Vail Resorts has purchased Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) for $182.5 million.
The deal could see the creation of the largest ski area in the USA, the second largest in North America behind Whistler, as Vail also leases Canyons ski area next to the resort and could potentially merge the two.
Vail now owns or leases 11 US ski areas in five states, including Heavenly, Breckenridge, Keystone Northstar and Beaver Creek.
The sale ends a three year legal fight over the future of PCMR, one of three ski areas at Park City in Utah, and the only one directly linked to the heart of the resort.
PCMR had been operated by one of America’s largest multi-ski-area-owning companies, Powdr, for many year, but the company failed to renew a long term low cost rental deal it held for land on which most of its ski runs are located. The landlord instead rented the land to Vail resorts, America’s biggest multi-resort operator with 10 different ski resorts, last autumn. It then served legal notice on PCMR to vacate the land which was backed up by a legal eviction notice.
Powdr battled the eviction order in the courts and 48 hours ago had agreed to pay a $17.5m bond the judge had ordered the company to pay in order to keep PCMR trading this winter as the court case continued, but late yesterday the sake was announced.
Powdr’s CEO John Cumming said “selling was the last thing we wanted to do,” but said it was in the interests of the community to sell rather than the continued uncertainty of a protracted legal battle.
Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz said in a statement that Park City was an “iconic brand in the ski industry,” and Bloomberg reported the company’s stock price surged 12 percent as the deal was announced, its biggest growth for five and a half years.