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SKI AREA NEWS
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On the tip of everyone's tongues is the most recent sale of the Crested Butte ski area to the owners of Okemo Mountain Resort out of Vermont. According to a recent article in the Denver Post, "the Muellers bought the 520-acre Okemo Mountain Resort in central Vermont in the early 1980's and have since poured $100 million in upgrades into the area, boosting skier visits by more than 500 percent and making Okemo the third-most-popular ski area in New England."
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In a recent press release, the new owners, Tim and diane Mueller, "intend to build upon the attributes of the mountain with a Master Plan of improvements that will take place over time and will be in keeping with responsible, planned growth and development that remains consistent with our standards of environmental responsibility and commitment." Their investment group, Triple Peaks has had their share of disappointments in the past as the Muellers attempted to buy Steamboat in 1996. The $91.4 million dollar deal crumbled at the last minute when Steamboat owners American Skiing Company decided to sell its Heavenly ski area to Vail for $99 million instead.
In some resorts, the real estate is developed and then sells which enables long term growth to occur. Tim Mueller states, "it doesn't start with real estate. Our philosophy at Okemo has always been that the most important thing we need to do is create the kind of place where people want to have a home, then the real estate follows along."
"We learned that by making some improvements and new investments in the resort every year lest the market catch up. If you do it every three or four years, people forget what you've done. This way, there's something new for them all the time." Mueller quoted in a recent Industry Report article.
"We'll likely de-emphasize extreme skiing and snowboarding, highlight the beautiful western mountain town and its heritage and attract the family market" states Mueller as "families don't want to come to a ski resort known for its extreme skiing."
A Denver Post article states that the Muellers "boast one of the most successful resort turnarounds in the ski industry. When they bought a near broken Okemo ski area in Vermont in 1982, the area logged in about 95,000 skier visits a year. Last season, Okemo was the second busiest ski area in New England with more than 600,000 skier visits."
In the short term, according to the Post, "the Muellers plan to expand snowmaking and look for ways to increase the mountain's appeal to vacationing intermediate skiers…" Longer term, "the Muellers want to expand the ski area onto nearby Snodgrass Mountain, which would sandwich the resort's new high-end community project north of the ski area with intermediate terrain.
The ski area purchase marks the end of an era for Crested Butte, which had been owned by the Walton-Callaway clan since 1970.
The beginning of a new era was also earmarked by the purchase of the 80-room Sheraton Hotel by Denver's Ken and Tom Gart, better known as the sporting goods retail chain Gart Brothers Sports.
"It's starting to happen." States the Post, "It's not just the Muellers who are fueling hopes for a new era in Crested Butte…Money is starting to flow from a voter-approved tax to subsidize airline flights into the nearby Gunnison airport, which is expanding. Another tax is helping to market the area as a tourist destination."
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Real Estate in the Crested Butte Valley
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