From the front page of the Parsons Advocate on Sept 24 - "Four May Bid to run Canaan"

Four prospective bidders showed for the bidders conference at the lodge in September.

Drumroll......

1) Guest Services (Present concessionaire)
2) Fred Herz (yes, Doc's nephew and partner at Tline)
3) Murray Dearborn (Blackbear Resort and Davis High Valley Realty)
4) Henry Moomau (Canaan Mountain Resort)

Where's Intrawest? I thought someone on this board keeps saying they wouldn't be interested in Canaan Valley if there wasn't a real estate play. Who was that? Oh yes, it was me

Wow, not a very deep pocketed crowd eh? Can't see that Guest Services would be too bowled over by the competition. Looks like the best we can expect is 20 years of the same - or worse.

Tom

Talk about being shot down in flames That was my 1st reaction..& then I realized what a pipe dream it was to think that a person or corporation with bucks would invest in a ski resort owned by the State & within a State park.

My only hope is that Docs partner or Guest Svc will not win out..I do not know Mr. Moomau but if he is a frusterated employee of the resort with good ideas & work ethic, maybe he could do some good.

Murray Dearborn showed me property way up on High Mtn years ago & I have ran into him on many occasions...He has been in the realty buis forever in the valley area & knows what improvements need to be done to attract buis, so he would get my vote.

The problem for the prospective bidders other than Guest Services is that the state wants the service provider to sink $20-30M into the resort up front then use revenue from the balance of the 20 year contract to recoup their investment and earn a profit. That's a lot of green, hard to believe any Valley locals can compete with a large established company like Guest Services. If Fred Herz had $20M to invest in a ski resort, well ...

My bet is the Valley locals showed up at the meeting as a curiosity to see who would really show up. Intrawest a no show? Andy where's your bra' Mr. Bright when you need him???

Tom

Unfortunately, companies like Intrawest make their money selling real estate and there is no real estate to be sold at Canaan. That is not to say you cannot make money, otherwise Guest Services would not be bidding. They have been there for a while and I assume they must have made some money.

Mr Bright is covertly running an operation in the thick forests of MPC where with a highly trained band of frusterated Skiers he is shooting a type of drug into the Bambi that dwell there which turn even the strongest & largest big horned Bucks into dwarf Gay buckaroes...hoping to lure the present Owner/hunter off the mtn & on to better hunting grounds!...Stay tuned...

"My bet is the Valley locals showed up at the meeting as a curiosity to see who would really show up".
Bingo.

i kinda wish he would help out a family member and save the purple fiddle first!

If a serious resort operator were to be interested in CV, it would perhaps be someone from the Midwest. Most of those resorts, as far as I know, are much less of a real estate game than out West or in the Northeast. And of course, northern WV is not that far from Ohio and the greater Midwest. Of course, few of those companies have access to $20mm to invest in a new operation.

Thinking about the Northeast, is there any major operator left that doesn't make their margin off of real estate? Not too long ago, Okemo was not primarily about real estate, but I believe that has changed.

Boyne Resorts, perhaps? They've got a far-flung empire of small and medium-size ski areas (for the markets they're in). Not sure what they have out east, I think they own Brighton in Utah and one (Steven's Pass? Or Mission Ridge?) up in WA.

I think Boyne owns Sunday River (ME), Sugarloaf (ME), and Loon (NH), don't they?


aaron