The 800 Pound Gorilla

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Greetings from Crested Butte!

The recent announcement that behemoth ski resort operator Vail Resorts is under contract to purchase Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) from Triple Peaks LLC sent a shockwave through our community and the rest of the North American ski resort marketplace.  Vail is also buying Okemo in Vermont and Stevens Pass in Washington State. Public reaction to the news has been mixed. Some Crested Butte locals fear the corporate takeover will kill the “Last Great Colorado Ski Town” vibe while others welcome the news with the sincere hope that our ski resort and winter tourism will start to improve and help the local economy balance with already robust summer tourism.

Vail Resorts is on a buying spree, acquiring high profile resorts like Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia and Park City in Utah as it also seeks to earn the loyalty of destination skiers with the value of its Epic Pass and to dominate the ski resort industry in North America.

Crested Butte will become Vail’s fifth Colorado ski resort along with Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Vail, its flagship resort.  Assuming the acquisition gets past the regulators, the deal is set to close at the end of this summer and Vail Resorts will begin operating Crested Butte Mountain Resort during the 2018/19 ski season.

The Impact on Crested Butte Real Estate
What happens when the biggest player in the game shows up in your resort town and sets up shop? Some folks are drawing comparisons to what happened around here when CBMR sold in 2004 to Triple Peaks. During that year we transformed from a minor “friends & family” real estate market to a national recognized investors marketplace with $200MM in real estate transactions. By the end of 2008 our little valley realized over $1.2 billion in sales and Crested Butte changed forever.

Will we see another boom? From my perspective a new real estate boom in Crested Butte was underway prior to the Vail announcement. Our market started to rebound from the recession about 4 years ago and after last year’s impressive $260MM in sales the stage was set with or without Vail. Now, with the 800 pound gorilla coming to town I think its safe to say we are going to see transaction and volume records in the near future.

Check out last month’s newsletter for a little more market perspective.

Thanks for reading today.
Channing Boucher
Broker Associate
Crested Butte | Sothebys International Realty
401 Elk Avenue
Crested Butte CO 81224
970-596-3228