Heavenly owner Vail Resorts buys Northstar-at-Tahoe
Northstar-at-Tahoe can now be added to the Vail Resorts ownership roster.
Company officials announced today that a $63 million deal was struck between the Colorado-based ski giant Vail Resorts and Booth Creek Resorts, owners of Northstar-at-Tahoe.
Vail Resorts owns Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe. Booth Creek-owned Sierra-at-Tahoe resort is not part of the agreement.
Vail Resorts bought the stock of the companies that operate Northstar-at-Tahoe from Booth Creek Resort Properties sellers. Northstar operations are done on land owned by CNL Lifestyle Properties, Inc. which will be leased to Vail Resorts under a long-term agreement, officials said.
"We are thrilled by the opportunity to bring Northstar-at-Tahoe into our family of world-class mountain resorts. With substantial and diverse ski terrain, a completely renovated and modern base village and outstanding guest service, Northstar-at-Tahoe has been one of the fastest growing mountain resorts over the past few years," said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer of Vail Resorts. "We believe guests of Heavenly and Northstar will greatly appreciate the flexibility to enjoy both the north and south shores of Lake Tahoe as we introduce pass and lift tickets products that offer access to both resorts starting with this coming 2010-2011 ski season."
In making the announcement, Vail Resorts named Julie Maurer, vice president of marketing and sales at Booth Creek as vice president of marketing with Vail Resorts. She will oversee the marketing and sales of both Heavenly Mountain Resort and Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort. Vail will begin the search for a new general manager for Northstar.
Vail Resorts announced that it will begin an immediate search for a new general manager of Northstar-at-Tahoe, which will include both internal and external candidates. George Gillett, chief executive officer, Chris Ryman, president and chief operating officer, and Betsy Cole, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Booth Creek, will no longer have management positions at Northstar, officials said.
Vail Resorts "is uniquely suited to continue Northstar-at-Tahoe’s transformation,” said Chris Ryman, president/partner of Booth Creek.
“We would like to recognize everyone on the Northstar-at-Tahoe team for their invaluable contributions to the success of this resort. We are proud to have been associated with such a talented group of individuals.”
“Chris, Betsy and the entire Northstar-at-Tahoe team have created an incredible success story in the resort industry. My family and I are proud to have been associated with Northstar-at-Tahoe over the past fourteen years,” said George Gillett, majority partner of Booth Creek.
"I want to thank George, the Gillett family, Chris and Betsy for their vision and leadership in bringing the Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort to world-class status over these past years," said Katz. "We are incredibly excited to bring the entire Northstar team into the Vail Resorts family. They have all been responsible for one of the great success stories in the mountain resort industry today."
Northstar has 19 lifts, 92 ski trails spread across 3,000 acres, snowmaking that covers 50 percent of the ski trails, seven terrain parks and snow sports including alpine and telemark skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and tubing.
Last year the resort had more than 700,000 skier visits, officials said. Northstar operates a base area village that features restaurants, shops, skating rink, conference center and 100,000 square feet in commercial space. It also hosts a number of summer activities.
The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe opened at mid-mountain last year and features ski-in, ski-out access. The 170-room resort has 23 private Ritz-Carlton residences and 25 Ritz-Carlton Club fractional ownership units.
- 000
- Alpine
- announcement
- appreciate
- Business
- center
- club
- conference
- Family
- features
- financial
- Inc.
- Industry
- Lake
- Leadership
- lifestyle
- Marketing
- mountain
- new
- Opportunity
- Parks
- President
- restaurants
- Rink
- sales
- Search
- service
- Sierra-at-Tahoe
- skating
- Ski
- skiing
- Snow
- snowboarding
- south
- South Lake Tahoe
- Space
- Sports
- struck
- summer
- Summer Activities
- tahoe
- Trails
- Heavenly Mountain Resort
- Inc
- Lake Tahoe