Nederland, Colorado — While Mt. Bachelor was recently put off the market, POWDR still remains interested in selling two of its ski resorts: Eldora and SilverStar. However, it appears that they are wary of a local Colorado town buying Eldora.
Jason Blevins of the Colorado Sun reports that the town of Nederland remains interested in acquiring Eldora Mountain Resort. In January, the town noted they’re talking with various parties, including “private entities, philanthropists and impact investors” to finance a deal to buy the ski resort. A core funding source would be from Enterprise Bond Funds, which they believe can garner the $100-200 million needed to purchase the ski resort. Nederland produced a comprehensive Q&A about the potential acquisition, which you can read here.
However, POWDR hasn’t spoken to the town government lately, which does put into question how interested they are in selling to Nederland. This cold shoulder treatment is similar to how Mt. Bachelor Community Inc. was treated by POWDR, who ultimately decided not to sell the Oregon ski resort.
In my opinion, whoever buys Eldora will need to continue to grow the ski resort. In case you didn’t hear, the Sundance Film Festival’s new home will be in Boulder, Colorado. The closest ski resort to the festival will be Eldora. While this is a notable distance difference from the closest ski resorts to Sundance in Utah, it will bring many new tourists to the area, and likely Eldora.
If visitation grows with the introduction of Sundance, they’ll need to grow the mountain. Three terrain expansions have been considered. The first one is called Jolly Jug, which would add beginner and intermediate terrain plus a new chairlift. Other expansions could be in the Indian Peak and Corona terrain pods, adding more intermediate and advanced runs. The big challenge is that with some of the ski resort being on US Forest Service land, change is slow and likely costly.
Eldora remains open daily for the 2024-25 season, but time is running out for lift-serviced skiing. The Colorado ski resort plans to close for the season on April 20th.
Image Credits: Eldora Mountain Resort
