POWDR resorts up for sale

[Sbooker]

POWDR selling Mt. Bachelor ski resort

POWDR announced Thursday it intends to sell Mt. Bachelor and other ski resorts in the U.S. and Canada. The sale will include the Sun Country Tours rafting business.

www.centraloregondaily.com

Mt Bachelor and others for sale it seems.
Do these resorts make enough money that they will definitely continue to be ski hills? I've not been to Silver Star yet and want to do so. I best drop in for a day when I'm in Canada in January.

 

[EMSC]

Do these resorts make enough money that they will definitely continue to be ski hills?

Yes they do make money. Someone will buy them for sure. I know Eldora has been one of the best performing/growing resorts in the Powdr portfolio for the past several years.

Not sure if Powdr is going for a group sale or one-off sales for each. Would not be surprised to see Alterra or Vail go after Bachelor to lock in some Portland skiers to passes. Eldora is a wildcard as neither Alterra nor Vail can realistically buy it (would be opposed by the gov't as too much consolidation/monopoly like for front range Colo skiers). No idea for Silver Star. Not a top notch place/name, but...

 

[Tony Crocker]

Bend locals are probably celebrating this, maybe Killington locals too.

Do these resorts make enough money that they will definitely continue to be ski hills?

I'm sure they do. Killington is the biggest ski area in the Northeast and I suspect both Vail and Alterra will be interested. With no base area shopping or real estate involved at Bachelor, I'd guess Alterra would be more interested than Vail, even though pre-POWDR I characterized Bachelor as "Vail of the Northwest" due to early adoption of high speed lifts and excellent long intermediate groomers.

Silver Star does have an on-hill lodging base, smaller than Big White and Sun Peaks but larger than Apex. I had no ideal POWDR owned Silver Star. At some point Big White and Silver Star had common Aussie ownership I thought.

Eldora is a local's hill, but the local population base is Boulder, which has been booming for decades. I'll defer to EMSC on that.

This seems weird. POWDR will be left with two high visibility areas, Snowbird and Copper, plus the small and very local Boreal and Soda Springs areas west of Tahoe.

 

[Tony Crocker]

POWDR Corp has found local buyers for Killington, which will remain on the Ikon Pass.

POWDR sells Killington Resort to local passholders - TownLift, Park City News

Park City-based POWDR also plans to sell Eldora, Mt. Bachelor and SilverStar as its business strategy evolves

townlift.com

More commentary from Storm Skiing Journal:

POWDR to Sell Killington, Pico to Group of Locals; Seeks Sale of Bachelor, Eldora, Silver Star

POWDR to retain Snowbird, Copper, Woodward brand; Killington to return to independence after 40 years of conglomerate ownership; will remain on Ikon Pass

www.stormskiing.com

 

[jimk]

Seems like some sort of major belt tightening going on at POWDR? Wonder if some changes coming down the road for Snowbird and Copper too?

 

[Tony Crocker]

Seems like some sort of major belt tightening going on at POWDR?

I did not interpret it that way. I got the impression they want to diversify their business, not be exclusively a ski resort company. POWDR is moving into the national park concessionaire business. They run Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley and will be taking over the Zion National Park concessions in 2025.

 

[MarzNC]

Seems like some sort of major belt tightening going on at POWDR? Wonder if some changes coming down the road for Snowbird and Copper too?

The tagline on the Powdr homepage is:

"WE FUEL A BALANCED LIFE FULL OF ADVENTURE​

POWDR is an Adventure Lifestyle Company® that inspires every human being with cool experiences in awesome places."

Powdr bought Woodward in 2011. While Woodward includes snow activities, it began in Pennsylvania in the 1970s with summer camps for skateboarding, in-line skating, BMX biking, gymnastics, cheerleading and action-sports video production. Copper is a 4-season destination resort fully engaged with Woodward and has been for a while.

Bachelor, Eldora, and Silver Star don't really fit in with the overall "adventure lifestyle" concept for assorted reasons.

 

[MarzNC]

The portfolio of Powdr has never really been that stable as the company evolved. Cumming stepped down as Powdr CEO in 2018 soon after his father died. There were other businesses that he needed time to pay attention to at that point.

Snowbird opened the alpine slide in 2003. Clearly for summer guests, not winter. That's an indication that moving away from snowsports as the mainstay for Powdr started quite a while ago. The Park City alpine slide opened in 1978. John Cumming founded Powdr in 1994 with the purchase of Park City (without Canyons). The initial buying spree of ski mountains continued in the west until 2003. The Killington/Pico purchase was in May 2007 and Alpine Meadows was sold in July 2007.

September 2003

Snowbird now has its own alpine slide

The instructions are simple: push the handle forward to go, pull back lightly to slow and give forth with a Herculean tug to stop. There wasn't too much tugging, but there was a whole lot of pushing going on Saturday as people introduced themselves for the first time to the new alpine slide at...

www.deseret.com

 

[Tony Crocker]

Snowbird opened the alpine slide in 2003.

