Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 2, 1995 TAG: 9510020040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Intrawest, a Canadian corporation that owns ski resorts in Canada and Vermont, has entered into an agreement to acquire all the assets of Snowshoe and its companion resort, Silver Creek, located in Pocahontas County, W.Va. The quoted sale price is $37 million.
Intrawest is lauded in the October issue of Ski Magazine as a Vancouver-based real estate company that entered the ski business in 1986 and has averaged a 25 percent annual growth in skier visits. The North American average is 1 percent.
The company owns and operates mountain resorts at Blackcomb and Panorama in British Columbia, at Tremblant, Quebec, and at Stratton Mountain, Vermont, said Joe Stevens, public relations director at Snowshoe. Ski Magazine readers rated Blackcomb the No. 1 resort in North America and Stratton No. 1 in the East.
``We would be silly not to think of this as a positive step,'' said Stevens. ``These guys are into skiing.''
Since 1990, Snowshoe has been owned by Tokyo Tower Development Corp., which purchased the resort for $20 million. During the past five years, Snowshoe has doubled its revenues and increased skier visits from 280,000 to a high of 400,000, Stevens said. There also has been a move to make Snowshoe a four-season resort with the opening in 1993 of a Gary Player Signature golf course.
Intrawest has a reputation of investing heavily in its properties, with emphasis on ski facilities and real estate projects. Since acquiring Blackcomb Mountain in 1986, the company has spent more than $500 million and seen skier visits grow from 278,000 to 972,000.
It is too soon to determine what changes will come to Snowshoe, but visitors can expect them in the future, said Danny Seme, Snowshoe's president and general manager. Intrawest has announced Seme will remain in a leadership position.
``We are all excited about it,'' said Seme. ``These guys have a lot of development expertise and skiing expertise, and we certainly have skiing expertise. They have the ability to purchase about any resort they choose, and they chose this one because they were impressed with the way it is run and the net results that we achieve every year. I'm sure the 10,000 acres didn't hurt, either.''
The purchase is scheduled to close in November, too late for major changes at Snowshoe this season.
``We probably will be spending a lot of time with their people and our people working on a master plan and setting goals and objectives,'' said Seme. ``I am sure it wasn't a purchase to stay as is ... for very long. We would like to expand. We have a lot of skiable terrain that we could expand into. We would like to see more development occur. We want to make the resort better than it is.''
With Snowshoe's location, the remote mountains of West Virginia, comes special logistical and marketing challenges, especially in real estate sales. The roads to the resort often are narrow and curvy and there is no air service. Few homes have been built around the golf course. But Intrawest sees baby boomers entering the second-home market. The company has a reputation of building villages within walking distance of ski lifts under the theory that a mountain won't work without a village.
``People don't want to ski in a parking lot,'' said Joe Houssian, founder of Intrawest and its chief executive officer.
``It [Snowshoe] represents another important step in building a network of resorts with geographical diversity and a range of resort choices for our skiers,'' said Houssian.
The company is the fourth-largest seller of lift tickets in North America and expects to triple its ski business over the next five years by acquiring as many as a half-dozen resorts, according to Ski Magazine. Intrawest owns major commercial holdings throughout the West, including office and apartment buildings. In a joint venture with Ralston Resorts, it is creating a new village and resort at Keystone Resort, Colo.
Snowshoe is about a three-hour drive from the Roanoke Valley. It is located off U.S. 219 north of Marlinton, W.Va.
by CNB