Summit County – Arapahoe Basin Ski Area may soon have a sister resort in California.
A-Basin’s owner, Toronto- based Dundee Realty, is close to finalizing the purchase of Bear Valley Ski Co. in the central Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe.
The deal could be done as soon as July 7, pending U.S. Forest Service approval of a permit transfer, said Tim Bottomley, president of the Bear Valley Ski Co. Under terms of the deal, there is a July 21 deadline for the permit transfer, he said.
No one from Dundee or A-Basin was available for comment Tuesday. Dundee is a commercial real estate management firm.
Several real estate agents in the Bear Valley area say the deal could be worth about $6 million. Bottomley wouldn’t discuss financial details.
Bear Valley is similar in many ways to A-Basin, which sits on the west side of Loveland Pass. It is regarded as a rustic, no-frills resort, with a focus on skiing, not on the high-end bells and whistles that mark most modern mountain resort developments.
The area has nine lifts on about 1,280 acres and averages 359 inches of annual snowfall, with snowmaking coverage on about 100 acres. Last season, Bear Valley tallied about 118,000 skier days.
A-Basin has averaged more than double that during the past few years, with totals ranging close to 300,000.
Bottomley said business has been only so-so the past few years, attributing the lackluster numbers to aging baby boomers, competition from low-priced season passes at nearby megaresorts and a lack of growth in the adjacent town of Bear Valley.
In the town, the impending sale to Dundee is welcomed by most, said broker Joel Barnett of Bear Valley Real Estate. The hope is that Dundee will bring a much-needed impetus for real estate development and closer cooperation between the resort and the town.
Three acres of commercially zoned private land are part of the Bear Valley-Dundee deal, and there is another adjacent, private 9-acre chunk that is planned for residential resort development, Barnett said.
He said a lift linking the town and the ski mountain also might be part of Dundee’s long-term plan.
