Panorama purchased by local investors
January 30, 2010 by Lynn Knell
Filed under Business, Headlines, Local news, Panorama, Recreation
Ski lodge at Panorama Mountain Village (Photo by Julie Neville)
Panorama homeowners and local business people come together to purchase Panorama Mountain Village — when ordinary people come together, extraordinary things happen.
In a press release dated January 28, 2010, Kirby Brown, President and Chief Operating Officer at Panorama Mountain Village, announced that Intrawest, the financially troubled owner of Panorama, and a newly-formed company, Panorama Mountain Village Inc. “have entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement” that will enable the sale of Intrawest’s interests in Panorama Mountain Village. The transaction will include the resort’s on-mountain and Nordic ski operations, a 50% ownership position in the Greywolf Golf Course, all of Intrawest’s commercial operations and lodging units in the village and the land available for real estate development.”
It is a work in progress and it is expected that the transaction will close in February 2010 after receipt of regulatory approvals.
The best part of the story is that the newly-formed purchaser is made up of a group of Panorama homeowners and local business people who love Panorama Mountain Village and wanted to ensure it had a bright future here in the Columbia Valley. Led by Rick Jensen, the group came together to save this little piece of recreation heaven and have plans to not only operate the village but also to develop and grow it into an even more amazing year-round recreational destination for people from all over the world.
In a letter to employees of the resort, Kirby Brown stated that it will be “business as usual this winter season” and that Intrawest and the new Panorama Mountain Village Inc. are committed to work together to make the transition a smooth one. “The Senior Leadership Team is excited about the opportunities that new ownership will bring and we are determined to renew the energy at Panorama Mountain Village”, he said.
All vacation reservations, season passes, SnowMax and Snow Cards and joint marketing initiatives will be honoured.
Reading this inspirational story about a diverse group of people right here in our own valley who realized what was really important and came together to make a miracle happen makes me wonder why it is that we are still childishly shouting at each other about some other issues.
These folks who are saving Panorama have set us an example that we need to start living up to. If they could do it, so can the rest of us and it isn’t even going to cost us any money!
It has become really tiresome to read, over and over again, the same tired old verbiage about the same subject. It is as if the one who shouts the loudest, no matter if he makes sense or not, wins the argument. At least he thinks he wins. In reality, he just looks foolish!
Let’s get together, folks. If we just stop wasting our energy on nonsense, we could make great things happen in our communities.
I totally agree! This is an awesome move in the direciton of local sustainability, and it is very good for the community and the local economy.
People don’t realize the power they have to control their own destinies and the destinies of their communities until something like this actually happens.
There are other situations where this same approach could likely be applied. Why are we complaining so much about medical services when we might better consider taking the hospitals and residential care facilities back, buying them back if necessary, and putting them under community control.
And if we get that far, there is an even bigger one that slipped through our fingers a century ago, and that is schools. Should the province really be running our schools, or should we be doing it as a community, as it was in the beginning?
There are so many many things we are letting the nanny state do for us in exchange for stealing our hard-earned money. But we can stop that if we want. And there’s the rub … if we want. Do we care enough to put our time and effort and money where our hearts and minds and mouths are? Or are we too complacent and pre-occupied with things that really don’t matter all that much in comparison to the basics of community?
This is good news! I hope they can do a total makeover up there, Panorama has potential it just needs some TLC and a serious management overhaul. However Greywolf runs perfect from the outside looking in.