Faced with perennially thin snow cover and an annual operating loss that exceeded its total revenues in two of the last six years, Magic Mountain in southern Vermont hopes to go the way of Mad River Glen and sell itself to its die-hard fans.
It won’t be easy. Located near such crowd-pleasers as sunny Bromley and Intrawest-owned Stratton, Magic has been struggling in recent years with annual ski and tubing visits under 17,000. (Snowshoe, by contrast, always exceeds 400,000.)
Besides the nearby competition, Magic has somehow survived on a decades-old snowmaking system and gotten past an early-1990s bankruptcy that actually shut its doors for few seasons. Financial, if not necessarily environmental, salvation appeared in early 2006 when it was formally announced that Magic’s property might play host to 17 of a planned 50-turbine wind energy project, something abandoned after community opposition coalesced.
Then calamity struck this year in April, when the man who bought Magic out of bankruptcy, 82-year-old New York lawyer Larry Nelson, suddenly died. Here’s where the latest would-be savior comes in.
Jim Sullivan had been leasing the approximately 700-acre (known as Glebe Mountain in the USGS maps) property from Nelson, but with real estate debt and unpaid taxes totaling somewhere in the vicinity of $300,000, this is where the first chunk of investor proceeds will be going, according to the Magic Partner Business Plan.
After that, the Plan calls for $2.1 million in new investments, including a new Magic Carpet beginner lift. Most of the money is planned to pay for snowmaking equipment to back Sullivan’s vow to make enough snow to open in early December and stay open until April. Can that really happen?
That’s just one of the challenges. Overcoming parts of Magic’s reputation may be tougher. While the place is rightly revered for its slim crowds and skill-testing steeps, there’s also some baggage in the form of a 30-year perception of rocks and dirt. Three years ago, while renting kids equipment at an area shop, this reporter was urged not to take the shop’s equipment to Magic. Ouch!
What Sullivan has accomplished thus far appears to be Herculean. He took over in September 2006 and promptly increased skier visits from a record low of 5,000 to 16,000 and has been operating the place with an annual payroll under $200,000. And now, of course, he’s unveiling a resort sale in the middle of a financial crisis.
If it all comes together, he and the Nelson heirs will own 40 percent of the new LLC, with the remaining 60 percent belonging to the new shareholders. The 1,000 shares go on sale at $3,000 each no later than July 3, according to Magic’s website.
Nice article, Hawes.
Brings back memories of a great trip there, December, 1976.
Ah, the days of yesteryear…