East Burke, Vermont — Burke Mountain Resort is in the final stages of being bought by a local ownership group that wants to make many major improvements.
Yesterday, US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles approved the sale of Burke Mountain Resort to Bear Den Partners. Over the past few weeks, this ownership group has been working on finalizing a deal to acquire the ski resort. Bear Den Partners and the federal receiver agreed to a purchase price of $11.5 million, which was approved by the judge.
The new group is being led by Ken Graham, Willy Booker, and Jon Schaefer. Ken Graham is a Burke Mountain Academy graduate, the founder of Inverness Graham Investments, and the son of Donald Graham, who used to own the ski resort, and has been a financial supporter. Willy Booker is the Head of School of Burke Mountain Academy. The Schaefer family, who runs Berkshire East, Catamount, and Big Red Cats, would operate the ski resort.
In the first 24 months, the new group is planning to make some significant improvements. Some of the ideas include tripling the snowmaking capacity (potentially in time for next ski season), doing deferred maintenance, adding more top-to-bottom trails, building an intermediate terrain expansion, making improvements to the food and beverage and hotel, and refurbishing and adding to the biking trail network.
Burke Mountain has been stuck in limbo since 2016. This was when a federal receiver (Michael Goldberg) took over the ski resort after the SEC (U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission) seized it. Authorities discovered that the prior owner, Ariel Quiros, was running what was basically a giant Ponzi scheme at Jay Peak and Burke Mountain. Federal Receiver Michael Goldberg has been trying to recoup the money to investors who were scammed by Quiros, with the funds partially coming from this sale.
The deal is expected to be finalized in the weeks ahead.
Image Credits: Burke Mountain Resort
