Grouse Mountain Resort will once again be Canadian owned by the end of the month. Shanghai-based China Minsheng Investment Group has agreed to sell the resort to Northland Properties, a conglomerate which owns Revelstoke Mountain Resort along with numerous hotels and an NHL franchise. “With our strong family and company roots in Vancouver BC, we are excited with the opportunity to make this acquisition,” said Tom Gaglardi, President and CEO of Northland Properties Corporation. “We look forward to working closely with the existing team and leadership group, as well the community to ensure we maintain and evolve the iconic Grouse Mountain experience for all of our visitors.”
Grouse Mountain operates four Leitner-Poma quad lifts and is accessed exclusively by aerial tramways as there are no public roads to the area. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports replacing the Blue Skyride is a top priority for the new owner. The aerial tramway was built in 1965 and carries only 44 passengers per car when open. Even with the 1976 Red Skyride next door, the tramways often prove inadequate for moving large numbers of people, especially during stormy weather.
“We welcome the opportunity to join Canada’s fastest growing hospitality group,” said Michael Cameron, President of Grouse Mountain Resort. “As a leader in the hotel and restaurant industry, Northland Properties has shown tremendous growth and innovation across their diversified group of companies. We look forward to working together, recognizing the accomplishments that the Grouse Mountain Resort and its team have achieved over the years and continuing to build on that success.”
I’m wondering if Grouse will appear on Ikon next year.
I’m also curious what Blue’s replacement might be. Higher capacity tram, gondola, 3S?
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Nearby (and better) Cypress is already on the Ikon Pass in the same limited 7 day partner sense as Revy is. Given also fingers in the pie of GaS (Squamish brome ridge) proposal which the local FN band now changed their mind on since they got cut in on the deal…. and Silverstar by POWDR likely going IKON next year as well….. Means Vail needs to bulk up its PNW portfolio. Sun Peaks / Big White?
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Sun Peaks is owned by Nippon Cable, and is likely not going anywhere. Big White might be a possibility, but I kinda doubt the Schumann family would sell to someone like Vail (even though Silver Star sold to Powdr). Vail’s best bet is to buy out RCR (though I hate to say it). Vail owns nothing in Alberta, and RCR is already on the Epic pass. RCR would give them Fernie, Kimberly, and KH in BC, and Nakiska in Alberta (and also Stoneham and Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec). I’m not sure what Alterra’s first move into BC/AB will be though. It will be interesting to see what they will do to get in the Western Canada market.
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Note Nippon Cable still owns 25% of WhistlerBlackcomb
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Why wouldn’t nippon cable sell sun peaks? I believe they own ski resorts in japan in addition to being the dominant lift manufacturer in japan which makes some sense from a vertical integration perspective. But I’ve never understood why they invested in Canadian resorts unless they’re cross selling passes with their Japanese season pass base. Sun peaks isn’t even a lift customer for nippon cable since SP buys strictly Doppelmayr lifts (from the Austrian based company, not the Japanese licensee). Also, I’m sure the core competencies of lift manufacturing vs selling lift tickets and food are quite different. But they must’ve passed on the opportunity to sell their shares in whistler when Vail bought the other 75% at a premium so maybe their strategy is to become the vail resorts of the pacific rim given that the heyday of the Japanese lift business is long gone. I wonder how that is working out financially?
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I’m sure part of the rationale here is to help them bring more skiers and riders from the Vancouver area to Revelstoke – and hopefully sell some of the unsold real estate at Revelstoke Mountain Resort.
Also, I’m not sure if adding a second upload lift will help much considering that on busy days the mountain’s ski lifts and terrain are already at capacity.
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I’ve only skied grouse once and I recall that half of the people milling around the base area weren’t even skiing. They just came up to look at the snow
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This seems to be a similar strategy to Mammoth buying Big Bear/Snow Summit –– buy a resort closer to the major population center, and include that resort on the destination’s season passes.
I’ll be interested in seeing how it works for Northland. Revelstoke is an hour further from Vancouver than Mammoth is from Los Angeles, though I suppose there’s a good chunk of people on Van’s Eastside, where the difference might not be as significant. But then, Los Angeles doesn’t really have another good resort other than Mammoth nearby. Vancouver has Whistler.
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Pretty Ironic the Gaglardi wants to replace the blue skyride. Phil Gaglardi, former BC Highway Minister was at the opening on the skyride along with former BC Primer, W.A.C. Bennett.
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But If they replace the red tram with a 3S gondola, @Grousememes and @grouse_Mountain_Memes will be pretty much out of content. I was up at grouse the other day in the dreaded holiday season, and I waited around 3 hours to get up the mountain on the tram and then the screaming eagle had at least 300 people in line, mostly tourists.
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