New York — While the Toggenburg Ski Center has been shut down for a couple of years, its future is now looking brighter.
This week, a New York state judge ruled in favor of New York’s Attorney General against Intermountain Management, ruling that they bought and intentionally closed Toggenburg Ski Center to create a monopoly in the Syracuse ski industry. The judge is scheduled to rule on the financial or other penalties in the future.
“Syracuse skiing families and workers long benefited from fierce competition among their local ski mountains, but this experience went downhill fast after Intermountain bought Toggenburg,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “Intermountain paid a premium price to destroy competition because its owners knew they could raise prices and profit more with a monopoly. Now Intermountain’s anticompetitive scheme is put on ice. I will always take action to protect consumers and workers from corporate monopolies who try to profit by shutting down the competition.”
Back in 2015, Toggenburg was sold to John Meier and Marc Stemerman, the owners of Greek Peak. During their ownership tenure, the two ski resorts were offered as part of a joint pass. Part of the reasoning behind the purchase was to attract more Syracuse skiers to Greek Peak, but they convert enough Toggenburg skiers.
With New York being a ferocious ski resort market, they eventually sold the ski resort to Peter Harris of Intermountain Management. The announcement of the sale also proclaimed that Toggenburg would close for good. This was allegedly due to Labrador, Song, and Toggenburg being within a twelve-mile radius of each other and the lack of available workers to staff all three mountains. They put it back on the market, but it originally had a covenant which stated that whoever bought it couldn’t reopen it as a ski resort. In addition, as part of the agreement, the sellers of Toggenburg couldn’t operate a ski area within thirty miles of Labrador and Song for five years.
In 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Intermountain Management, accusing them of plotting for years to acquire the mountain in order to close it. They reportedly approached Meier multiple times, even through third parties, as a ploy to close it for good.
What happens with Toggenburg with this ruling is still unclear, as it’s still on the market. This situation’s resolution allows the resort to operate as a ski resort again. I do know one thing: there’s a decent operator in New York State that could help reopen Toggenburg.
Image/Video Credits: Canaan Realty, Greek Peak Mountain Resort, Intermountain Management (SkiCNY.com), Skimap.org
