Intrawest Goes Into Foreclosure

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Chris

Winter Park managment company Intrawest Winter Park Resort Management Company, Intrawest, is Foreclosed on by Creditors

WOW! I saw it coming but I didn’t think that it would happen in the middle of a ski season and only weeks before their jewel property, Whistler, was to be host to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Intrawest was taken into receivership today by the banks that funded the purchase of Intrawest by Fortress Investments. Banks have seized Intrawest Holdings, the owner of the Whistler ski resort that’s hosting the Olympic downhill races next month, after the resort operator missed a big debt payment, and now plan to auction the company off right in the middle of the games.

The lenders, which include Lehman Brothers and Davidson Kempner, plan to auction off ownership of Intrawest on Feb. 19, according to a notice published in major newspapers. The first events of the Olympic games are scheduled for Feb. 12 and the closing ceremony is set for Feb. 28.

Well what does this mean for Winter Park Resort? What will be auctioned off at Winter Park Ski Area? Will Winter Park Resort management be changing?

Winter Park Resort is owned by the city of Denver so most likely there will be no changes at Winter Park Resort. Intrawest over two years ago disbanded their resort development team, Placemaking, so they were not going to be doing anymore development at the base in the near future anyway. As for what could be auctioned off I don’t think there is anything to auction other than land and condos that Intrawest already has up for sale.

The foreclosure notice stated: “Each qualified bidder must be a financial institution or other entity that has the financial wherewithal to purchase the membership interests in immediately available funds on the closing date”.

The sale includes more than a dozen resort properties including Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Steamboat and Winter Park in Colorado and Squaw Valley in California.

So, I guess my $5,000 offer and promise to do better than Fortress isn’t going to get me anywhere with an offer for Intrawest.

In addition to Intrawest, buyers will get stakes in four resorts in Colorado, as well as properties in California, Florida and Vermont. But with the Olympic Games only weeks away, the focus is on Whistler.

Intrawest chief executive officer Bill Jensen said that the company is in talks with its lenders, and in the meantime “it’s business as usual.”

I’m thinking business as usual would be very interesting at Intrwest headquarters today!

Anywho, lets get excited about the Winter Park snow forecast of 20′ of snow in the next 6 days!

More Money Problems for Intrawest

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Chris

Intrawest Winter Park Resort

Where is Intrawest heading with their money problems? After a two month extension of a loan payment due in late October of 2009, Intrawest missed the extension date on a payment of $524 million.

Intrawest, which operates four Canadian resorts such as Olympic-skiing venue Whistler Blackcomb, as well as six resorts in the United States, defaulted on the $524-million debt payment in late December and has been trying to work out a deal with lenders.

The company is owned by private equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC, which acquired Intrawest in 2006 for $1.8-billion. Fortress also assumed $950-million in debt in the deal. Fortress paid a 20-per-cent premium over Intrawest’s share price to get its hands on the company, but said in a letter to shareholders in August that it had marked down the value of the investment to 29 cents on the dollar.

Sounds like not a great investment so far for Fortress. What to make of Intrawest is the question for us here in Winter Park, CO. Intrawest has sold Copper Mountain Ski Resort and is in the process of selling its Sandestin, Florida beach resort. Earlier in the year, Intrawest sold two of its resorts in France to holiday company Pierre et Vacances. That price was also not disclosed. Will Intrawest up and walk away from their management agreement with the City of Denver? Very unlikely, but in these crazy financial times for resort developers nothing is beyond belief.

This next year will be a very interesting time to see what happens to Intrawest. They have disbanded the development part of their company, Intrawest Placemaking, and are having a hard time selling the real estate it has already developed. So their revenue income is now mainly from sales of lift tickets, food, beverage, lodging, and equipment. A great snow year with skier visits up and Intrawest may be OK. With a down year I think they may be selling off their parts. That may be the case anyway if they can not come to an agreement with their financiers.

Anywho, Winter Park will be celebrating it’s 70th year of continuous operation this January 23rd here in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. And now would be a great time to visit and buy property at Winter Park Resort.

Intrawest sells Copper Mountain | What’s in store for Winter Park Resort?

Posted on November 18, 2009 by Chris

Does this Right the Intrawest Ship or is the Ship Sinking?

Intrawest has plans to sell one of it’s Colorado ski resorts the company announced yesterday. Intrawest has agreed to sell Copper Mountain to Powdr Corp. based in Park City, Utah and one of the larger North American ski resort operators.

Reasons for the sale were not announced by the private company but Intrawest and Fortress, it’s parent company, have taken a beating in the last year with the recession. This puts Intrawest at nine resorts it now operates. Intrawest spokesman Mr. Galbraith on Tuesday would not say whether more assets will be sold. He said the reason Intrawest sold Copper Mountain is because the new company strategy is to focus on nine winter resorts rather than 10.

So, what does this mean for Winter Park Resort? Well, if you take Mr. Galbraith at his word then nine is a pretty special number of resorts to be managing. Why could nine not become eight, or eight then seven and on and on? Intrawest can not sell Winter Park, though, as it is the resort management company for the City of Denver with a 50 year lease.

The tightening of the Intrawest belt can be seen at Winter Park Resort. There are no on mountain improvements this year even though there has been quite a few the last five years. Intrawest also just announced plans to charge guests staying at the base in the three buildings they have lodging operations - Zephyr Mountain Lodge, Fraser Crossing & Founder’s Pointe – will now be charged $14.00 a night to park a car. I guess they must be hurting with trying to charge the Winter Park guest, ie families, $14.00 a night in this economy for a garage that is never full. Well $14.00 a night per car will help that bottom line.

Anywho, it will be interesting what more changes we will see coming from Intrawest and what effect they will have on Winter Park Resort. We will keep you posted.

Winter Park Resort | Intrawest Money Problems, What does it mean for the resort?

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Chris

Winter Park Resort

Winter Park Resort

We have been hearing some rumors about Winter Park Resort’s parnent company Intrawest the last few weeks and heard Gary DeFrange talk about what the current economy has in store for the resort. I did a search and found an article about Intrawest’s financial state from Canada’s Globe and Mail. A pretty interesting read.

What, though, will this have in store for Winter Park Resort?

Well, that is a little tough to discern at the moment. In the short term Winter Park resort will see a slow down of the on mountain improvements that were planned. The current base construction will not be added to as with the original Winter Park base development plan. On the bright side if you have cash you can get a great deal on a condo at the base of the resort.

Intrawest is in the eighth year of a fifty year operating lease from the city of Denver on the Winter Park Resort. My understanding is that Intrawest has done very well with Winter Park and would in no way want out of their lease. I think that is good for Winter Park as Intrawest has overall done a great job with the resort.

So here is hoping that this economy turns around and the snow god’s look favorably on Winter Park and we have a great 2009/2010 ski season.