Park City based Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. placed the highest bid – $76 million – at an auction yesterday for Jay Peak Resort. Subject to court approval, Jay will join PGRI’s group of five ski resorts located across the United States and Canada. “With the success of this auction, we are one step closer to concluding the receivership of Jay Peak Resort,” said Jay Peak receiver Michael Goldberg. “It has been six long years during which the resort has made tremendous progress under the leadership of general manager Steve Wright and his team and the guidance of Leisure Hotels. The time had come to put the resort back into private hands, and our investment bank, Houlihan Lokey, ran a strong sale process for us culminating in a very competitive auction. We are pleased an experienced operating company like Pacific Group Resorts ended up with this great asset.” The sale price of $76 million is $18 million over the auction’s opening bid. The identities of other bidder(s) were not disclosed.
“We began pursuing this acquisition over three years ago and couldn’t be more pleased with the auction’s outcome which paves the way to add Jay Peak to our growing family of resorts,” said Pacific Group Resorts President and CEO Vern Greco. “Jay has a high quality team of dedicated employees who have weathered the uncertainty of the receivership for a long time. We look forward to bringing renewed stability to the property and its staff, we’re enthusiastic about the prospects for the resort, and we are delighted to be in Vermont which is an important market for any mountain resort operator.”
A court hearing to approve the sale is scheduled for next Friday and the transaction is expected to close prior to the start of the 2022-23 ski season. There will be no changes to season passes or Indy Pass participation for this season. Burke Mountain, which is also under receivership, will be marketed separately at a later date.
Lift Blog 
Well- here’s to the little guy competing with the others. I like competition and hope they are successful.
LikeLike
I think this is a good fit for Pacific Group. I like most of what they have done at Ragged, and Jay Peak is in pretty good shape as of now (with a detachable upgrade of Bonaventure being the only needed major project I can think of). Their seeming abandonment of Pinnacle at Ragged leads me to believe that they will be conservative with Jay’s growth, but that is honestly fine given Jay’s current visitation levels.
LikeLike
Hopefully Jay Peak will have the funds now to upgrade their terrible lift infrastructure and upgrade Bonaventure, Jet, and Metro lifts to be detachables. Jay peak has so much wasted potential with having 3 3500+ foot long fixed grip lifts for two out of the three major lifts at the resort. As a Canadian, its a tough sell to travel to a ski resort with the lift infrastructure as outdated as a medium sized michigan resort, hence why I go to Killington and Stratton for ski destinations in vermont.
LikeLike
By all means, drive right on by Jay, Smuggs, MRG, Sugarbush, and Magic. Enjoy the six packs at Stratton, and the brand new HSQs at Mount Snow. Ride the bubble chairs at Okemo. Way more fun than Madonna I or Castle Rock.
:P
LikeLiked by 2 people
Seconded. Lift infrastructure is totally more important than terrain and snow. And proximity to CDN is overrated. Way more fun to drive past good skiing to other skiing that also might be south of that mythical New England Thermocline. I’ve heard the rain crust in southern VT skis best when the Jay Cloud is firing.
LikeLike
Huh? I get your point about Bonnie and maybe Jet, but Metro is a >3000′ lift that services only a fraction of the tramside terrain. Its ~8 minute ride time is a bit excessive, but such a problem can be at least partially mended by a loading carpet coupled with a faster operating speed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Having paid some ~40% more than their initial bid, I wonder if they’ll have money for infrastructure upgrades anytime soon.
LikeLike
When a company typically bids to acquire another company or asset, its maximum internal bid considers all associated integration costs. In this case, Pacific Group likely has a rough estimate of how many millions it will need to pour into the resort and combines this with the current bid price to determine the resort’s value. Unless they are completely content with all the existing infrastructure at Jay, which would be shocking, they will likely pour at least a little money into the place.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well it’s not like they are running old beat up 1960s and 1970s vintage lifts, sure, it would be nice to have 2 or 3 upgraded to HSQ but that will come in time.
LikeLike
This is a total aside, but I always think it’s funny how much Jay Peak’s trail map looks like 49 Degrees North.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You ain’t wrong! Doesn’t hurt that they’re both James Niehues maps.
LikeLike
Sucks. I wanted 7 days, of which I’d probably only use 2, from my IKON / Alterra pass…but driving further, risking falling asleep at the wheel or sliding off the road chasing a powder day…to continue to pay daily window rate…. it’s going to be a while before I finally get there…still.
LikeLike
Jay Peak has had a mantra for a few years now… “Move on up” We did, we retired with Jay in our back yard. We raised our kids the Jay way. It’s a culture. Those who know Jay share something special. I hope it doesn’t change much but yeah, new lifts are desperately needed.
LikeLike
Here’ s hoping they keep the Tram!!
LikeLike