After months of delays and stalls, the town of Nederland announced Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent to buy Eldora Mountain Resort from its current owner, Powdr.
Mayor Billy Giblin said in a news release the town will “build on Eldora’s legacy” to create a community driven, sustainable, year-round destination that supports local jobs, outdoor industries and infrastructure development in the town of around 1,500 residents.
The price for the 680-acre ski area about 20 miles west of Boulder was not disclosed, but town officials last year estimated they would need $100 million to $200 million to get the deal done. Arapahoe Basin, which is twice as large as Eldora, sold in November to Alterra Mountain Co. for $105 million.
The Eldora purchase will be financed with the sale of municipal bonds to be repaid with lift-ticket and other on-mountain revenue, a structure intended to protect local taxpayers, town officials said Tuesday. The town hopes to reduce debt by applying for grants and developing private-sector partnerships.
The resort, which opened about 5 miles from Nederland in 1962, will be run by the town in partnership with Front Range-based 303 Ski, a coalition of industry heavy hitters, many formerly with Vail Resorts, for the purpose of “stewarding the next chapter of Eldora Mountain Resort with integrity, local insight, and deep industry experience,” they said.
Among them are Dwight DeBroux, who played a key role in retail expansion and large-scale change management during Vail’s global workforce growth of 400%; Mark Gasta, former executive vice president and chief people officer at Vail Resorts; and Blaise Carrig, former president of Vail Resorts. Powdr’s former senior vice president and general counsel Emily Smith and Justin Gold, founder of Boulder-based Justin’s Peanut Butter and an investor in another Nederland-based project, the new Wild Bear Nature Center, are also joining.
Giblin said Powdr will run Eldora for the next two years and that current Eldora employees will have the option to stay through the transition. Once the town takes over, employees will receive town benefits, which he says are better than what Eldora currently offers. He said 303 Ski is expected to support Eldora after Powdr’s transition services agreement ends.
The town envisions turning Eldora into a multi-season resort with summer operations and someday bringing back night skiing, Giblin said. Eldora will remain part of the Ikon Pass program, ensuring a stable and predictable revenue stream critical to the resort’s financial health, according to Powdr.
More information will be available at a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Nederland Community Center (and it will be livestreamed).
Powdr bought Eldora in 2016 and announced in August it would put Eldora and other resorts it owns up for sale. Powdr bought the resort from Bill Killebrew, who along with two others owned the ski area for 25 years and rescued it in 1991 from the brink of closing.
The transaction will put Eldora in the company of a handful of Colorado ski areas owned by local governments, the largest of which is Winter Park, opened by the city of Denver in 1940.
Durango opened the 7-acre Chapman Hill in 1966. That same year, Gunnison opened the previously privately-owned, four-run Cranor Hill. Steamboat Springs took over its downtown Howelsen Hill in 1937. Silverton revived the dormant 35-acre Kendall Mountain — which first hosted skiers in 1963 but closed in 1982 — in the 1990s. Lake City opened Lake City Ski Hill in 1966 but it was closed for 24 years before reopening in 1998. The tiny, free Lee’s Ski Hill in Ouray opened in the late 1940s.
A nonprofit Lake County recreation board inked a 99-year lease to run Ski Cooper in 1942 after the Forest Service bought the former 10th Mountain Division training area from the military after World War II. Huerfano County-owned Cuchara Mountain Park appears on the verge of a renaissance after a state economic development grant and private donations funded crucial lift repairs on the hill run by the nonprofit Panadero Ski Corp.
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