PORTLAND – A group proposing to reopen Saddleback Mountain held a press conference in Portland this morning, announcing its intention to raise $4 million as it seeks to purchase the state’s third largest ski mountain.
Saddleback Mountain Community Resort, LLC is seeking to raise $4 million via fundraising to close the sale with the Berry family, who purchased the ski area in 2004. Of those committed funds, $2.2 million would go toward the sale while another $1.8 million would represent operating capital.
“We need to raise $4 million and we will close on the deal,” Peter Stein, president of Scientific Solutions and one of the organizers of the SMCR said, noting that the group had a verbal agreement with the Berry family. “When we originally looked at the community purchase we had immediate interest with several people making financial commitments – now we will turn that passion into power to buy the mountain.”
Also announced was the proposed sale of more than 3,000 acres of land to the Trust for Public Land, which would partner with the New England Forestry Foundation. That transaction was described as “separate but related.”
Organizers associated with the SCMR have conducted a survey which indicated that more than 800 people were interested in keeping the ski mountain open with more than $5 million in commitments. Announced supporters of the group include Stein, Director Wolfe Tone of the Trust for Public Land; Executive Director Bob Perschel of New England Forestry Foundation; Steve Philbrick, owner of Bald Mountain Camps; and Eric Friedman, the marketing director of Mad River Glen.
Supporters of the efforts stressed the importance of reopening Saddleback, after the resort failed to open in December for the 2015-16 ski season. Saddleback originally announced it was unable to open due to its inability to secure $3 million in financing to purchase a new four-person chairlift. That lift would replace a 51-year-old double chair that accesses the top of Saddleback Mountain.
A number of would-be buyers opened up discussions with the Berry family before the ski season, with Saddleback announcing in early October that the owners were in “serious negotiations” with one buyer that hoped to open that season. However, potential opening dates continued to get pushed back, until the mountain finally announced it would not be reopening in time for February vacation. Season pass-holders were given the option of receiving resort credit or a full refund.
“With Saddleback closed, Rangeley and the greater surrounding area as a whole suffers because we have less to offer the tourism industry,” Philbrick said. “When Rangeley suffers, the state of Maine suffers, Franklin County suffers and the economic wheel in Maine suffers.”
It is not clear whether the ski resort would reopen this season. According to the SMCR’s website, the speed at which the organization hits $4 million in contributions, the practicality of purchasing a new lift this season and the weather will all factor into the decision. The resort could also reopen in some limited capacity this season.
Saddleback Mountain’s Facebook page, its primary method to communicate the efforts to reopen the resort, said that it wished the new organization well.
“We continue to work with the Saddleback Mountain Foundation,” the post said, “in addition to the other qualified buyers who are also in the process of pursuing the purchase of the resort.”
Fantastic.
Way to go. Cooperatives are the wave of the future.
It’s a perfect model
Jo Josephson
Awesome news for the greater Rangeley community!
Great news ! When groups work together great things can happen ! The community is the beneficiary !
It is so nice to see a fantastic mountain get new direction, and hopefully new management and new owners to help the business thrive and support the town and business!
I understand Saddleback owners have accepted this deal only verbally. Meaning they still have the option to sell the resort to a buyer if one comes forward and is willing to pay their price. This is the time for Saddlebackers to open their wallets and invest in their mountain. Everyone that says “all of my friends would ski there if it was open”. This is your time to put up or shut up. The resort has never been able to turn a profit charging less for lift tickets than larger competitors. You can only make so much money relying on volume. 75 – 100 thousand skier visits is not high volume especially when you consider how many of these skier visits were passholders and donated skier days. Consider a $650 season pass with no black out dates. Say an average passholder skis 50 days a season, that’s the equivalent of a $13 lift ticket. Say they ski 1/2 of that, still only a $26 ticket. That’s not paying the bills. For all of us “Saddlebackers” we need to understand prices are going up no matter who buys the resort in order to be a viable business.
“Verbal Agreements” are only worth the paper they are written on…….