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It appears as though the highly esteemed Colorado ski industry is well on its way to becoming privatized. Intrawest Corporation, the owner of Copper Mountain and the operator of Winter Park has agreed to be purchased by Fortress Investment Group for a whopping $1.81 million in cash as well as almost another million in assumed debts. This is not the only deal of its kind, in fact in August it was made known that the publicly traded American Skiing Co. said that it was discussing its options pertaining to Steamboat Ski Resort, including sale. It appears privatization of the ski industry of Colorado is big time rather than small time, something that many said would never happen.
These dealings will prove interesting because it would mean that the Vail ski real estate and resorts would be the last ski areas in the entire state owned by a public company. Of course, Vail has major properties including Vail, Keystone, Breckenridge, as well as Beaver Creek. This is something that many people do not like the idea of, but analysts say that it really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if a resort is publicly or privately held because the revenues will be about the same and the investments into the economy will be about the same. This means that ski real estate, ski condos, and ski homes will still be available to the public from near and far that come to the area year after year to ski.
The Intrawest deal is somewhat big as they have interests in ten different mountain resorts in the United States. While the deal is a good one for the investment company it’s expected that they will divest some of the Intrawest assets after the sale closes, though no concrete changes have been announced yet. Skiers should expect things to go on as normal, with access to ski real estate and the like. Of course, the deal cannot officially close until the citizens of Denver approve it, yet it is expected to be approved with flying colors as even smaller share holders approve of the sale.
While the privatization of the ski industry is frowned upon by some others think it is a good thing. It means that private investment companies that want to make money off of ski real estate will build ski homes that will be conveniently located near their properties so that tourists can make better use of their time. Ski homes are always a huge asset and will add value to the surrounding land as well. While many do not believe that the privatization of the ski industry of Colorado is a good thing, it is not all bad, either. Of course, there are pros and cons to the situation but those that are worried about the economy should not be. The ski resorts will continue to be run so that tourist dollars will still be pumped into the local economy.
Keywords: Ski homes, ski condos, ski real estate, ski industry
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