For the second time in two years, the ownership of Grouse Mountain Resort is changing hands.
Northland Properties Corporation, which owns hotels, the Revelstoke Mountain Resort, and a chain of diners, announced an agreement to buy the popular resort Thursday (January 2).
The resort was previously sold to a consortium that included China Minsheng Investment Group in July 2017 for a reported $200 million.
Northland Properties declined to disclose their purchase price.
The deal is expected to close at the end of January, according to Northland Properties chief marketing and digital officer Manoj Jasra.
In the short term, there may be investments in facilities and infrastructure such as trams, he said. However, the company is not about to erect new buildings on the mountaintop, he added.
“We don’t have immediate plans to say, build a hotel up there,” he said.
Noting the company owns 60 Denny’s restaurants in Canada, Jasra said he wasn’t sure “if Denny’s will show up at Grouse Mountain or not.”
Asked about the challenges of running a mountain resort amid increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, Jasra emphasized that Grouse is a year-round attraction.
“Although climate change is definitely upon the world immensely . . . we saw a great business investment,” he said.
Grouse Mountain Resort employees were informed of the change of ownership Thursday morning, according to the resort’s communications manager Julia Grant.
Northland CEO Tom Gaglardi, who is also the owner and governor of the Dallas Stars of the NHL, stated in a press release the company would “maintain and evolve the iconic Grouse Mountain experience.”
Northland Properties Corporation is owned by the Gaglardi Family with headquarters in Vancouver.
The company has not yet met with representatives from the District of North Vancouver, according to the municipality’s communications officer Courtenay Rannard.
“[We] look forward to doing so to better understand the long-term plans moving forward, as this is an important, local community mountain and landmark in North Vancouver,” Rannard wrote in an email.
Read the original story here.
