In a deal announced late yesterday, CNL Lifestyle Properties has finally reached an agreement to sell all of its 15 ski resorts located across the U.S. and Canada. EPR Properties, a Kansas City-based publicly traded real estate investment trust, has agreed to provide about $244 million of five-year secured debt financing for the purchase of 14 CNL Lifestyle ski properties valued at approximately $374 million by Ski Resort Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Och-Ziff Real Estate.
List of Ski Resorts Sold
- Brighton Ski Resort, Utah
- Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Colorado
- Cypress Mountain, B.C., Canada
- Gatlinburg Sky Lift, Tennessee
- Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort, Massachusetts
- Loon Mountain Resort, New Hampshire
- Mount Sunapee Mountain Resort, New Hampshire
- Mountain High Resort, California
- Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, California
- Okemo Mountain Resort, Vermont
- Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, California
- Stevens Pass, Washington
- Sugarloaf Mountain Resort, Maine
- Summit-at-Snoqualmie Resort, Washington
- Sunday River Resort, Maine
If you call one of these mountains home you should not be too alarmed. Skiers and riders can expect little change under the new ownership. CNL and now EPR Properties are real estate investment trust (REIT). This means that they act as owners of the resort and then lease them back to its previous owner to continue to operate the mountain. Revenues are generated not by the operation of the ski areas but through lease payments paid by the resort’s operator. That relationship between owner and operator is not expected to change as a result of this deal as it’s merely the ski area’s ownership that’s changing hands.
