Timeline of Okemo Lease Transfers at Mount Sunapee

Welsh Centennial Celebration

2011 marks 100 years of land conservation on Mount Sunapee. Help us celebrate this important milestone!

See Latest News* for Centennial activities.
Read the Centennial's statement of purpose.
Learn about 100 years of land conservation on Mount Sunapee.

* July 21, 2011 - The Sunapee Historical Society hosts "The Life & Times of Herbert Welsh," a cracker barrel talk.

* August 27, 2011 - A guided hike to Lake Solitude followed by a BBQ, music, and camping at Mount Sunapee State Park.

About FOMS Quicklinks

Comments from Members

- Keep up the good work. Respect the action of those who gave up land under policy of eminent domain. . .

- Educate the children while they are young - encourage hikes, work days, etc.

- Stay focused on primary goal of protecting our park.

- It is so important to keep access to the State Park affordable to local people. This is not happening. Mount Sunapee for the affluent is in no one's interest.

- Keep the Mt. Sunapee buffer zone intact. Discourage development that mars our mountain sides (and tops). Encourage zoning that makes best conservation use of land - leaving corridors open.

- The low-intensity recreation (e.g. hiking) and ecological protection should take precedence over ski area development and management, at Mt. Sunapee State Park and elsewhere, and you provide effective advocacy f or that good.

- Get back N.H. Seniors’ rights to free skiing at Mt. Sunapee. We are the landlords not the tenants.

- Work to safeguard protected public lands from environmentally damaging uses, commercialization and privatization.

Timeline of Okemo Lease Transfers at Mount Sunapee

Friday, 13 November 2009 12:47

In the years since the signing of the lease agreement between the State of New Hampshire and Okemo, monitoring the legal ownership of the lease for the ski area inside Mount Sunapee State Park has become steadily more complicated.

Yet, ownership of the lease is crucially important to understanding how the resulting activities--commercial resort operations and development--impact our park's treasured natural, cultural, recreational, and historical resources.

The first and very controversial signing of the lease by the Okemo Mountain (VT) operators Tim & Diane Mueller in 1998 has been followed by lesser known or understood lease transfers from Okemo to various sub-entities owned in part by Okemo. Then, most recently in December 2008, Okemo sold the lease to an entirely new owner, CNL Resort Lifestyle Properties.

What follows is a timeline of the lease transfers with some brief analysis.

July 1, 1998: Initial lease term between Okemo Mountain, Inc. and State of NH begins. Lease includes language allowing lease transfers, "The Operator may assign, or otherwise transfer any interest in this Agreement with the prior written approval of the State. Services required under this Agreement may be delegated or subcontracted by the Operator with the prior written approval of the State. Such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld by the State.

July 1998: Okemo Mountain, Inc. assigns a collateral interest to BankBoston to secure financing for projects at Mount Sunapee and other Okemo properties. Lease mortgaged.

April 1999: Okemo assigns full interest to a new NH-based entity, Sunapee Difference LLC. Okemo states that this is done for tax and branding purposes.

November 2001: Sunapee Difference LLC assigns a collateral interest to KeyBank of Ohio to secure a $30 million mortgage loan to finance development at Okemo Mountain and further improvements at Mount Sunapee.

March 2002: Newly-formed Triple Peaks LLC (TPLLC) acquires Sunapee Difference LLC as subsidiary. No lease transfer recorded, though the parent company TPLLC now owns the lease.

March 2004: TPLLC (through its sub-entity Sunapee Difference LLC) assigns a collateral interest to KeyBank of Ohio to secure an undisclosed refinancing related to TPLLC's acquisition of Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado.

December 2008: TPLLC sells the lease and all hard assets to CNL Lifestyle Properties (CNL), a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) based in Florida.

Last Updated on Friday, 13 November 2009 13:11

Sign Up for Email Updates

Want regular updates from Friends of Mount Sunapee?

Join our email newsletters using the form below!

We hate spam and know you do, too. That's why we'll never sell or share your address.

You can unsubscribe anytime you want using the link sent in every email. You'll also need to confirm your address in a minute by clicking a link in an email sent to you as soon as your click "subscribe" above.