A public information session will be held July 25 on the proposed sale of the operation of Mount Sunapee State Park to a Colorado company that runs 14 ski resorts across the country — a process that has again raised questions about the state’s oversight of operations at the park and ski area.
A subsidiary of Vail Resorts has proposed to buy the state’s lease to operate Sunapee, and also to buy Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont and the Crested Butte (Colo.) Mountain Resort, for $82 million. The three are owned by the Mueller family of Sunapee.
Vail also would pay $155 million to buy the lease of the land at Mount Sunapee, as well as leases at the other two resorts, from a firm linked to New York hedge fund Och-Ziff Real Estate.
Och-Ziff’s purchase of the Sunapee lease in 2016 took the state by surprise, generating debate about how much oversight New Hampshire officials actually have.
The announcement in June that Vail plans to take over operations of Sunapee was also a surprise to state officials, leading Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to publicly confirm that the deal will require approval of Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Commissioner Sarah Stewart.
The proposed sale is also entangled in a controversy over a “West Bowl” expansion that would add four new trails and a new chairlift, as well as potentially spurring development of a privately owned parcel on the mountain.
At the session, details of the proposed transaction will be presented by the parties and the public will have an opportunity to be heard and to ask questions.
The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. on July 25, at Mount Sunapee Resort’s Sunapee Lodge in Mount Sunapee State Park in Newbury.
— Concord Monitor