Dick Bass still owned Snowbird then. He sold a majority interest to Ian Cumming in 2014.

 

[MarzNC]

Dick Bass still owned Snowbird then. He sold a majority interest to Ian Cumming in 2014.

While Bass owned Snowbird, his intention was to build a 4-season destination resort. Although Powdr was technically not involved with the Snowbird purchase, presumably the concept was part of John Cumming's long term thinking in general.

From SAM, May 2014:
" . . .
Cumming has the deep financial pockets Snowbird needs for capital improvement projects, including a new restaurant and skier services building atop the aerial tram set to break ground this summer.

“This partnership will enable Snowbird to achieve more rapid growth and even greater benefits for our guests in keeping with our founding perspective and philosophy of providing a year-round destination mountain resort for the enhancement of body, mind, and spirit, with our ever-present emphasis on environmental protection and sensitivity,” said Richard D. Bass in a prepared statement.

“Partnering with the Cumming Family ensures a bright future for Snowbird,” added Snowbird CEO and president Bob Bonar, one of the first employees when Snowbird opened in 1971.
. . .

Cumming founded Powdr Corp. in 1994 with the purchase of Park City Mountain Resort, but Cumming’s son John currently runs the company. The families claim the Snowbird partnership does not involve Powdr. Snowbird’s current management team, led by Bob Bonar, Tom Jones and Jerry Giles, will stay in place. It’s unclear, however, what will happen in the future, as the 85-year-old Bass has been unable to live and work at Snowbird’s altitude, and his family has shown little interest in operating the resort without Dad in charge.
. . ."

 

[MarzNC]

The relationship between Powdr and Snowbird has been confusing since it was clear at the start that the purchase of Snowbird in 2014 had nothing to do with Powdr. Powdr is the operator of Snowbird, but not the sole owner.

August 22, 2024 (Oregon)

POWDR puts Mt. Bachelor, two other resorts up for sale, is selling 2 Vermont ski areas to local investor group

(Update: Adding POWDR statement) Resort official says no immediate impact; co. seeks to 'balance ski business with new ventures' BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Powdr is putting Mt. Bachelor and two of its other ski resorts in Colorado and British Columbia up for sale, while announcing it's sold two...

ktvz.com

 

[MarzNC]

Do these resorts make enough money that they will definitely continue to be ski hills?

From the latest Storm Skiing Journal article (subscriber section) about the pending sale of Killington:

"Killington is an outsized presence. It is the busiest ski area in Vermont, in New England, and in the entire Eastern United States. The ski area, with Pico, likely accounts for between 18 and 25 percent of Vermont’s 4.1 million skier visits (2023-24), and between eight and 10 percent of the 9.5 million skier visits across the six-state New England region (2022-23)."

 

[MarzNC]

The recent Oregon Public Radio interview with Dan Cochrane and Chris Porter, provides a good sense of the local effort to buy Mt. Bachelor.

October 23, 2024 - radio interview with Dan Cochrane and Chris Porter

Locals spearhead effort to buy Mt. Bachelor resort

This summer, the owner of Mt. Bachelor ski resort, POWDR Corp., announced plans to sell. Bend locals Chris Porter and Dan Cochrane are leading an effort to keep resort ownership local. They’ve incorporated as Mt. Bachelor Community Inc. and hope to attract both small and large-scale investors...

www.opb.org

Getting Mt. Bachelor Community Inc. off the ground didn't take long. $35,000 was the goal for a GoFundMe and reaching the goal wasn't difficult.

October 4, 2024

Community drive to buy Mt. Bachelor exceeds early funding goal

The community-led drive to buy Mt. Bachelor ski area from Powdr Corp. continues to move forward.

www.bendbulletin.com

October 22, 2024

Local bid for Mt. Bachelor ski area has enthusiastic supporters. Now it just needs millions of dollars

The central Oregon resort’s out-of-state owners are looking for a buyer.

www.oregonlive.com

" . . .
[Dan] Cochrane said his buyer group, called Mt. Bachelor Community Inc., believes the price point is $180 to $200 million.

JPMorgan Chase is meeting prospective buyers, but none has been chosen, said Powdr spokesperson Stacey Hutchinson. That gives the central Oregonians an indeterminate time to gather support and, more importantly, money.

Whoever buys Bachelor will hold the keys to central Oregon’s second-largest private employer. It employed 1,117 workers this year, up 3% from the prior year and 25% from 2022 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from economic development nonprofit EDCO. St. Charles Health System is the region’s largest employer.
. . .

If they ended up buying the resort, Cochrane signaled they’d keep much of the current operating structure intact. He praised the management of current president and general manager John Merriman, who started last year.

“The mountain runs very efficiently, and there are opportunities to reinvest,” Cochrane said, noting several ski lifts need replacing.

Cochrane views his group as an underdog as larger industry players may be circling.

Mt. Bachelor Community Inc. is getting emails from across the U.S., he said, “some of them just in support and saying, ‘Go guys, we love what you’re doing.’”"