Above: lots more Ramcharger 8 parts arrive in Big Sky.
Schweitzer weighs alignment options and manufacturers for two new backside lifts scheduled for construction in 2019.
The only aerial tramway in Texas closes after nearly six decades. “Replacement of the Wyler Aerial Tramway is estimated to cost millions of dollars. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department does not have the financial resources to execute a capital construction project of this size at this time.”
Michael Doppelmayr is profiled for his 60th birthday. Some interesting facts: his company’s gross margin was 12.1 percent last year and his father Artur vehemently opposed Doppelmayr’s merger with Garaventa.
New York’s high court clears the way for Belleayre to expand into the former Highmount Ski Center.
Bretton Woods and Doppelmayr make great progress on New Hampshire’s first 8 passenger gondola.
The leaders of North and South Korea ride a pulse gondola during their three day summit.
The State of New Hampshire will hold a public meeting about transferring the Mt. Sunapee lease to Vail Resorts on September 26th.
The Hermitage Club is still trying to ink a reopening deal with members and Oz Real Estate.
Powdr breaks ground on Woodward Park City, set to debut with a fixed-grip quad in November 2019. No word yet on the manufacturer.
The Forest Service green lights Aspen Highlands’ Goldenhorn platter project.
Peak Resorts posts quarterly results: an $11.8 million net loss on $7 million in revenue as the company worked to build Hunter North and the Carinthia Lodge at Mt. Snow. SKIS had $10.1 million in cash on hand as of July 31st with $180.6 million in debt. CEO Tim Boyd says he’s still open to acquiring more mountains.
Disney will build and maintain a boat and dock specifically for Skyliner gondola evacuation purposes.
As Oz Real Estate weighs investing more than $50 million, the Hermitage Club receiver reports the resort’s lifts need $86,000 in maintenance that neither the bank nor members have agreed to fund.
Mountain Capital Partners hosts a packed public meeting regarding its Nordic Valley expansion. “I’ve never had a project not be successful and I’m not going to start with this one,” James Coleman tells the crowd.
Days before the deadline for public comments, Sunshine Village CEO Ralph Scurfield pens an op-ed criticizing Parks Canada’s proposed site guidelines that would eliminate three future lifts from consideration.
The Jackson/Teton County Parks & Recreation Board unanimously says no to a Snow King Gondola alignment as the Forest Service extends public comment until September 13th.
The Capital Gondola project moves along in Albany.
Five chairlifts currently sit idle at the Hermitage Club, the subject of foreclosure action in southern Vermont.
Restructuring could resolve what is currently the nation’s largest ski resort foreclosure case, according to a report from the Brattleboro Reformer. Jim Barnes, founder of the financially-troubled Hermitage Club, sent an email last night informing members of two important developments. First, the Club has secured a bridge loan to maintain key staff working toward a restructuring with Berkshire Bank and other creditors. Secondly, a nonbinding term sheet has been signed with Oz Real Estate to provide new capital to the ski and golf resort. “The potential transaction with Oz Real Estate contemplates the club’s debt with Berkshire Bank to be restructured or bought out,” Barnes wrote. The bank is owed more than $17 million while a foodservice distributor is out more than $1.5 million and a hotelier $1.2 million along with others owed smaller amounts.
Oz is the parent company of Ski Resort Holdings LLC, which bought 14 major ski resorts from CNL Lifestyle Properties in 2017. Most of them were sold to Boyne Resorts, Vail Resorts and other operators over the past year. “Oz Real Estate invests in both opportunistic real estate private equity and real estate credit in the U.S. and Europe,” the firm says on its website. “Founded in 2003, Oz Real Estate has raised approximately $3.8 billion of dedicated real estate capital and completed more than 107 transactions across 19 diverse real estate asset classes.” Mr. Barnes also named a new Club President, Harper Sibley.
The Hermitage is currently closed under a court-ordered receivership with FTI Consulting on site maintaining assets. “The primary goal of the Hermitage Club is to close this restructuring and prepare for a successful 2018/2019 fall and winter season,” Barnes stated in his email. “The proceeds from the restructuring will provide the means to settle claims and disputes that have arisen due to the lack of cash flow from closed club operations.” Nonbinding is a key word and the Club made a similar announcement about $26 million in possible funding from an unidentified financial company on April 30th. It’s unclear whether that deal was to be with Oz or a different outfit altogether. Berkshire Bank assistant vice president and marketing officer Heidi Higgins told the Reformer the lender is “not in a position to talk about this specific instance due to privacy and legal concerns.” Nonetheless, the news is a sign Mr. Barnes and his staff continue to work hard toward a resolution four months from ski season.
