AG says sale of lease at Mount Sunapee requires state approval

State officials released a statement Friday afternoon (June 15, 2018) about the ski area at Mount Sunapee State Park. Vail Resorts seeks to acquire the ski area lease and operations at Mount Sunapee.

“As a condition of the Vail transaction, the State lease [at Mount Sunapee] will need to be assigned. This assignment will require approval by the State,” according to New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald.

In a joint statement with Commissioner Sarah Stewart, Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources, the Attorney General said that the “details of the proposed transaction” have been sent to the Governor and Executive Council. (See below.)

Concerning this transaction, the Attorney General and Commissioner pointed to the importance of transparency and public involvement.

“Information concerning the transaction will be made available on the DNCR website page and there will be a public information session,” the statement said.

The news release did not provide details or a date for the public information session.

The proposed lease transfer and sale at Mount Sunapee
Contained in a letter from Attorney General MacDonald to the Governor and Executive Council is a schematic (shown here) of Vail’s post-acquisition operating structure as it pertains to the ski area at Mount Sunapee.

Vail Resorts announced (June 4, 2018) that Vail intended to acquire the ski area lease and operations at Mount Sunapee. The Mueller family announced that day that they had “made the decision to sell the operating lease of Mount Sunapee Resort to Vail Resorts, along with Okemo Mountain and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.”

The ski area at Mount Sunapee State Park now encompasses more than 1,100 acres of public land, managed by N.H. DNCR, Division of Parks and Recreation.

Currently, Och-Ziff is the leaseholder, and The Sunapee Difference dba Mount Sunapee Resort is the operator.

Read about the Sunapee Vail transaction
[box]The Mount Sunapee Advisory Committee will meet with DNCR Commissioner Sarah Stewart on Tuesday,  June 19, at the Newbury Town Offices. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.[/box]

(June 16, 2018: Additional information added to the original post)