Sheraton Steamboat sale is now official

This confirms my post last week that the Sheraton Steamboat sale had closed. The Steamboat Pilot published a front page story by Matt Stensland with official confirmation that the deal has closed and Starwood is the new owner. The final price was $57m for the hotel and the golf course, a number that is about $5-7m below it's value because of how the deal was handled.

I see the completion of the sale as good news because it brings the new owners to the table and it will help the base area improvements progress.

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Memorial Day Weekend

We just had one of the nicest Memorial Day Weekends in Steamboat I can remember. It was gorgeous all weekend but there were enough different folds in the sky to keep us guessing and only a couple of brief showers. We got the traditional snow shower out of the way last week with 6 inches up top one night.

I had the somewhat rare luxury of a solid weekend with my wife and kids along with a couple of mountain bike rides, some passes water-skiing at the lake I am a member of at the edge of town and dinner with friends two nights. I hope that you had a great weekend wherever you were and can make it out to Steamboat soon. It's beautiful here and the biking has been great. Back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page for more.

Steamboat Sheraton was sold to Starwood

I heard this from credible sources a month or two ago but it is now a done deal. I understand they will make an official announcement soon but they could take their time to put a good story together. It is good to see this wrapping up. The firm that handled this deal was a little to proud of themselves, sometimes bumbling (I am being careful here to comment not on my own experience with them but on more than enough anecdotes from others) and often appeared to be operating in ways that did not optimize value. This resulted in a longer process than it needed to be and lower values realized for their clients than could have otherwise been unlocked. Now that they are out of the way things can proceed and a wonderful new village can come out of the legacy of neglect that the previous owners left behind. They had plenty of cash but preferred to let things deteriorate. Steamboat will be much better off without them.

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Icing on the Mountain

Every once and a while the people behind the Curse of the Yampa Valley like to remind us that winter will be back and it is never to soon to start thinking about it :) We have been having nearly perfect spring weather the last few weeks and it was time for a little precipitation to keep things green.

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Lots of plans this summer

My 4 year old son Alden just told me "Daddy I have lots of plans for us this summer". He went on to tell me that we will be riding our bike, hiking with our dog Woody, playing with trucks, going to the water-ski lake, working at our "brand new house" (which is old) and watching ski movies to get ready to ski when it is winter again. Kids are priceless..

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