gone overboard in his quest to show that Black “is back and better than ever.” He smiles as he says, “The problem with tak- ing things apart is you’ve got to put them back together.” Perhaps, but his hands- on approach gave Mogensen invaluable experience on the daily ops frontlines, in capital spending, and in crafting a sustain- able P&L and ownership model. Three tiers of ownership. After 18 months of experience and research— and a big assist from his Colorado-based Entabeni staff, some of whom slept in their high-tech camper vans in the Black Mountain parking lot for this special proj- ect—Mogensen unveiled his new planned ownership model in early November. When the transition is completed in the spring, Black will offer three classes of ownership. The 15 Class A members will invest $250,000 each; 100 support- ers will join in with Class B shares at $25,000; and 2,000 Class C $5,000 shares will be sold (the Class C is similar to the co-op model of Mad River Glen, Vt.). All 15 Class A investors will get a seat on the 21-member board of trustees; there will be four trustees from Class B, and two from Class C.
After many years of uncertainty, Burke Mountain in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is poised to thrive under new owner Bear Den Partners, which plans to invest $30 million in capital improvements.
believes that in the next decade or two several dozen of the nation’s small ski areas will face similar threats to those that nearly shuttered Black, so finding the right ownership model is critical. Developing an ownership model that can apply to other areas has been Mogensen’s goal at Black, and his model is scalable without losing local input.
ing a brief ownership in the early 2000s). An ownership share and the manage- ment oversight went to Jon Schaefer and his family, owners of Berkshire East and Catamount in Massachusetts. Schaefer hired veteran Tom Day, who helped steer Waterville Valley, N.H., through four owners and revived county-owned Gun- stock, N.H., to serve as interim GM; in November, longtime Schaefer colleague Gabe Porter-Henry was named as GM. The new game plan has all the basic components for a turnaround: better data, better systems, better on-snow product, better (and actual) investments. When the racers who matriculated at Burke climb into the starting gate at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, led by Mikaela Shiffrin (class of 2014), any viewer who Googles Burke will read about an ascending resort that’s less than a three-hour drive from Boston or Mon- treal, a market with a combined popula- tion of 8.6 million.
TIER
NO. OF SHARES
COST PER
BOARD SEATS
SHARE
Burke Mountain: New Money and Managers
Class A Class B
15
$250,000 $25,000
15
100
4
In Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Burke Mountain is a solid gold pipeline to the U.S. Ski Team and the Olympics, but it’s usually been a DNF on the bottom line. Its “new-old” owners spent $11.5 million to buy the resort out of receivership and have pledged to spend $30 million in capital improvements. For its first season, Burke doubled its snowmaking, joined the Indy Pass (the extra 5-15 percent of business it brings to small- and medium-sized operations can make the difference between a good and marginal season), and restored its old bear logo. It also hired a Vail Resorts lodg- ing veteran to run its signature hotel. The liberator is Bear Den Partners LLC, a coalition of the Burke Mountain Academy and the Ken Graham family (Graham co-founded and chairs Graham Inverness, the Philadelphia-based pri- vate investment firm, and has long ties to the academy and the ski area, includ-
Class C 2 Black Mountain ownership share distribution. 2,000 $5,000 The higher-priced shares are almost fully subscribed, Mogensen says, and he anticipates selling out all three classes quickly. A looming issue: Can a 21-mem- ber board make the dynamic decisions necessary to compete? Math-inclined readers will note that the shares should raise $16.25 mil- lion. The extra cash above his initial $7.5 million investment will fuel capi- tal improvements needed to keep Black competitive and sustainable into the future—an “endowment,” as Mogensen terms it. Challenges and opportunities. Mogensen knows the odds are stacked against the little guys, from buying insurance to acquiring groomers and lifts designed (and priced) for the Stowes and Steamboats of the world. Mogensen
Kissing Bridge: Tech Guru Leads Revival
Outside Buffalo, West Coast surfer and ocean-lover Rhett McNulty is settling into his new role as the owner-manag- er-savior of the once-derelict Kissing Bridge (KB). The bearded forty-some- thing entrepreneur already spends many nights sleeping on a cot in his office. That’s a far cry from a tech career that
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