Killington ski area sale is complete
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By Bruce Edwards Herald Staff - Published: May 12, 2007
KILLINGTON — Powdr Corp. and SP Land Co. on Friday completed the $85.2 million purchase of the Killington and Pico ski resorts from American Skiing Co.
Also Friday, Powdr Corp. named Chris Nyberg president of Killington Resort and Pico Mountain. Nyberg replaces Allen Wilson.
Park City, Utah-based Powdr Corp. will operate the ski resort while SP Land will turn its attention to real estate development, including development of the long-awaited ski village.
"Killington has long been known as the East's skiing icon, and Powdr has a demonstrated desire to improve the guest experience while being fiscally responsible so that improvements to that experience can continue," Nyberg said in a statement.
"I am very much looking forward to providing the values and vision and opportunities to our employees so that Killington can retain its iconic status in the East and aim for a top 10 stature nationally."
In an interview this week, Steve Selbo, president of SP Land Co. said his company would spend the next 12 months preparing the ski village plans for the Act 250 permit process.
As proposed, the ski village would include shops, restaurants, other amenities and 1,500 or more condominiums, built over a 15- to 20-year period.
"It's a very long-term development that will start out with, I would guess, something in the vicinity of 150 to 225 units," Selbo said.
He estimated construction would begin in 2009.
Neither Powdr Corp. President John Cumming nor Nyberg was available to comment Friday.
Powdr spokesman Mark Fischer said Cumming was out of the country and Nyberg was busy meeting with Killington employees.
Asked what improvements Powdr plans on making to Killington/Pico, Fischer offered no specifics and counseled patience.
"I think the biggest thing that's important for folks to understand is you don't wave a magic wand and have something happen overnight," Fischer said. "This is going to take some patience on everybody's part."
He added that based on Cumming's track record when acquiring other resorts, it's unlikely that any major capital investments would take place right away.
"He's never done that in the past," Fischer said. "I would not anticipate that to be the case this year."
Fischer said Nyberg needs time to get up to speed on the Killington/Pico operations. That includes understanding its staffing needs.
Under American Skiing Co., Killington by now would have commenced early season pass sales at greatly reduced prices for next season. Fischer, however, said that has not been the practice at Powdr's western resorts, which don't start selling season passes until July at the earliest. At the same time, he didn't rule out Powdr offering a product similar to the one offered by American Skiing.
While Powdr's plans for Killington/Pico remain uncertain, Killington Town Manager David Lewis said Friday that a ski village with more condominiums won't by itself bring skiers back to the mountain.
"Personally, what I think they need to do is put some improvements on the mountain, the resort side, in order to attract some skiers back," Lewis said. "They need to do something new such as the Pico interconnect."
The Killington-Pico interconnect has been on hold for a number of years, in part because of the financial problems faced by American Skiing Co. It would link the two resorts, allowing skiers to ski both mountains in one visit.
Nyberg has 30 years of experience in the ski business. For the past six years, he's been vice president of North American and international operations for Bombardier Industrial, a maker of snow equipment including tracked vehicles commonly known as snow cats. Prior to joining Bombardier, he spent 10 years at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon working in several jobs. He was the coach and program director for alpine racing and managed several departments, including snow grooming, avalanche hazard evaluation and snow removal.
At Friday's closing, American Skiing Co. received $85.2 million for Killington/Pico, $1.7 million more than the announced price in February. The company said the price was adjusted to reflect changes in debt and working capital.
The company said that it used $80 million from the sale to pay off debt.
With the sale of its Killington/Pico properties, American Skiing Co. is left with The Canyons in Utah and the Sunday River and Sugarloaf/USA resorts in Maine. The company had previously announced it was considering the sale of its Maine resorts.
Once the largest ski resort operator in the country, American Skiing Co. has been selling off resorts to retire its staggering debt. Earlier this year, the company sold its Mount Snow resort in West Dover and Attitash resort in New Hampshire to Peak Resort of Missouri for $73.5 million. Last year, the company sold Steamboat resort in Colorado to Intrawest for $265 million.
Killington is the largest ski resort in the East with 200 trails and 33 lifts. Pico, adjacent to Killington, has 50 trails and 6 lifts.
Powdr Corp. owns six other resorts including Park City Mountain Resort in Utah; Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Oregon; Alpine Meadows in Tahoe, Calif.; Boreal Mountain Resort and Soda Springs Mountain Resort, both at Donner Summit, Calif.; and Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort.
SP Land Co. is an affiliate of Ski Partners LLC. Ski Partners is affiliated with E2M Partners LLC, a Dallas, Texas-based private equity fund that invests in a diverse portfolio of real estate-related opportunities.
Contact Bruce Edwards at bruce.edwards@rutlandherald.com
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