Snow King Mountain formally requests approval for a new $8 million gondola which would load along Snow King Avenue in the Town of Jackson, part of a $26 million improvement plan.
La Paz opens its seventh urban gondola just 366 days after groundbreaking. The Mi Teleférico system has now carried 135 million commuters since the first lines opened in 2014.
Winter Park is getting the most money for improvements of all the Alterra mountains this year – $26.2 million. More than half of it is going to Leitner-Poma for the big Zephyr Gondola.
James Coleman explains his ambitious dream to create another Snowbasin out of Nordic Valley.
Episode 5 of Ski Area Management’s podcast, focusing on risk management, covers lots of lift ground: the Squaw Valley tram accident, a grip slip incident, and challenges Pats Peak faced after buying the Lake Compounce Skyride.
“Ever since the company went public in 2014 it has taken advantage of its improved access to capital to finance large infrastructure projects that may have led to growth in visitation and revenues, but haven’t resulted in better earnings or cash flows.”
After a tower shifted downhill this spring, the City of Steamboat will again fix Howelsen Hill’s chairlift rather than replacing it.
In the Jay Peak fraud case, former resort owner Ariel Quiros and executive Bill Stenger settle with the State of Vermont for $2.1 million without admitting wrongdoing.
In a separate class action lawsuit, a group of Jay Peak investors allege more than 100 immigration lawyers received $5 million in kickbacks from the resort, creating undisclosed conflicts of interest.
The federal government orders an immediate shutdown of the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center, which allowed foreigners to invest in ski resorts such as Jay Peak and other businesses in exchange for green cards.
A lawsuit by the State of Maine seeks to finally right the tragedy that followed the sale of a public ski resort to a private company which ran it into the ground.
Hermitage Club members could lease Haystack Mountain to reopen next season but Berkshire Bank will not. Homeowners may have a senior lien on the Barnstormer six-pack but would need to pay for $300,000 of lift maintenance to reopen.
Even though his purchase of Saddleback never closed, Australian businessman Sebastian Monsour did spend $400,000 on the closed Maine ski resort last year. Hopefully some went to lift maintenance!
Peak Resorts reports record fourth quarter revenue, up 9.3 percent over last year to $56 million with EBITDA up 3.9 percent to $21.5 million.
Arizona Snowbowl reopens tomorrow after a month-and-a-half fire danger closure.
Parks Canada seeks public comments on possible Sunshine Village lift and terrain expansions into Goat’s Eye II, Lower Meadow Park and Hayes Hill. Another new lift could eventually parallel the gondola.
Overview of proposed Sunshine Village expansion areas. Other acreage would be removed from Sunshine’s area of occupation to compensate for environmental impacts of expansion.
The first of many Omega 10 passenger gondola cabins is spotted at Walt Disney World.
Saddleback Mountain Foundation plans to make a second offer for Maine’s third largest ski area, which has been closed for nearly three years.
Santiago, Chile awards the contract for an $80 million, four station urban gondola to Doppelmayr.
The first indoor ski area in the Western Hemisphere plans to open March 1, 2019 with a Doppelmayr CTEC quad chair and platter that were installed back in 2008.
A gondola is one option being considered to improve mobility in Little Cottonwood Canyon, home to Alta, Snowbird and lots of traffic.
Members of Congress from four states pen a letter to the Forest Service asking for Arizona Snowbowl to be reopened or further explanation given as to why its extended closure is necessary.
Doppelmayr scores another project in Canada – a $1.8 million fixed-grip quad with loading carpet at Sugarloaf, New Brunswick.
Rope evacuating 20-25 mountain bikers turns into a four hour affair at Marquette Mountain.
Vail Resorts net income rises 41.5% over last year’s third quarter with Epic season pass sales up 12 percent in units and 19 percent in dollars through May 29th.
The new Lift One will likely be put to Aspen voters in a winter 2019 special election rather than the November general election.
The Western Idaho State Fair plans to debut a chairlift for the first time in August – apparently a used Riblet of unknown origin.
Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows and the Sierra Club sign an agreement for the resort to abandon California Express Alternative 2 in exchange for the group withholding legal action against alternatives 3 and 4.
The Seattle suburb of Kirkland looks to a possible aerial lift to connect its city center with an upcoming bus rapid transit station.
Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz and Whistler Blackcomb COO Pete Sonntag do a wide ranging interview with the local newspaper after a challenging year and a half.
Tower 6 of Howelsen Hill’s chairlift is on the move for at least the third time as city leaders grapple with whether to fix it.
Berkshire Bank says the Hermitage Club no longer has the right to restructure and argues receivership should proceed. One Hermitage property is scheduled to be auctioned on June 25th.
A decision not to create an opportunity zone in Rangeley, Maine becomes yet another reason Saddleback is going nowhere fast.
The man accused of lying about spending a night on a Gore Mountain chairlift says he is innocent and may sue the State of New York.
The State of Pennsylvania looks to spend $7.8 million on new lifts at Denton Hill, where a Riblet triple, Hall double and two platter lifts last spun in 2014. A private operator is also being sought.
Maple Valley, Vermont – last operated in 2000 with three Hall lifts – sells to a new ownership group.
As Aspen Mountain prepares to reinvent Lift One, the Aspen Daily News traces the remarkable history of the original.
Doppelmayr will build and operate a $64 million urban 3S gondola in Moscow.
The Portland Aerial Tram is set to close for five weeks in June and July while the track ropes are slipped downhill.
As the public comment period nears its end, California Express faces critics.
Under the proposed Hermitage Club receivership, FTI Consulting would maintain properties but wouldn’t reopen the mountain for skiing next winter. The Club objects to some of the proposal even though the receivership would be dissolved if Berkshire Bank is paid in full or the assets auctioned off.
This guy is lucky to be okay and probably won’t be allowed back to Squaw Valley for a long time.
Boston’s Seaport gondola proposal might be in trouble.
The Forest Service gives a final green light to Purgatory’s Gelande lift project although construction this summer is uncertain.
Hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum coming into the United States from the European Union, Canada and Mexico take effect at midnight tonight.
North America’s newest urban gondolas, built by Poma in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, carried 41,000 riders in their first 18 hours last week.
A very nice lift sits idle facing an uncertain future at The Hermitage Club this spring.
Berkshire Bank’s foreclosure on the largest private ski resort in New England is moving forward, Vermont Public Radio reports. A judge sided with the lender yesterday allowing a receiver to soon take over operations of Haystack Mountain, a golf course and associated properties. The Massachusetts-based bank says the Hermitage owes $16.3 million in principal plus penalties and interest on three loans initially worth $17.1 million. In his decision, Judge John Treadwell wrote the Club “lacks sufficient resources to adequately protect and preserve the subject property.” The news comes a week after Hermitage management said two buyers were interested in purchasing the resort.
Earlier in the week, the same court ruled in favor of a man owed $1,373,693 on a $1.4 million loan for a nearby inn the Hermitage bought. Club founder Jim Barnes has 30 days in which he can reclaim that property, which currently sits empty with no insurance. Judge Treadwell also signed off on an Iowa company’s request to repossess 74 golf vehicles with help from the local sheriff. The court then ruled in favor of a New York couple who paid nearly a million dollars for a slopeside townhouse that was never delivered. A local excavation contractor also filed suit this week seeking $450,000 plus interest for work allegedly completed but not paid for.
The exclusive ski resort near Mt. Snow includes five chairlifts, three of which are just a few years old. The flagship is one of the first lifts with heated seats and bubbles in the United States and cost $6.9 million. There are also two newSkytracs which could prove valuable in an auction. The ski mountain last operated on March 25th, after which it was shut down by the Vermont Department of Taxes for the second time in a month. The Hermitage Club reportedly owed the state more than $1 million in sales, meals and rooms taxes plus property taxes to the towns of Dover and Wilmington. Berkshire Bank says it paid many of them to avoid a tax sale.
The proposed receiver, FTI Consulting, is the same outfit that assisted during the Yellowstone Club bankruptcy and reorganization. The Hermitage will become the third Vermont ski resort currently in receivership. Back in 2016, a federal court appointed a Florida law firm to temporarily take over Jay Peak and Burke Mountain following emergency action by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hopefully all three mountains will find capable new buyers in the year to come.
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