Intrawest, owner of Steamboat ski area and operator of Winter Park ski area, is moving its Vancouver, British Columbia, headquarters to Denver.
Since it whittled its ownership in the iconic British Columbia ski area Whistler-Blackcomb and sold several resorts and development projects in recent years, the company’s two largest resorts are Colorado’s Steamboat and Winter Park.
“The relocation consolidates the strategic, corporate, and financial functions in one location and brings senior management closer to Intrawest’s core business assets,” reads a company statement released Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Intrawest chief executive Bill Jensen, a former Vail Resorts chieftain with strong ties to Colorado, sent employees a memo announcing the move to the “greater Denver area” by the end of 2011. The company did not say how many employees would be included in the move.
“Colorado’s been home to some of the big jewels in Intrawest’s crown, so it’s only fitting to have Intrawest headquarters here and to have Bill Jen sen, one of our industry’s top visionaries, home in Colorado,” said Melanie Mills, president of the resort trade group Colorado Ski Country.
Intrawest was founded in Vancouver in 1976 by Joe Houssain as a developer of high-density urban real estate. A decade later, the company began acquiring ski resorts. In 1990, the company went public, raising $26 million. By the late 1990s, Intrawest was the largest resort operator and developer in North America.
In 2006, the company was bought by New York hedge-fund operator Fortress Investment Group for $2.8 billion, almost $1.4 billion of which was debt. Fortress missed a $524 million payment on that debt in late 2009, forcing Intrawest to begin shedding resorts.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
