We will soon know the new owner of Jay Peak Resort in Vermont. The Storm Skiing Journal reports that the auction for Jay Peak is set for today at 11 a.m. EST, and at least three parties will be making bids. We already know that Pacific Group Resorts was the initial bidder, as they entered into an asset purchase agreement back in August. A few weeks later, it was reported that multiple parties were interested in making bids by September 2nd. No other parties have been revealed, but Storm Skiing Journal reported that Boyne Resorts and Snow Partners, which runs Big SNOW and Mountain Creek in New Jersey, said that they will not be a part of the auction.
Here’s how the auction will work, which will be occurring privately via Zoom: The first bid will be the $58 million offer from Pacific Group Resorts, with the next bid having an initial bid increment of $1.75 million or higher, and then each following bid increment would have to be at least $250,000 in cash. The federal receiver, who is Michael Goldberg, then decides what the highest and best value is for the ski resort. A final sale hearing, which happens in a district court, would then follow to finalize the auction.
While at least two parties will outbid Pacific Group Resorts at the auction, they confirmed to the Storm Skiing Journal that they are interested in raising their bid. They own various ski resorts in North America, including Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire, Powderhorn in Colorado, Mt. Washington Resort in British Columbia, Wintergreen in Virginia, and Wisp Resort in Maryland.
This bid follows the EB-5 era for the Northeast Kingdom, which resulted in multiple criminal convictions for the owners and the President of Jay Peak who participated in misusing hundreds of millions of dollars. The value of Jay Peak was placed at $121 million in 2020 by the town of Jay, but a settlement put the assessed value at around $85 million. In short, we could hopefully know the new owner of Jay Peak by the end of this week.
Update 9 a.m. 9/8: VTDigger reports that there is a new owner of Jay Peak after a seven-hour-long auction, but the winner has yet to reveal itself. They have thirty days to disclose that they’re the new owners, but Steven Wright, the GM of Jay Peak, said more info about the situation will be revealed today.
Image Credits: Jay Peak Resort
