RANGELEY – Saddleback ownership is in “serious negotiations” with a potential buyer for the ski resort and hopes the resort with be running for the 2015-16 season.
The news was posted to the resort’s Facebook page, in a brief statement that indicated that the potential buyer had “plans to open for the winter.” An update is expected next week.
The ski mountain, the third largest in the state and an employer for up to 300 people during peak winter season, previously announced that it would be unable to open for ski operations this year unless it secured $3 million in financing to purchase a new four-person chairlift. That lift would replace a 51-year-old double chair that provides access to the top of Saddleback Mountain.
Multiple scenarios relating to the future of the resort were previously referenced on Saddleback’s Facebook page. These included discussions with four, separate buyers looking to operate the resort this season, a fifth buyer looking to purchase the resort in the spring, and a “limited operation” option for the 2015-16 ski season.
The Berry family purchased the ski area in 2004, leading to several years of rapid growth and expansion. In 2004, Saddleback employed 66 people and drew about 15,000 skiers annually. In 2012 the family reported Saddleback employed more than 225 people during peak winter season, and by then they had added $40 million in infrastructure improvements, drawing as many as 100,000 visitors annually.
In 2012, the family put 400 acres of their 8,000-acre parcel up for sale for $12 million through Malone Commercial Brokers, a Portland firm, including Saddleback’s 66 trails and glades, four chairlifts, the lodge and condominiums.
What is not being told is that most of the ” old lift” has been replaced over the years.
@ Outdoors – the parts to the old lift may have been replaced over the years but it’s still a very slow double chair and a huge bottleneck to the upper mountain — especially on weekends. No one wants to wait in a 45-minute lift line in order to ski. (It should’ve been upgraded to a speedy a quad chair years ago.)
There’s more to this story than what’s being said!