Intrawest sells third property in three-month period
Debt-laden company completes sale of Squaw Valley resort at Lake Tahoe, site of the 1960 Olympics
Fiona Anderson, Vancouver Sun
Intrawest ULC, the debt-laden owner of Whistler-Blackcomb where Olympic events are to be held in less than two weeks, has sold another property. This time, it is The Village at Squaw Valley at Lake Tahoe in California, home of the 1960 Winter Olympics.
The sale was announced by purchaser Squaw Valley USA, which said it completed the deal on Jan. 29.
The sale includes all of Intrawest's real estate holdings and operational assets, including lodging at two condo-hotels, and commercial assets whose tenants include six restaurants, 20 retail shops and a full service spa, according to the news release issued by the purchaser.
Intrawest developed The Village at the base of the ski resort in two phases, with the first phase opening in February 2002 and the second less than a year later.
Intrawest would not disclose the value of the sale, nor confirm that the proceeds would be used to pay down debt. However, it did say that it sold the Village because it was the only property where Intrawest did not own the on-mountain ski operations.
"At Squaw Valley . . . the family owned the on-mountain ski operations for years, and in 2002 Intrawest went and built the commercial village down below," Intrawest spokesman Ian Galbraith said in an interview. "So we've been talking with them for a while about bringing the two together."
Intrawest wants to focus on core assets where Intrawest owns both the on-mountain resort and the commercial village, Galbraith said.
This is the third sale of Intrawest assets in less than three months. In November, the company sold its interest in Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado. And last week, it announced the sale of Panorama Mountain Village ski resort, near Invermere, B.C. Both resorts had commercial and on-mountain operations. But they weren't "core assets" because of their size, Galbraith said.
"Our focus on these core resorts moving forward is going to be ones that are larger resorts, like Whistler-Blackcomb, Tremblant [in Quebec], and Blue Mountain [in Ontario]," he said.
Intrawest was bought in 2006 by New York-based private equity and hedge fund Fortress Investment Group LLC, which paid $2.8 billion US, including the assumption of debt. About half of the purchase price was paid with borrowed money, which Fortress has had trouble repaying.
In December, after a two-month extension, the fund defaulted on its final payment, leading lenders to announce that they would auction off equity in Intrawest -- understood to mean Intrawest shares the lenders hold as security -- on Feb. 19, in the middle of the Vancouver Winter Games.
