The company that owns Park City Ski Resort has sold the state's biggest ski area to a Salt Lake financier.
In a Monday news release, Alpine Meadows of Tahoe Inc., parent company of the resort, announced it has accepted a stock buyout by Powdr Corp., a private corporation owned by Ian Cumming.The transaction comes on the heels of the sale of nearby ParkWest Ski Resort, announced last week.
Park City Ski Resort will keep its current management, said Nick Badami, who has owned the ski area since 1963. Badami will stay at the helm as chairman of Alpine Meadow's board of directors.
The town's civic and business community noted the transaction with interest.
"Our two ski resorts - Deer Valley and Park City - really make the local economy," City Manager Toby Ross said. "And Park City (Ski Resort) has sort of been the core of the community."
"They're already considered a world-class resort, and I would hope they would continue to maintain the reputation," said Nancy Volmer, communications director for the Park City Chamber Bureau.
She noted the resort is the area's sixth-biggest employer, with 90 full-time employees and 650 seasonal workers.
Volmer said the sale was anticipated because of rumors circulating in recent weeks.
"I think the surprising part of it was who rather than the fact it was being sold," Ross said.
"There's a potential for change, but perhaps there will be no change at all," he said. "It's hard to tell from the press release."
Powdr Corp.'s offer was $10.67 per share for all outstanding common stock and all outstanding voting preference stock. It gives the company a controlling interest in Alpine Meadows of Tahoe Inc., which also owns a Nevada ski resort by the same name.
Cumming is chief executive officer of Leucadia National Corp., which has interests in insurance, banking, incentive services and manufacturing. Leucadia, however, is not involved in the ski-resort transaction.
An Olympic Games supporter, Cumming is the former chairman of the Utah Sports Authority. The authority is charged to oversee the $59 million in taxes set aside to build Olympic facilities, including the Utah Winter Sports Park in Bear Hollow near Park City.
Deer Valley and Park City ski resorts are the designated venues for the giant-slalom and freestyle-skiing events should Salt Lake City win its bid to host the 2002 Winter Games. The only other resort so designated is Snow Basin, near Ogden.
Cumming, who rarely speaks directly to the press, was in Argentina on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
With 2,200 skiable acres, 14 lifts and more than 600 wintertime employees, Park City Ski Area is Utah's largest resort and site of the annual World Cup competition.
Volmer said the timing of the sale shortly after ParkWest's announcement last week probably was coincidental. Michael Baker, a local resident, purchased ParkWest for an undisclosed sum, promising to refurbish the resort, which has languished in the shadow of more prosperous Park City and Deer Valley resorts.
Alpine Meadows of Tahoe Inc. is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol PDRR. The stock traded consistently for $6 a share until mid-March, when trading volume increased by about 50 percent of normal and the price nearly doubled in a matter of days, events stock watchers say foreshadowed such a transaction.