Eldora skiers and riders who have been asking lots of questions about the sale of the Boulder County ski area will get some answers Friday in the form of an open letter sent to their inboxes by general manager Brent Tregaskis.
Eldora’s owner, Powdr Corp. of Park City, Utah, announced last week that it had reached an agreement to sell Killington Resort in Vermont to an unspecified owner, and that it was putting Eldora up for sale along with Mount Bachelor in Oregon and SilverStar in British Columbia. Powdr’s announcement said the privately held company intended to retain Copper Mountain and Snowbird resort in Utah.
Tregaskis is seeking to reassure the Eldora community that there is “no cause for alarm,” that the ski area is profitable, and that it should be “a very attractive purchase” for potential buyers. Eldora will open a new lodge in the base area this winter that will house a children’s ski school, a home for Ignite Adaptive Sports, restrooms and food-and-beverage facilities.
Eldora has 680 acres of skiable terrain with four dozen trails, along with a Nordic center for cross-country skiing. It is the only Colorado ski area with regular RTD service from the Front Range.
“I want to assure you that Eldora will conduct business as usual this winter, with no changes to the upcoming season,” Tregaskis wrote. “Eldora will remain on the Ikon Pass and continue providing access through its own passes and day tickets.
“Eldora’s hardworking staff will continue to serve the community with the same dedication we always have, and Eldora will remain the same backyard winter playground for Nederland, greater Boulder, and Colorado’s northern Front Range,” he added.
Powdr acquired Copper Mountain in 2009 and Eldora in 2016. Little is known about Powdr’s finances because it is not publicly traded, but Patrick Scholes, a Wall Street analyst for Truist Securities who focuses on lodging and leisure companies, including ski resorts, said he hasn’t “heard anything that Powdr has had financial difficulties.
“Eldora is extremely unique, given its proximity to Denver. I have to imagine demand is strong, with University of Colorado students,” he continued.
Powdr said the reason for selling four of its nine ski areas is to “strategically manage Powdr’s portfolio in alignment with our founder’s and stakeholders’ goals,” adding that the company aims to “balance our ski business with new ventures in the national parks sector and Woodward.”
Woodward is an “adventure lifestyle” company with action-sports programming at Copper Mountain, Park City, Snowbird and six other resorts. Powdr already has concessionaire contracts with Death Valley and Zion national parks, and it plans to bid for more.
“The concessions we run at Death Valley are a motel called Stovepipe, a gas station, and convenience store,” said Stacey Hutchinson, communications vice president for Powdr. “Zion will be Zion Lodge. POWDR has grown a great hospitality business over the three decades since our inception, mostly on (forest service) land, so we’ll apply our expertise to national parks. And, it presents an opportunity for us to provide year-round employment to our seasonal workers — this would let us provide health insurance and other benefits.”
Eldora is not the only Colorado ski area for sale. In February, Denver-based Alterra Mountain Corp. announced an agreement to buy Arapahoe Basin. That transaction is still pending while the U.S. Justice Department considers whether the sale presents antitrust issues.
Powdr bought Eldora from a trio of investors — Bill Killebrew, whose family sold California’s Heavenly ski area to Japanese investors in 1990, Chuck Lewis, who founded Copper in 1972, and Graham Anderson, a former Sun Valley ski racer. The trio bought it in 1991 when it was on the brink of closure, investing heavily in snowmaking and other upgrades.
“I have been through three different sales in my long career in ski-resort management, the most recent being the purchase of Eldora by Powdr in 2016,” Tregaskis wrote. “In every case, the new owners brought positive change and financial investment.
“Eldora itself has had several different owners since it was founded in 1962, and every owner invested heavily in Eldora’s infrastructure and guest experience,” he added. “The bottom line? While a new owner has yet to be identified, I am very optimistic that the next stewards of this special place will inject excitement and a new wave of capital investment.”
