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Steamboat Ski Resort sold for $265M

Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 19, 2006 at midnight

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The giant private equity firm that recently bought Intrawest has won the bidding contest for Steamboat Ski Resort, agreeing to pay $265 million in cash for one of the state’s most-visited ski areas.

New York-based Fortress Investments Group cemented the deal with Steamboat parent American Skiing Co. just before the announcement early Tuesday morning. Park City, Utah-based American Skiing, whose stock has languished for years, had been entertaining multiple offers for its marquee mountain in hopes of capitalizing on the ski area’s steadily improving financial results.

"This is a great transaction," American Skiing Co. CEO B.J. Fair told the Rocky Mountain News. "It’s the right thing to do for the company."

Proceeds from the deal will go toward paying off the company’s debt, the company said in a regulatory filing. The transaction is expected to close by the end of March.

Fair said the now-privately held Intrawest has indicated it will likely retain the ski area’s management team. An Intrawest official could not immediately be reached for comment.

Steamboat is estimated to be the nation’s seventh largest ski area. It is one of the few Colorado ski areas attracting more than 1 million visitors each season.

The announcement ended months of speculation about which group of private equity investors would win the bidding contest for Steamboat. Fortress’ Intrawest, with its huge amounts of available capital, had been seen as a frontrunner from the start.

American Skiing first indicated it might sell the company in July when it announced it hired an investment banker to explore strategic options. It came close to selling the ski area a few years ago, but it backed out of that deal when it instead decided to sell its Heavenly Ski Resort in California to Vail Resorts Inc.

The potential for a new, deep-pocketed ski area owner has been a boon for the area’s real estate market in recent months.

While American Skiing has invested some money in lifts and other ski area upgrades, real estate experts contend the resort needs a bigger overhaul to compete with other upscale ski areas.

kelleyj@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5068