Justice Department investigates antitrust issues related to Alterra’s plan to buy Arapahoe Basin

The new Lenawee Express drops skiers off at the top of the Arapahoe Basin lift-serviced area while lift operator Shane Koenig looks on, Dec. 18, 2022, near Dillon. The new 6-person chairlift, built by Leitner-Poma of America, cuts travel time from 10 minutes to 4 minutes and has increased capacity from 1,800 people per hour to 2,400.

Hugh Carey/The Colorado Sun

The Justice Department is taking a closer look at Alterra Mountain Co.’s planned takeover of the Arapahoe Basin ski area..

The department requested information from the ski resort and the 18-resort Alterra Mountain Co., as well as annual resort industry surveys and studies conducted by Boulder’s RRC Associates for the National Ski Areas Association.

“It takes some time,” said Alan Henceroth, longtime Arapahoe Basin chief executive, who described the information requested by the federal government as visitor demographics, visitor numbers, financial information and “all business issues” related to the ski resort.

Alterra Mountain Co., which owns Steamboat Ski Resort and operates Denver-owned Winter Park Ski Area, announced in February its plan to buy the 1,428-acre Arapahoe Basin from Dream Unlimited Corp., a Canadian real estate investment trust that has owned the Summit County ski area since 1998.

The Justice Department earlier this month filed civil investigative demands against the National Ski Areas Association and research firm RRC Associates. The investigations involve data from RRC’s annual surveys of American ski resorts, including the NSAA’s annual Kottke Report, as well as demographic and economic analyses of the resort industry. In a June 26 letter to NSAA member resorts in the Rockies, the association said it had worked with the federal government to narrow the scope of the investigation to ski resorts in the association’s six-state Rocky Mountain region.

Read more from Jason Blevins at ColoradoSun.com