0
Quote
Alaska's Alyeska ski resort up for sale
July 18, 2006
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alyeska Resort is on the market for the fourth time.
Shareholders of Seibu Holdings Inc. — the Japanese company that owns the Girdwood resort — voted in June to unload Alyeska and a Toronto hotel as part of a large sell-off of resort properties.
Alyeska likely will be sold by the end of the year, said Chris von Imhof, the resort's chief executive. Von Imhof has worked at the resort since the 1960s and has been involved in each of its subsequent sales.
''This will not be a fire sale,'' he said. ''It is the complete operation, the resort, the restaurants, the tram, the mountain and the real estate.''
Alyeska owns the Anchorage Golf Course and 55 undeveloped acres (22 hectares) just below the resort's ski slopes. Von Imhof said he expects the next owner to develop that land.
Seibu owns 70 hotels and 30 ski resorts in Japan, as well as four major hotels in Hawaii. Seibu founder Yoshiaki Tsutsumi built the railroad company into an investment group in the 1980s.
Forbes magazine listed Tsutsumi as the world's richest man from 1987 to 1990.
But a worldwide bust in resort properties in the early 1990s sent the company into several rounds of reorganization. In 2004, Tsutsumi was convicted of securities fraud and Seibu was delisted from the Tokyo Stock exchange. The company has since been under pressure to raise cash.
Von Imhof said Alyeska generally operates $2.5 million (€2 million) to $3 million (€2.4 million) in the black every year. He would not discuss possible buyers.
''It's an opportunity (for Seibu) to divest and raise funds and also allow an investor to buy the property for less than was invested,'' he said.
Seibu has invested about $200 million (€160 million) in the resort since 1980, including building the mountain's tramway and the 307-room Alyeska Prince Hotel, both of which opened in 1994. Von Imhof said he hoped the resort would sell for more than $50 million (€40 million).
Lehman Brothers and resort-consulting firm Trammell Crow have been retained to oversee the sale.
''This is more a summer resort than a winter resort in some ways, with all the tourists through here,'' said George McCoy, a Girdwood real estate broker. ''Admittedly, they don't stay that long, maybe three or four hours. If we get a new buyer who knows North American resort properties, it could be the best thing that ever happened to Girdwood.''
Alyeska's history began before statehood. In 1954, six Girdwood skiers installed a rope tow up the mountain. Francois de Gunzburg, a Frenchman with ties to the Rothschild banking dynasty, bought the budding resort in 1960, importing a full-sized ski lift from Europe. Alaska Airlines, hoping to create a tourist destination, bought the property in 1967, then built Alyeska's first lodge.
Seibu bought the property in 1980 after Tsutsumi toured the mountain.
— The Associated Press
http://www.skiracing.com/industry_report/n...ySRIR.php/3864/
July 18, 2006
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alyeska Resort is on the market for the fourth time.
Shareholders of Seibu Holdings Inc. — the Japanese company that owns the Girdwood resort — voted in June to unload Alyeska and a Toronto hotel as part of a large sell-off of resort properties.
Alyeska likely will be sold by the end of the year, said Chris von Imhof, the resort's chief executive. Von Imhof has worked at the resort since the 1960s and has been involved in each of its subsequent sales.
''This will not be a fire sale,'' he said. ''It is the complete operation, the resort, the restaurants, the tram, the mountain and the real estate.''
Alyeska owns the Anchorage Golf Course and 55 undeveloped acres (22 hectares) just below the resort's ski slopes. Von Imhof said he expects the next owner to develop that land.
Seibu owns 70 hotels and 30 ski resorts in Japan, as well as four major hotels in Hawaii. Seibu founder Yoshiaki Tsutsumi built the railroad company into an investment group in the 1980s.
Forbes magazine listed Tsutsumi as the world's richest man from 1987 to 1990.
But a worldwide bust in resort properties in the early 1990s sent the company into several rounds of reorganization. In 2004, Tsutsumi was convicted of securities fraud and Seibu was delisted from the Tokyo Stock exchange. The company has since been under pressure to raise cash.
Von Imhof said Alyeska generally operates $2.5 million (€2 million) to $3 million (€2.4 million) in the black every year. He would not discuss possible buyers.
''It's an opportunity (for Seibu) to divest and raise funds and also allow an investor to buy the property for less than was invested,'' he said.
Seibu has invested about $200 million (€160 million) in the resort since 1980, including building the mountain's tramway and the 307-room Alyeska Prince Hotel, both of which opened in 1994. Von Imhof said he hoped the resort would sell for more than $50 million (€40 million).
Lehman Brothers and resort-consulting firm Trammell Crow have been retained to oversee the sale.
''This is more a summer resort than a winter resort in some ways, with all the tourists through here,'' said George McCoy, a Girdwood real estate broker. ''Admittedly, they don't stay that long, maybe three or four hours. If we get a new buyer who knows North American resort properties, it could be the best thing that ever happened to Girdwood.''
Alyeska's history began before statehood. In 1954, six Girdwood skiers installed a rope tow up the mountain. Francois de Gunzburg, a Frenchman with ties to the Rothschild banking dynasty, bought the budding resort in 1960, importing a full-sized ski lift from Europe. Alaska Airlines, hoping to create a tourist destination, bought the property in 1967, then built Alyeska's first lodge.
Seibu bought the property in 1980 after Tsutsumi toured the mountain.
— The Associated Press
http://www.skiracing.com/industry_report/n...ySRIR.php/3864/
