NEWS BRIEF: Utah's PGR Boosts its Total Skiable Terrain by 67% as it Buys Controlling Interest in Powderhorn, its Fifth Ski Resort

According to multiple news reports published over the weekend, Park City, Utah-based Pacific Group Resorts (PGR) has acquired controlling interest in Mesa, Colorado-based Powderhorn Mountain Resort from Denver, Colorado-based Gart Capital Partners and long-time ski industry veteran, Andy Daly.

Officially, no financial terms of the acquisition have been published by any of the parties involved in this transaction.

However, according to The Denver Post, Daly and his "real estate partners" (aka, Gart) acquired Powderhorn and an adjacent 700 acres of "developable land" in auction in August 2011 for a mere $1.4 million.

The two parties then spent $5 million to upgrade operations at Powderhorn in 2016, including the addition of

• A high-speed quad chairlift,
• Snowmaking equipment, as well as
• Upgrades to the resort's mountain-biking capabilities.

Interestingly, the owners partnered with PGR to take over Powderhorn operations in 2018.

With the acquisition of Powderhorn's 1,600 skiable acres, PGR now has a total of 3,986 acres of skiable terrain in its portfolio, including

• 1,700 skiable acres at Mount Washington Ski Resort on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada;
• 385 skiable acres at Mount Washington Ski Resort in Jay, Vermont;
• 172 skiable acres at WISP Ski Resort in McHenry, Maryland; and
• 129 skiable acres at Wintergreen Resort in Wintergreen, Vermont.

With the addition of Powderhorn's 1,600 acres of skiable terrain, PGR has boosted its total of skiable acres across all five of its resorts by 67%.

By comparison, of the 14 ski resorts in Utah, six have more acres of skiable terrain than Powderhorn, including

1. Park City Mountain Resort at 7,300 acres,
2. Powder Mountain Ski Resort at 6,999 acres,
3. Snowbasin Resort at 3,000 acres,
4. Snowbird at 2,498 acres,
5. Alta Ski Area at 2,199 acres, and
6. Deer Valley Resort at 2,026 acres.

In addition to the five ski resorts it now owns, the company explains on the PGR website that it also "manages resort operations for Ragged Mountain Resort (in Danbury, New Hampshire) under a management contract but has no ownership of the resort."

According to its LinkedIn profile, Pacific Group Resorts describes itself as

"... a geographically diversified international resort operating company (with nearly 4,000) acres of ski terrain, 81 holes of golf, lift served mountain biking, ZipTours, canopy tours, aerial challenge courses, five pools, water sports on two lakes, lodging accommodations for more than 3,000 people, more than 30 food outlets, and a full-service spa."

Publisher Note No. 1

Typically, Utah Money Report does not feature acquisition news reports where financial terms are not disclosed.

However, in this instance, we felt that the news of Pacific Group Resorts acquiring controlling interest in Powderhorn Mountain Resort (and boosting its total skiable acres by 67% in the process), met the standard for a standalone writeup at U$W.

We hope you agree.

Publisher Note No. 2

This article/report was originally published and distributed to our Subscribers at approximately 07:10am (MT) on Tuesday, 17 February 2025.

However, if this report/article came to your attention sometime after this date/time and you'd like to change that, then (to become a subscriber), please follow the steps below.

Simply,

1. Click on a "Subscribe" button on any Utah Money Watch webpage (visit www.UtahMoneyWatch.com),
2. Enter in your name in the proper field in the popup window that appears on-screen, and
3. Enter your preferred email address in the proper field too.

That's it. And "Yes," it really is that simple.

For context, the purpose of Utah Money Watch is to publish financial / monetary news, information, context, and analysis NOT available through any other source.

[You might think of us as the inverse of Bloomberg, CNBC, and/or The Wall Street Journal. In other words, we are passionately focused on uncovering the most important monetary, financial, and/or business news and information that impact the organizations and people of Utah first, followed by regional news/info second, and national/international info/news last of all.]

So ... if you're you interested in timely Utah-focused monetary, financial, and/or business news, context, and analysis, content NOT currently available through any other source, then subscribe today.

Thanks.

Team Utah Money Watch