Luncheon Jan 15, 2015
Posted by John Robertson
A positive meeting to start 2015 as we met and heard from the new owner of our Mt Baldy Ski Resort, Fred Johnston. Myers introduced Fred, President of Baldy Capital Corp, giving us an insight into his very broad based, successful background that included software businesses, commercial real estate and a digital diagnostic center, primarily based in Calgary. Although he knew the previous owners of the resort from separate business dealings in Idaho, Fred did not seriously look at Baldy until August and wound up making an offer in October (he claims there was heavy duty arm twisting!). The purchase won't be completed until the property clears the bankruptcy process, likely sometime in April but in the interim, look for a portion of the hill to open tomorrow to start the process of reestablishing Mt Baldy as a viable ski resort.
He shared an interesting skier statistic that dates back to 1977 where there were 44,000 visits to Baldy, biggest year ever, and that skier visit number fell to only 7500 in 2012. The economy, real estate market and skihill competition all factored into that change but Fred is planning on a reversal of the trend and a return to close to 1977 numbers in his 5 year business plan. He noted that returning staff make up 80% of the employees and he has had very positive support and input from local businesses.
A ski resort needs both a successful ski operation and real estate revenues to be successful and he plans on a good balance of the two. He has 2 partners in support and it sounded like Fred is expecting to have some fun reestablishing Baldy! A thorough, thoughtful presentation and we wish him all the best in bringing Baldy back.
Pres Judy recognized Marieze as returning School Board Chair and Brian announced he has a date of March 11 to donate one of his kidneys to a local recipient....the transplant process originally started with his volunteering a kidney to Judy Sloan and the matching process led to this date - well done Brian!
Reminders of upcoming events included the Board meeting on Jan 29th at McKia's at 4pm and the social hosted by Marieze on Jan 30th. Our program for next week is a speaker from the Cancer Society.
A good meeting!
He shared an interesting skier statistic that dates back to 1977 where there were 44,000 visits to Baldy, biggest year ever, and that skier visit number fell to only 7500 in 2012. The economy, real estate market and skihill competition all factored into that change but Fred is planning on a reversal of the trend and a return to close to 1977 numbers in his 5 year business plan. He noted that returning staff make up 80% of the employees and he has had very positive support and input from local businesses.
A ski resort needs both a successful ski operation and real estate revenues to be successful and he plans on a good balance of the two. He has 2 partners in support and it sounded like Fred is expecting to have some fun reestablishing Baldy! A thorough, thoughtful presentation and we wish him all the best in bringing Baldy back.
Pres Judy recognized Marieze as returning School Board Chair and Brian announced he has a date of March 11 to donate one of his kidneys to a local recipient....the transplant process originally started with his volunteering a kidney to Judy Sloan and the matching process led to this date - well done Brian!
Reminders of upcoming events included the Board meeting on Jan 29th at McKia's at 4pm and the social hosted by Marieze on Jan 30th. Our program for next week is a speaker from the Cancer Society.
A good meeting!