run by someone else. They love being landlords.

I expect things to be quite similar with Mammoth.