Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lee Canyon ski resort sold to Park City, Utah-based venture

The Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort has been purchased by a Utah company best known for hosting ski and snowboard events during last year's Winter Olympics.

Park City-based Powdr Corp. issued a statement late Monday saying it had bought the site, which had been owned by Russell Highfield.

Terms of the deal were unavailable.

Rumors that Highfield planned to sell the resort have been prevalent within the local ski community for more than 12 months, but Highfield told the Review-Journal earlier this year he was not aggressively shopping the resort. Talk of a sale resurfaced as this winter's sports season approached, but efforts to reach Highfield over the past few weeks were unsuccessful.

While Highfield's desire to sell was not a surprise, the identity of the resort's new owner was unexpected.

Earlier this year, Powdr Chief Financial Officer Rick DesVaux told the Review-Journal his company had been contacted by someone close to Highfield's company who asked about Powdr's potential interest in the Las Vegas-area resort. However, DesVaux said then the project was "not really an area we're interested in."

DesVaux and other Powdr representatives were said to be traveling Tuesday and were unavailable for comment. The company is privately held.

The Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort has operated at Lee Canyon, about 45 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas, since the mid-1960s. This year's season is scheduled to begin Thanksgiving Day.

In addition to its new Las Vegas-area resort, Powdr's stable of properties includes the Park City Mountain Resort used during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics; Mount Bachelor in Bend, Ore.; as well as the Alpine Meadows, Boreal and Soda Springs winter ski areas near Lake Tahoe.