Vail Resorts has acquired Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort from Powdr Corp. for $182.5 million.
Vail’s stock jumped by more than 10% Thursday to a record high, indicating that the company may have acquired Park City at a discount. The deal includes the rights to develop almost 700,000 square feet of commercial and residential real estate.
“Park City as a whole remains an underpenetrated ski destination,” Stifel analysts Steven Wieczynski and Brad Boyer wrote in a note to clients Thursday.
“When factoring in the resorts’ close proximity to Salt Lake City airport and the cross-property sourcing benefits that extend from Vail’s expanding season pass program, we see an opportunity for the company to meaningfully increase visitation at the resorts in the years ahead.”
The acquisition occurs nearly a week after a judge ordered Powdr to pay a $17.5 million bond to its landlord, Talisker Land Holdings, to stay open for the upcoming ski season.
Vail, the largest U.S. ski resort operator, bought the operations rights to the 2,852-acre ski area, which includes 16 chairlifts serving 114 runs. Vail acquired the long-term lease for nearby Canyons Resort last year.
The acquisition ends a battle Powdr had been waging with Talisker since Powdr missed a 2011 deadline to extend a long-term lease.
Talisker alleged that the resort owed about $124 million, and Powdr was looking to pay $7 million. On Sept. 5, Judge Ryan Harris of Utah’s Third District gave Powdr a one-week deadline to pay a $17.5 million bond. Powdr, which has owned Park City Mountain Resort since 1994, agreed on Tuesday to pay it.
The sale settles all legal issues with Talisker, Vail said.
"A sale was the only way to provide long-term certainty for PCMR employees and the Park City community,” Powdr CEO John Cumming said in a statement. “Selling was the last thing we wanted to do.”