A ‘new entity’ comprising financiers behind Aspen ski resort in Colorado and a finance house called KSL Partners, reported to have been established in 2005 and reputed to have assets of $7.5 billion, including Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows ski resorts in California, has snapped up 7 more North American resorts this week to give the group a holding of 10 ski areas.
These include big name resorts including Mammoth in California, Steamboat and Winter Park in Colorado and Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada (below). Most were formerly part of the remainder of the Intrawest group.
The precise amount of money splurged on the resort purchases is not known but six of the resorts (from Intrawest) were sold for around $.5 billion and whilst the Mammoth sale price has not been published it changed hands for $365 million 12 years ago so a total $2 million spend is not unrealistic to assume.
Mammoth was bought with three smaller Californian ski areas – June Mountain, Snow Summit and Bear Mountain.
The new entity’s 13 resorts make it a rival for dominance of the North American ski market which has in recent years increasingly been dominated by Vail Resorts which now owns a dozen areas including the continent’s two biggest, Whister in BC, Canada and Park City in Utah, as well as recently acquired Stowe in Vermont, three resorts in California, for in Colorado, three in the midwest and Perisher, the biggest resort in in Australia (below), meaning it controls 14 resorts.
Vail has added resorts to its ‘family’ at a rate of one or two a year, carefully integrating each in to its global ‘Epic Pass’ sales and marketing policy, but it’s unclear yet whether the Aspen/KSL Partners conglomerate has plans to create a central corporate brand for its recently acquired resorts, or if it plans to leave them to operate independently.
It’s also unclear whether Aspen/KSL plan to expand their new empire further in the near future. Currently Vail operate 3 Californian resorts and Aspen/KSL 6, and its 4 to 3 in Vail’s favour for Colorado. Whistler and Tremblant, both formerly Intrawest resorts, are the two most visited resorts in Canada. The new group also has the most popular resort in Ontario, Blue Mountain.
