Silver Mountain Gets A New Operator Eagle Crest Partners To Take Over At Kellogg Ski Resort

Silver Mountain Ski and Summer Resort has a new lease on life.

Eagle Crest Partners Ltd., a resort development company based in Redmond, Ore., signed a lease Tuesday with the city of Kellogg to operate the financially ailing ski mountain.

The city will hold on to its complicated legal ownership of the land on which the resort sits. Eagle Crest will buy the facilities that make up the resort and leases the use of the land, formerly owned by the Bunker Hill Mining Co.

The deal, which must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency because the ski hill lies in a Superfund site, will be Eagle Crest’s first foray into operating a ski resort.

Eagle Crest is an arm of Jeld-Wen Inc., a large home products manufacturer based in Klamath Falls, Ore. Jeld-Wen is one of the largest privately held companies in Oregon.

The company has 18 resorts from Mexico up the West Coast and into Canada, said Eagle Crest chief executive Jerry Andres. Many of its time-share condominium complexes lie in ski resort areas like Lake Tahoe, Nev., so the company is no stranger to ski areas, he said.

“We just came up here and fell in love with Kellogg,” Andres told an enthusiastic group of Kellogg business leaders and citizens.

Eagle Crest’s expansive network of resorts and deep pockets in the area of resort-building could help Silver Mountain and the Silver Valley bolster its growing tourist trade.

The resort’s previous investors, Von Roll AG of Switzerland, built the gondola that remains a marketing focus for the resort, but Von Roll did not have extensive experience in running ski hills or U.S. resorts.

Less-than-ideal snow conditions and the difficulty of starting a ski resort from scratch have hampered Silver Mountain’s performance, and Von Roll put its stake in the resort up for sale early last year. Andres believes the potential remains to elevate the hill to destination status.

If the deal gains EPA approval, Andres and Eagle Crest have plenty to do. A popular summer concert series will likely run again but needs immediate attention to book big-name acts.

Silver Mountain closed indefinitely earlier this year at the end of a lackluster ski season, laying off about 20 permanent employees. General Manager Terry Turnbow will remain in the position, though Turnbow said he had not yet discussed the resort’s management future with Andres.

Kellogg Mayor Mac Pooler called the change of ownership a great day for the city and the Silver Valley. “We now have another cornerstone in the progress that we’ve been wanting to see for a long time,” he said.

Created by a $7 million government grant and $16.8 million in tax-exempt bonds, Silver Mountain sprang from the lead-laced dirt of the Silver Valley in the aftermath of the collapse of the mining industry.

The ski resort continues to be the spearhead for the valley’s transition from an economy based on resource industries to one driven by tourism.

But over six years of operation, the resort didn’t make enough cash to cover even the interest payments on the bonds.

A risky ski resort wasn’t enough to encourage investors to buy the bonds that built Silver Mountain, so Von Roll backed the bonds - an investment that it now appears the company will swallow.

The world’s largest ski lift and tram builder could have chosen to liquidate the ski resort and sold it for an estimated salvage value of $7 million, but instead wanted to find a buyer to “take the resort to the next level,” said Murph Yule, who Boston-based broker who made the deal for Silver Mountain.

Andres would not reveal the purchase price, rumored to be between $3 million and $4 million, but Von Roll will write off the difference between the purchase price and the bonds.

Other that servicing the gondola, Von Roll has no stake in Silver Mountain.

Jeld-Wen and Eagle Crest also are developing the Pelican Butte ski resort and golf community in Klamath Falls.

The news of a revitalized Silver Mountain heartened hoteliers in Kellogg. Ken Schueman, owner of the Super 8 Motel next door to the Silver Mountain base lodge, said the sale “was the best outcome we could have imagined for us.”

“I’ve stayed at Eagle Crest - it’s very nice down there,” Schueman said. “It’s on the same caliber as the (Coeur d’Alene) Resort.”

Winter Sports Inc. of Whitefish, Mont., announced its interest in the Kellogg ski hill last week. Yule said Eagle Crest’s deal was structured more favorably than Winter Sports’ offer. The company owns and operates Big Mountain Ski Resort, and attempts to reach officials there late Tuesday were not successful.

, DataTimes