By Jack Stubbs
On Wednesday, August 15th, Colorado-based mountain resort company Vail Resorts Inc. spent $64 million to acquire the Stevens Pass Ski Resort in Skykomish, according to a statement released by the company. The seller of the property was New York-based Oz Real Estate, the real estate platform of Oz Management, which is a global asset management firm that operates a wide variety of asset types.
Neither the buyer nor the seller responded to calls for comment in time for the publishing of this story.
The transaction was for eight different parcels, according to King County records, including the Stevens Pass Mountain Resort located at 93001 NE Stevens Pass Hwy. The property sale included a number of buildings as part of the larger ski resort. Some of these include the Pacific Crest Lodge built in 1979; the Granite Peak Lodge built in 1999; the Ski School Building constructed in 1990; and the vehicle maintenance building, which was constructed in 1992. The transaction also included around twenty other structures.
The Stevens Pass Ski Resort is approximately 78 miles east of Seattle, 65 miles east of Everett, and 58 miles west of Wenatchee. The resort is on the edge of the Cascade Range, with two national forests—the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest to the west and the Wenatchee National Forest to the east—bordering the resort.
For Vail Resorts, the acquisition of the Stevens Pass Ski Resort marks the latest chapter for the company. “We are thrilled to officially welcome Stevens Pass to our family of world-class resorts and to offer pass holders another exceptional, unique experience in North America’s Pacific Northwest,” said chief marketing officer of Vail Resorts Kirsten Lynch in a statement released by the company.
The acquisition of Stevens Pass is the first of two acquisitions announced in June 2018 to be finalized, according to the statement. In the second separate transaction—which is expected to close in late summer 2018—Vail Resorts announced an agreement to purchase Triple Peaks LLC, the parent company of Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado. After the two transactions close, Vail Resorts plans to invest $35 million over the next two years across the four resorts to continue to elevate the guest experience.
Founded in 2003, Oz Real Estate invests in hospitality, residential and commercial real estate and related assets across North America and Europe, and has invested in over $9 billion of private real estate assets, according to the company’s web site web site. The company’s portfolio includes over 20,000 hotel rooms, over 30,000 multifamily and residential units, and over 20 million square feet of retail and office properties. The company has also invested in other asset classes including healthcare, senior housing, ski resorts and land development opportunities.
The recent sale of Stevens Pass Resort comes several months after the company’s sale of another Puget Sound region ski resort. In early May 2018, Oz Real Estate sold six mountain resorts—including the The Summit at Snoqualmie—for $26.1 million to Michigan-based Boyne Resorts.
