Ski Resort Owners Pursue Huge Mixed-Use Projects As Demand Grows

Killington Ski Resort, the largest ski area in New England, is being eyed for one of the largest commercial developments in the region.

The Vermont resort sold in September to a group including Great Gulf, a Canadian developer that is planning a $3B project that would include 2,300 residential units.

The idea to build a ski village — a place for skiers and snowboarders to live, stay, eat, drink and shop — has been discussed at Killington for decades. But it ran into a series of roadblocks involving the U.S. Forest Service's ownership of the land and pushback from environmentalists.

The latest plan still faces some state-level hurdles, but Great Gulf President of Resort Residential Michael Sneyd told Bisnow he is confident it will move forward.

Courtesy of The Boundary A conceptual aerial rendering of Great Gulf’s development at Killington Ski Resort in Vermont.

"People have been waiting for this for a long time," Sneyd said.

Some of the most popular ski resorts across the country — from New England to Colorado to California — have come under new corporate ownership in recent years, and investors are looking to expand and grow operations as demand for skiing and snowboarding continues to increase.

This could mean billions of dollars of investment in mixed-use projects that could change the face of many of America's favorite winter destinations. But many of these projects have faced similar challenges around land constraints, lengthy permitting processes and environmentalist opposition that make it difficult to add new housing, amenities and commercial development.

"A lot of ski resorts are dependent on Forest Service land," said CBRE Vice Chairman Jeff Woolson, who leads the firm's golf and resorts group. "Getting fee simple land to develop can be a problem."

The United States has more than 480 active ski resorts — from the big ones like Park City in Utah, Big Sky Resort in Montana and Snowmass in Colorado to a host of small, independent mountains.

The demand at these resorts has increased since the pandemic. More than 60 million visitors went skiing and snowboarding at resorts in the 2023-2024 winter season, according to the National Ski Areas Association, the fifth-best season since it started tracking it in the late 1970s.

With increasing demand has come corporate consolidation. Of the 473 ski resorts open during the 2022-2023 ski season, 103 were owned by only 11 corporations, representing 22% of all resort ownership, according to Snow Brains.

Many of these ski resorts live on publicly owned land that operators rent out from the Forest Service. For owners and operators to do expansion projects like the one Great Gulf is pursuing, they need to acquire privately owned land next to or near the resort.

"Most ski mountains operate on leased land, and they own the lifts and infrastructure, but those lifts and infrastructure are on leased land," Sneyd said. "Those leases almost exclusively say that no private development can occur on the leased land."

The 1,000 acres where the development is planned next to Killington were part of a land swap between the resort owner and Vermont in the 1990s when the owner envisioned a conference hotel and a ski village at the base of the mountain.

Now Great Gulf is moving forward on plans for a first phase of development that would include 720 residential units, including ski-in and ski-out condos, a new base lodge and 110K SF of retail and dining space, Sneyd said.

Part of the appeal of the proposal is that it would not only create a new ski village but also make it an attractive place for visitors year-round, he said. The development is expected to support 3,800 construction jobs over the next 25 years as well as 1,500 hospitality jobs.

Bisnow/Taylor Driscoll

Colorado ski resorts have begun to invest millions in improvements to biking and hiking trails and upgrades to golf courses. These resort owners are also aiming to draw events like weddings.

"The best-run resorts in North America, like Whistler Blackcomb [in British Columbia], they have more summer visits than they do winter visits," Sneyd said. "What that does is that enables not just better utilization of labor throughout the ski season … it also gives them full-time jobs year-round."

Resort workers have struggled to find affordable housing near many mountains, making it hard for resorts to retain employees.

Hundreds of members of the Park City ski patrol went on strike on Dec. 27, arguing that their wages didn't match the cost of living in the area. The strike was so disruptive that the resort, one of the biggest in the country, had to shut down during its busiest time of the year.

At Colorado's popular Vail Mountain, Vail Resorts and East West Partners in October reached an agreement to develop a fourth base village that would include new workforce housing on a site previously planned for high-end condos.

"It is a shared goal of the Town of Vail, Vail Resorts, and East West Partners to ensure our town remains a top destination for guests and a vibrant community for the residents who create the welcoming and unique atmosphere Vail is known for," Vail Mayor Travis Coggin said in an October release.

At Nordic Valley Ski Resort in Utah, a development group in December proposed $121M in infrastructure upgrades and renovations along with a redevelopment of its ski village to create hundreds of housing units and hotel rooms.

Ski resort owner and operator Alterra Mountain Co., which formed in 2018 and now owns 19 resorts with more than 30,000 skiable acres, has several projects underway.

Also in December, officials in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, approved a zoning change that would make way for Alterra to build a new mixed-use development. The project would include a 204-unit condo complex, a 41-room hotel and more than 24K SF of commercial space.

Local officials who voted in favor of the proposal said that the area has needed redevelopment for a long time.

Steamboat Springs Planning Board
A rendering of Alterra Mountain Co.'s Ski Times Square project in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.