Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!
You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!
Definitely. They'd much rather put the money in now and keep Red running for another few decades than have to spend more money on non-preventative maintenance a few years later.
If the motor/haul rope were not completely shot, they may have tried to eke out another season, but not with all the engineering issues run into with an unfinished Black to date. Tough to drop that coin but a wise move. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wonder if the final cost for Black would now be equal to buying a new, properly engineered lift for that line back then (and getting it in over a defined timeline).
I find that hard to believe given the original stated cost for purchase and install was 1 million for the quad.
Not sure how much Black cost Magic but still, a new lift would likely be much more. They likely paid nothing compared to a new lift, and I wouldn't be surprised if Stratton cut Magic a deal given their relationship and distance. It's important to remember that there isn't really anything "wrong" with the lift, it just needs to be upgraded due to the terrain it's on. Black Line is significantly steeper, rockier and has a different profile than where it was at Stratton (Or Flatton, given what I'm saying). If I had to guess, and for the record I have never worked in the industry, a brand new Leitner-Poma fixed-grip quad, over a mile long, would cost somewhere in the 2 million range, and as I'm typing this I have been informed by mbedle that the cost for the lift purchase & install was stated at $1M, a lot of shit would have to go wrong to meet the price of a new lift.
I would agree on that price. A lot of cash to pony upfront for. That said, they are now into custom engineered and fabricated parts for two tower sheave sets. That is no small $$ cost right there. Add in all the other "small fixes" and a more than two year delayed install timeframe, I bet the costs are becoming more comparable than many here might believe. But with the current install, a lot of the increased costs can be paid in smaller increments as they move forward and hit hurdles than that one large cookie a new on would have required. Let's just hope once it is up and running, the drive, transmission, bulllwheel bearings, etc all have copious life left on them.
Well that assumes that they paid in full from cash reserves, as opposed to a capital loan. I don't know much of anything about ski resort business in particular, but in general I wouldn't count on that being true. And it may well be at this point that a defined loan repayment schedule for the whole purchase and install would be preferable to paying these bills from the contractor from operating cash or a likely higher interest line of credit. But I suppose it's a moot point by now.
Poma fixed-grip lifts from the 1980s and 90s are notoriously reliable and well built, hence why you see so many of them around. The drive model, Alpha, was such a home run that they're still making it today, 40 years later. They're also common, Stratton has two Alphas (S American and Solstice), Bromley has one (Blue Ribbon), Killington has 3 (North Ridge, South Ridge, Northbrook), Okemo has 7 (Black Ridge, Glades Peak, Sachem, both South Ridge quads, Sunshine, Morningstar), Sugarbush has 4 (Heaven's Gate, North Lynx, Summit, Inverness), you get the idea. I'm pretty sure a new drive was installed for the relocation to bring it up to code as well, meaning that if this is complete for the ski season we'll be going in with all lifts running on relatively new motors.
I wouldn't worry about Magic's underlying finances. There is a large partnership who knew what they were getting into. The original cost was like salvage value with a $5M capital plan. That did not include the quad. When they are done, they will have a premier unique resort whose terrain stands alone in S. Vermont. It is already justifying what has become a premium season pass price with record sales.
Thanks for the unneeded prognosis. You can grab an epic pass before Labor day for a nice discount, no one says you have to ski here.
On this doll show me where they touched you…
