Nov 19, 2009, Thu - Copper Mountain owner IntraWest announced it has reached an agreement to sell its Copper Mountain interests to Powdr Corp. The new owners are in the business of operating ski areas rather than developing the real estate at ski areas.
All ski passes already sold for multiple mountains Copper, Steamboat and Winter Park will be honored this season. It is unknown if these will still be offered in future seasons as the resort interests will be owned by separate companies.
Powdr Corp is based in Park City, Utah and is privately held and details of the transaction probably won't be made public. The price was estimated in the $100 million dollar range which would be 9 or 10 times the annual net operating income. Intrawest is also privately held and based out of Vancouver but more into resort and real estate development firm than operations. Some commercial properties used by IntraWest at Copper Mountain are actually owned by CNL Lifestyle Properties and leased back to Copper Mountain for day-to-day operations.
Powdr Corp owns and operates seven resorts: Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, Killington Resort and Pico Resort in Killington, Vermont, Mt Bachelor in Bend, Oregon, Boreal Resort and Soda Springs Resort, both in Donner Summit, California, and Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
In a letter to Copper property owners, Copper president and chief operating officer Gary Rodgers said the sale will be a positive for the resort and the wider community. “We believe this transaction represents a positive outcome for Copper Mountain and it will provide numerous benefits to Summit County,” Rodgers wrote. “Powdr Corp operates several ski resorts throughout North America and Copper will be an important addition to their resort family and their first resort property in Colorado.”
At least one long-time Copper business owner is cheered by the sale. “I'm delighted they found a buyer that's a resort operator and not a real estate developer,” said Tom Malmgren, who owns Carbonate Real Estate at Copper Mountain.
Malmgren, who tussled with Intrawest about the company's plans for base area development, said he hopes the new owner takes the time to get to know the resort before making new plans or big changes.
The era of full-tilt real estate development may be over, at least for now. Companies like Intrawest and Vail Resorts can no longer depend on steady sales of slopeside condos to bolster the bottom line. Instead, the resorts have to carefully look at how they can maximize revenues from mountain-related operations, including skier services like ski schools and resort restaurants.
More information about Powdr Corp is online at www.powdr.com.
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