Burke bought by Jay Peak

So NEK, what's the local impression on this deal. Better than Ginn?

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After a day to think about it...
I think this is going to be great for both mountains. Jay will have a feather in their cap that isn't "quite so far away" from Southern New England and will have a laid back option for guests who want to escape the large resort feel that has developed at the main mountain. Combo passes are going to be very attractive.

Burke will benefit from the stability and "making it work in the NEK" experience that that the new ownership has. I'm happy to have Bill Stenger have the reigns at Burke rather than some other "mega-resort" company that would likely have messed it all up because they didn't understand the history of Burke. As for "off season" activities, I don't think we will see plans for anything like a waterpark or a golf course, those are markets are already covered by the facilities at Jay Peak. I do see expanded lift served MTB in the future. MTB in East Burke is hot right now :drool:
The fact that they bought Burke debt free is huge.
 
As a long time road biker , I have been told to try Mountain Biking as the next best thing to tree skiing in the summer . We just returned from a 3 day stay of Mountain Biking at Burke. Trip was during the week so the lifts were not running but for $15.00 had access to the huge Kingdom Trails network around Darling Hill . Have to say some down hill switchbacks felt like tree skiing . Good option as a off season activity at a ski area. Could see myself skiing at Burke in the winter .
 
\:D/ After a day to think about it...
I think this is going to be great for both mountains. :-({|= Jay will have a feather in their cap that isn't "quite so far away" from Southern New England and will have a laid back option for guests who want to escape the large resort feel that has developed at the main mountain. Combo passes are going to be very attractive. =D>
 
Well....
Here we are a year and a half since the news broke about the new ownership. After all the big hopes that Burke's future would be stabilized we get this:
http://vtdigger.org/2013/12/18/burke-resort-cuts-ties-mountain-biking-trails-network/

Let's clarify the situation. Jay Peak didn't REALLY buy Burke (excuse me, "QBurke" :roll: ). Ariel Quiros (a wealthy industrialist) did. He is Bill Stenger's business partner and major financial backer. Ary Quiros, Ariel's son was appointed CEO of Burke with no resort or hospitality management experience. He took the reins with an eye apparently set only on getting the resort to operate in the black.

Well there are ways to reduce operating expenses but he seems to have gone crazy and fired the long standing upper management (and their bigger paychecks), decided to "rebrand" the resort by sticking his last name's initial in front of the name, and has started torching ties with important groups within the community (see Kingdom Trail article above).

There are other examples of his terrible management style but lets keep this somewhat short and say that the arrogant and confrontational way things have been done over the last year have really shaken the confidence of those that love Burke.

Bill Stenger, who's focus has been on recruiting EB-5 investors has made comments to try to clam the situation:
http://vtdigger.org/2013/12/22/q-burke-kingdom-trails-mend/

The email referenced in the second article can be found here:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/upper-valley-velo/JTH0cXevKbM

The important but sad part:
From: Ary Quiros <aryq...@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: Appalling Behaviour at Burke
To: Brian Riordan <brian....@gmail.com>
Cc: "in...@skiBurke.com" <in...@skiburke.com>, "bste...@jaypeakresort.com" <bste...@jaypeakresort.com>

the mistake is following all of you. you have neglected a great product here and the hard working employees that make Burke work.

kingdom trails took advantage of a weak and vulnerable organization to their benefit. now I have stopped it with great pleasure.

burke is coming back strong and it's not afraid to do what is right.

I assure you I will not follow you or your group so do what you have to do.

this is an exciting place here and believe me, it's not because of kingdom trails.

Ary Quiros
President & CEO
Q Burke Mountain Resort LLC

However, there are going to have to be some pretty big changes in order to get back to that happy feeling everyone had 15 months ago.
 
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