New England’s largest ski resort has been sold to a local group of investors for an undisclosed price. The sale, which had been rumored for weeks, is the second recent disposition by Powdr following the sale of Lee Canyon, Nevada to Mountain Capital Partners in 2023. Lead investors in the new ownership group, Phill Gross and Michael Ferri, both have long term ties to the Killington area and ski racing. Gross is Managing Director of Boston-based Adage Capital Management and Ferri owns Valvoline Instant Oil Change franchises throughout the East Coast. Powdr will retain a minority stake and one seat on Killington/Pico’s board of directors. Current management will remain in place and the resorts will continue to participate in the Ikon Pass. “The Killington leadership team is excited about this opportunity to build on the strong foundation laid by Powdr,” said Mike Solimano, President and General Manager of Killington Resort. “We believe that local ownership will allow us to be even more responsive to the needs and desires of our community and guests.”
The sale is expected to close this fall. In an email to employees, Powdr said it also plans to list Eldora, Colorado; Mt. Bachelor, Oregon and SilverStar, British Columbia for sale in the coming weeks. The Park City-based company expects to retain Boreal, California; Copper Mountain, Colorado; Snowbird, Utah; Soda Springs, California and Woodward Park City, Utah as its only five alpine ski areas. The company has been expanding its portfolio of Woodward action sports parks of late and bidding on concession contracts with the National Park Service in order to diversify its portfolio.
During the Powdr era, Killington made significant upgrades to its infrastructure including a new K-1 lodge, Snowdon bubble six pack, North Ridge quad and new cabins on the K-1 gondola. The Beast faces significant ongoing capital needs, however, including a replacement for the Superstar Express and a higher capacity lift on Ramshead Mountain. “We are grateful to Powdr for their stewardship over the years, as Killington saw substantial improvements to infrastructure, snowmaking capabilities, and year-round growth,” said Gross and Ferri. “For our families, Killington is more than just a business or asset to own; it is our home. We are thrilled to guide the mountain into a substantial investment phase. Mike and his leadership team have done a great job, and we look forward to giving them the resources to up our game and continue to evolve Killington as a leader among world-class resorts with strong local roots.”
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Didn’t Powdr buy Silverstar just a couple years ago?
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2019. Always struck me as odd especially when they did not add it to their Ikon Pass partnership.
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The company clearly needs liquid capital as there is no reason to sell assets like these especially with the additional money they injected into the properties during their ownership
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The logic here is pretty clear. Killington and Bachelor both have some big capex needs that Powdr isn’t going to be able to meet. SilverStar was always the odd one out.
And the remaining properties will all have or be very close to Woodward properties. The ones being sold didn’t have them.
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Both killington and bachelor have Woodward parks. Powdr is a family owned company and the founder is pushing 60 with younger children. I suspect the Cummings’ just want to simplify their business interests. Both bachelor and silver star are solid properties, snow sure and located in good skiing markets. I’ll bet one or both get bought by Alterra and Vail. Alterra in particular has no exposure to the western Canadian market outside of pass sharing. Silver star would be a good fit. There are bigger independently owned resorts in BC and Alberta but I doubt they could be bought
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I think Vail is more than likely to buy Silverstar, they already own Whistler and understand the BC/Canadian market, and I can see them buying it to draw Canadian Epic pass crowds away from Whistler. Being from Quebec, and as someone who frequents Stowe, I also hope that Vail further expands into Quebec before La Compagnie des Montagnes du Quebec runs the provincial ski landscape into the ground and can stabilize the market.
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I’m gonna bet Vail aquires Silver Star and Alterra Mt.Bachelor. Silver Star can be some Epic relief from Whistler and Fernie, while Bachelor is already a fairly popular ikon destination. But you could flip it and they would both be happy.
Regardless, the DOJ will probably be interested if either of them tries to grab it. I feel like that’s why neither jumped on Killington.
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DOJ isn’t going to get involved in Silverstar since that’s out of their jurisdiction. I doubt that they’ll care about bachelor either since neither company has a presence in Oregon other than pass sharing (which can change from year to year). My bet is that Alterra outbids VR (since MTN stock price is in the tank) for bachelor and Silverstar gets purchased by locals. One problem with Silverstar is that the previous owners didn’t sell the entire resort. That’s probably been a problem for Powdr.
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I’m talking about the indoor facilities like at Boreal and Copper. None of the resorts Powdr is putting on the market on the market or sold have one within 50 miles. The remainder do.
This feels like it’s both an integration play (between the action sports side of the house and the resort side of the house) and a discarding of assets that need a lot of lift-related capex in the next 3-7 years.
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Going public that XYZ resorts are for sale suggests to me that they do not have many bidders for those properties (Eldora, Colorado; Mt. Bachelor, Oregon and SilverStar, British Columbia), and the true desire is for a full buyout from of the biggies (Alterra/Vail Resorts). Business wise, would assume that Alterra/Vail Resorts would be primarily interested in Copper/Snowbird.
Net net, pure 100% speculation, but I think this is a headfake and the entire Powdr may be in play.
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Photo attached to this post makes me nostalgic for the old Killington gondola cabins. Loved those funky 90s designs, so uniquely Killington back in the day! The new ones ride a whole lot better but I wish they didn’t have a bland design.
Powdr had been slowly but surely improving K’s dated lift infrastructure. Still a ways to go and with some key pieces coming due soon with those vintage Poma detachables. This will be an interesting test case in having local (but very rich) leadership on a resort of this scale and importance to the Northeast market. Best of luck to them and to K regulars.
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