Squaw Valley sold to Colorado-based company
By Kathryn Reed
Squaw Valley ski resort and the village have been bought by KSL Capital Partners LLC.
This is the second Colorado company to buy a Lake Tahoe area ski resort in less than a month. Vail Resorts purchased Northstar-at-Tahoe from Booth Creek in October.
Details of the sale of Squaw have not been disclosed, but it does include the village. The resort bought the village in January from financially troubled Intrawest.
Colorado company buys Squaw Valley. Photo/Kathryn Reed
KSL plans to put $50 million into capital improvements at the North Shore ski resort in the next five years.
KSL is not a new comer to the ski industry or resort areas. The company also owns Vail Mountain Lodge, Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., and Barton Creek Resort and Spa in Austin.
Eric Resnick and Michael Shannon, founding partners of KSL, serve as board members for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team Foundation. Resnick is also on the Organizing Committee of the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships. Shannon was president of Vail Associates, what Vail Resorts used to be called, from 1985-92.
Squaw Valley put itself on the map when owner Alex Cushing successfully bid on the 1960 Winter Olympics. Squaw wasn’t much of a resort at the time, but still pulled it off and brought international recognition to the slopes of Tahoe. When Cushing died a couple years ago his widow, Nancy, took over control of the entire operations, though she had been president since 1994.
“Alex’s dream was to create a world-class, four-season destination resort in one of the most beautiful places in the world,” Cushing said in a prepared statement. “This transaction will result in the culmination of that dream by providing the necessary resources to ensure Squaw Valley’s continued improvement and success for generations to come.”
In August, Cushing made what many in the ski industry considered a dramatic move for Squaw and stepped down as CEO and president. Speculation at the time was Squaw might not remain in the Cushing family for much longer. Andy Wirth took over as CEO at that time.
KSL bought a majority, controlling stake in Squaw. The breakdown of the ownership has not been released. Wirth will continue as CEO.
It’s gonna be Colahoe. Colorado is buying Tahoe up quickly!
It would be nice if all of the Colorado management would realize the incredible tree skiing we have here, and not just come in and start chopping down trees.
The work the Blaise did before he blazed out of Tahoe did nothing but destroy the areas he tried to turn into runs.
Kae The hotel Del in San Diego we know it well.
Thought for sure the Coronado indians would have claimed ownership. What a casino it would make.
If the former owner Larry Lawrence was alive, he would have scammed a casino! With the Baccarat room known as Lawrenceville
This could be a good thing for the Skiing community here and I mean the people who live here just to ski. Colorado has one pass for all their resorts as well as a Colorado Ski pass that is good at all mountains. We could go back to the old Ca Gold and get one pass for all the resorts. Just a thought. We could call it the Heavenly Vailly Pass.
Thrilled to have them!
Bring your Colorado gold to California!
I’m surprised no one mention that Harvey’s,Harrah’s are going to sold on the wall street stock market under Cesars name.
“be sold”
HardTo: many of us predicted the name change for Harrahs back in 2005 when they bought Caesars Entertainment. Caesars is a much more world known name than Harrahs so it only made sense….why did it take this long though?
Alex: really enjoyed Larry at the casino in the old days. He even took some top Caesars employees back to Hotel Del to work for him.
I would be excited about a Colorado company buying a Tahoe resort. They aren’t in the business of looking for a poor investment and making it lose….should mean their expertise is only going to help us thrive!