Feds investigate antitrust concerns over Alterra’s plan to buy A-Basin

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

The department requested information from the ski resort and Alterra Mountain Co., which owns 18 resorts, as well as the results of an annual survey and study of the ski resort industry conducted by RRC Associates of Boulder on behalf of the National Association of Ski Resorts.

“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 area and operates Denver’s Winter Park ski area, in February announced 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 Department of Justice earlier this month filed demands for a civil investigation of the National Ski Areas Association and research firm RRC Associates. The investigations examine data from RRC’s annual surveys of U.S. ski resorts, including the annual Kottke NSAA report, as well as demographic and economic analyzes of the resort industry. In a June 26 letter to NSAA member resorts in the Rocky Mountains, the association said it was working with the federal government to narrow the scope of the investigation to ski resorts in the association’s six-state Rocky Mountain region.

The letter, first reported by Matthew Scott on the Snowology website, promised that the NSAA was “determined to maintain the strictest confidentiality” when sharing information “to ensure that this information is used for the benefit of all members.” Annual reports are not publicly available.

“We are assured that the Department of Justice is legally obligated to keep this information confidential as well, and we have been further advised that none of it should ever be disclosed in any public document or forum,” the NSAA wrote to select members.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado declined to comment on the investigation. RRC Associates also declined to comment. National Ski Areas Association executives did not immediately respond to emails or text messages Thursday.

Alterra Mountain Co. sent an emailed statement saying the filing with the Justice Department was “customary given the size of the transaction.”

“We are working through the process but cannot otherwise comment on the status of the ongoing review with the Department of Justice,” the statement said. The company declined to say whether its previous acquisitions since its founding in 2018 had been investigated by the Justice Department.

But this isn’t the first time the federal government has run into antitrust trouble over ski resort consolidation in Colorado.

The Colorado Attorney General and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice sued the United States District Court in Denver in 1996, seeking to block Vail Resorts’ acquisition of Arapahoe Basin. Vail Resorts in 1996 announced a $310 million deal to buy the Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin ski areas from Ralston Resorts, Inc. The civil suit forced Vail Resorts to sell Arapahoe Basin to a Canadian real estate company that became Dream Unlimited.

A federal lawsuit filed in 1996 argued that Vail Resorts’ acquisition of Arapahoe Basin “would significantly lessen competition in the Front Range ski market.” In 1996, Ralston’s three Summit County ski resorts accounted for 26 percent of Front Range skier visits, while Vail Resorts Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts in Eagle County accounted for about 12 percent of Front Range skier traffic.

Vail Resorts’ sale of Arapahoe Basin “will prevent Front Range skiers from paying higher lift ticket prices,” according to a January 1997 Justice Department statement.

Arapahoe Basin was the first non-Vail Resorts ski area to join the company’s Epic Pass. The ski area offered unlimited access to Epic Pass skiers from 1998 to 2019, but the resort’s parking lots were overwhelmed by crowds, and Henceroth dropped the Epic Pass in favor of Alterra Mountain Co.’s Ikon Pass affiliate program, offering skiers access for five or seven days.

Henceroth told his loyal skiers earlier this week that Ikon Pass access for the 2024-25 ski season will remain at five- and seven-day levels. There are 12 ski resorts within a few hours’ drive of Denver, and eight of them are accessible to skiers using Epic or Ikon passes. And those eight — Arapahoe Basin, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Eldora, Keystone, Vail and Winter Park — easily account for more than half of Colorado’s annual skier visits.

Although the Justice Department review is delaying the deal, Henceroth said the Forest Service is considering transferring the Arapahoe Basin special use permit to Alterra Mountain Co.

The Forest Service review is progressing well, Henceroth said, but it cannot be finalized until the Justice Department completes its analysis.

“Once the Department of Justice is finished, I think closure will happen very quickly,” he said. “I know Dream is ready to do it.”

Story Type: News