Resort Bankruptcies

Moonlight Basin, the troubled Big Sky, Montana ski resort, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, just a day before a foreclosure hearing that could have put the property in the hands of its primary lender, Lehman Bros. Moonlight took a loan of $100 million from Lehman Bros. in the fall of 2007 with the intention of quickly selling the resort, but the real estate meltdown scotched that plan, and the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. itself in the fall of 2008 has left the six-year-old resort in limbo.

In the bankruptcy filing, Moonlight seeks permission to obtain $21 million in interim financing from Trilogy Capital, a Connecticut based hedge fund, which would enable Moonlight to remain open and have a ski season as planned. Lehman Bros. indicated in the foreclosure case that it also intended to keep the resort open, but the investment bank wanted to gain full control and appoint a receiver in the place of current management before it provided the funds needed to continue operations. The foreclosure proceeding, which is a state court action, is automatically put on hold by the bankruptcy filing.

'FLAT IS THE NEW UP'

If you’re a ski resort operator, it’s hard to be optimistic when the country is suffering the effects of a grueling recession and about one in 10 Americans is jobless.

But when snow is dumping in the high country and across the room at the Colorado Convention Center people are walking out with armfuls of ski gear, optimism creeps in.

At the annual Denver Ski & Snowboard Expo last weekend, resort operators sounded notes of cautious optimism for the upcoming ski season. Many companies are seeing upticks in season pass sales, early bookings are on the upswing and after last year’s drop in skier numbers, any improvement would be welcome.

Copper Mountain resort, a major ski hill about 75 miles west of Denver, is being sold by troubled ski giant Intrawest to Park City-based Powdr Corp., the owner resorts in Utah, California, Vermont, Oregon and Nevada. The deal is expected to close in December, and both companies say patrons should see few changes in the short term. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Vancouver-based Intrawest said the sale was part of its strategy to focus on “core resorts,” though it did not elaborate on what was considered core. The comapny’s flagship is Whistler-Blackcomb, which will host alpine skiing at this winter’s Olympic Games.

Intrawest, which was acquired by New York-based Fortress Investment Group in 2006, has been hit very hard by the mountain real estate meltdown and is struggling to manage a large debt load. The Toronto Globe & Mail has a good story today on Intrawest’s travails and its recent financial history.

Skiing the world with Keely Kelleher

Welcome to my Snow Blog! First off I’d like to give you a quick intro on my skiing background. I grew up in the Gallatin Canyon fifteen miles from the Big Sky Ski Resort. Being raised in Big Sky, outdoor sports became my way of life. There weren’t many places to get into trouble as a youngster in Big Sky, yet I managed to find ways on the mountain. I would bomb down runs in Big Sky like Ambush or Snake Pit with ski patrollers close on my tail yelling, “slow down!”

Big Sky was so small twenty years ago there wasn’t even a daycare for my parents to be rid of me for a few hours. As a result Lone Peak became my babysitter. Instead of going to the mall, movies or prom with friends I went to the ski hill. I fell deeply in love with skiing, whether it be floating through powder, slicing through ice and corduroy or straight running steep pitches...it didn’t matter as long as I was skiing I was happy. I would throw fits if I had to leave Big Sky early. One Christmas when I was nine I cuddled all night with my brand new neon pink Atomic skis Santa had brought me. My obsession for skiing soon turned into ski racing. I wanted to go faster than anyone and being timed while skiing seemed like the perfect fit. 

Outdoors

According to breaking news from KTVB News Channel 7 in Boise and confirmed by NewWest, Soldier Mountain Ski Lodge near Fairfield burned down this morning. "The call came into dispatch around 7:30 a.m. NewsChannel 7 has a crew on the way to the mountain," says the story on KTVB.com.

Fire officials said they were no match for the blaze because of limited water, although snow around the area did help contain things. The Fairfield Volunteer Fire Chief, Wayne Marolf, made a statement that the fire looks like an accident but that the possibility of foul play is being investigated.

Soldier Mountain is about ten miles north of Fairfield, which is in Camas County. The Camas County Fire Chief Deputy has confirmed that the lodge is completely destroyed. Owned by Valley Entertainment Group which is owned by actor Bruce Willis, Soldier Mountain has been under review for new development.



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Guest Commentary

Tamarack Resort closed on March 4th, the latest in a long line of boom and bust stories in the West. Located 90 miles north of Boise, Idaho, it was first major ski, golf and lake resort to open in the US in over two decades. Hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, Tamarack and CEO Jean-Pierre Boespflug failed to generate enough revenue from real estate sales to keep operating. As a skier, former Tamarack employee, cattle rancher, and Idahoan, I wish to write a few words in reflection.

I don't have to say this is an economic disaster for the over 200 employees and the general area. Some of the discussion has been that Tamarack would have made it if the economy just wouldn't have slumped. It would be more accurate to say it never would have got off the ground if (opening in December 2004) it hadn't caught the end of the largest housing bubble in history.

Tamarack attracted only 27,000 skier visits this season, far less than neighboring Brundage Mountain. Locals didn't ski there. To them it was known as Tam-a-scam, Glamarack, and finally, when it all went down, Tamtanic. This sentiment was partly due to them lamenting the loss of their Valley. And it was partly due to the dislike being mutual. Upper management openly told us during meetings their goal was to make it a private hill, open only to property owners or people who pay club fees of thousands of dollars. This required a certain degree of hubris, as the ski course falls almost entirely on public land.  [more]

Western Resorts Watch

With a full courtroom behind him, the attorney for the owners of Tamarack Resort in Valley County, Idaho asked district court judge Patrick Owen Thursday to authorize an emergency re-opening of the lodge and ski operations. "The process has been anything but transparent,” said lawyer Steve Millemann of McCall, outrage in his voice.

The attorney for Doug Wilson, the court-appointed receiver for Tamarack, said they had no choice but to shut down operations Wednesday evening at 5:00, stopping the ski lifts and snow cats and closing the entire resort to the public. But Millemann claimed they were not asked for input of any kind about the decision.

Millemann said, “This is a matter of the utmost gravity. We do not make this request lightly. Nothing can damage the collateral more than for the resort to lie fallow.”

Wilson’s lawyer Douglas Pahl responded that with $1.5 million left in the fund to oversee the reorganization or shutdown of Tamarack, to use it to generate small income from lift tickets would produce short-term liabilities that would add to Tamarack’s problems. “We don’t have the money to operate the resort in a responsible way,” he said, claiming reopening would be financially remiss. “If no other funding becomes available, there would be a hard shutdown that would damage the property even more.”  [more]

Boise is Buzzing

Sunday Feb. 8 the is the start of competition in the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, which last until the 13th. Venues all over Southern Idaho will see competition involving more than 3,000 athletes from an astonishing 85 countries.

Seven sports make up the Games: Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and speed skating.

Special Olympics Idaho is an organization devoted to helping people with intellectual disabilities on and off the playing field. “By working to remove obstacles, change attitudes and open minds, Special Olympics Idaho provides opportunities for its athletes to demonstrate courage, experience joy and share their gifts, skills and friendship with the world,” their mission statement declares.

Here’s the full schedule of events, which will be held at Bogus Basin, Sun Valley, Qwest Arena in Boise, Expo Idaho in Garden City, Ponderosa State Park in McCall, and Idaho Ice World in Boise.

A spokeswoman for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games says Vice President Joe Biden is expected to visit Idaho on one of the final days of competition. According to Kirsten Suto Seckler, the exact date is still being worked out between the White House and Games officials.   [more]

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