Well, that’s it for the biggest ski resort standoff in Utah history.
After years of litigation and public acrimony, Vail Resorts (MTN) and Powdr have brokered a truce: Vail is buying Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) for $182.5 million in cash. Vail will get the terrain owned by PCMR along with the base facilities—the parking, lift ticket offices, and other parts required for a functioning ski resort. The base also has zoning approval for almost 700,000 square feet of residential and commercial development (read: condos and shopping).
Vail immediately announced plans to extend Epic Pass—its popular multi-mountain season pass—to include Park City for the 2014-15 ski season. The company also intends to connect its neighboring resort, Canyons, with Park City Mountain as early as the 2015-16 season, creating the largest single ski resort in the U.S., with 7,000 skiable acres.
The deal brings to an end an epic legal battle between Vail and Powdr, the parent company of Park City Mountain Resort. In 2011, PCMR failed to renew its lease on the upper 85 percent of its terrain, which it was leasing from a company called Talisker. The mistake went largely unnoticed until that winter, when Talisker brought it to light and declared that PCMR was no longer a lawful tenant. Powdr disagreed, and the landlord and its tenant went to court.
Roughly a year later, as part of a $25 million-per-year deal with Talisker to take over Canyons, Vail Resorts assumed the rights to Park City’s disputed terrain and to the legal fight. In May, a judge sided with Vail on every meaningful count, sending the two sides into mediation. As recently as yesterday, PCMR had agreed to post a $17.5 million bond to keep the resort open for the upcoming season.
Vail Resorts stock jumped almost 8 percent in early trading on Thursday.
