Hermitage club (Haystack) assesses members 10k

[Southside_Bobby]

Buy low, Peak Resorts.

[Mistergiff]

Buy low, Peak Resorts.

Maybe Killington can get its hands on that Doppelmeyer 6 pack bubble chair at the coming fire sale. It might look nice on Snowshed or Rams Head. One of the SkyTrac fixed grips would sure be more comfortable on North Ridge.

[DrJeff]

Buy low, Peak Resorts.

Doubt it... One of the main reasons back in the ASC Days that Haystack was sold off at a fire sale price was because the permitting associated with trying to connect the 2 mountains along the roughly 2 miles of ridge line separating them was going to be such a logistical nightmare between the US Forest Service, the state of VT and some local land owners that they basically just gave up on it. Now with all of the tax issues, and slew of random adjacent land development issues, some ACT 250 issues, etc. And that doesn't even get into the issues I'm sure there would be with members should the Hermitage go under.....

[Humpty Dumpty]

Buy low, Peak Resorts.

Doubt it... One of the main reasons back in the ASC Days that Haystack was sold off at a fire sale price was because the permitting associated with trying to connect the 2 mountains along the roughly 2 miles of ridge line separating them was going to be such a logistical nightmare between the US Forest Service, the state of VT and some local land owners that they basically just gave up on it. Now with all of the tax issues, and slew of random adjacent land development issues, some ACT 250 issues, etc. And that doesn't even get into the issues I'm sure there would be with members should the Hermitage go under.....

If I'm not mistaken, isn't that more like five miles peak to peak? I thought there used to be a sign at the ridge trail headwall off Sundance that stated as such. Don't know if it's still there. It's been a couple of years since I made that me. Great hike for those of you who have not done so. Butt your feet might get wet. Gets soggy up there. And bring weapons.

Lewis of Clark, out.

[Southside_Bobby]

Buy low, Peak Resorts.

Doubt it... One of the main reasons back in the ASC Days that Haystack was sold off at a fire sale price was because the permitting associated with trying to connect the 2 mountains along the roughly 2 miles of ridge line separating them was going to be such a logistical nightmare between the US Forest Service, the state of VT and some local land owners that they basically just gave up on it. Now with all of the tax issues, and slew of random adjacent land development issues, some ACT 250 issues, etc. And that doesn't even get into the issues I'm sure there would be with members should the Hermitage go under.....

Interesting. I was unaware that they were planning on connecting the two. They are pretty far apart.

I thought one of the other main reasons ASC dumped Haystack was because the infrastructure was in such bad shape.

But now, with all the new infrastructure, it would be a shame to see everything just get ripped out and sold off. If Peak could buy it back in a fire sale, they could run it like K runs Pico. Granted, we don't know if K would have kept Pico even this long if not for the prospect of the Interconnect. But they do benefit from marketing Pico's terrain as part of the same resort (sort of).
If they ran a shuttle from Carinthia to Haystack, it is less ground time than from K to Pico, and the additional terrain would boost their counts way up.
As for the current Hermitage members, they will make out better if this thing is sold as a resort than if it is liquidated.

[snoloco]

Seems weird that they still need 89k to keep the water running. If just 9 members pay the 10000 dollar fee they'd be fine. The problem is that they owe the money in taxes and are in debt on other things.

Seems like a long shot that Peaks would buy it if the club went under. The only way I see connecting it to Mount Snow possible is building a gondola between the points where they approach the closest, which would be about 8000 feet long going from the bottom of Sunbrook to midway down Ventura Highway on the Haystack side. That would probably cost about 10mil. And the current Hermitage members would likely need to be paid off in some way, but they would still be better off if it became open to the public and part of Mount Snow or as a smaller satellite mountain like Pico is to K than if it got liquidated.

No way anyone other than Peak Resorts buys it unless they buy Mount Snow as well. You don't buy a twice failed ski area close to a far bigger and superior competitor and expect it will ever make money. And I don't think anyone else would buy it with the intention of having it be a private club either because if it can't be profitable as it is now with a 80k initiation fee and 5k annual dues, it's just never going to be profitable.

[Big Bob]

The overhead sounds larger than what the yearly membership assessment will support. Raise the assessment or the place closes, similar to the Yellowstone Club out west. Wasn't this place started by a deep pocketed hedge fund guy?

[snoloco]

Problem is that with so few members they all have to support the massive overhead that comes with running a ski area. A place like Killington can sell thousands of season passes and then supplement that with even more day ticket revenue each day they're open, and still pockets even more revenue from the extras like food, parking, ski school, etc. Hermitage gets a one time initiation fee but with only a few hundred members their annual dues have to pay for everything, so even if they are way more than a typical season pass it's less revenue. You can't rely on new members for operating revenue because there are a very finite number of people willing to pay 80k for something like that. Eventually you run out of new members that are joining and you have to run the place based on revenue from annual dues which isn't enough and it all comes crashing down.

[DrJeff]

Buy low, Peak Resorts.

Doubt it... One of the main reasons back in the ASC Days that Haystack was sold off at a fire sale price was because the permitting associated with trying to connect the 2 mountains along the roughly 2 miles of ridge line separating them was going to be such a logistical nightmare between the US Forest Service, the state of VT and some local land owners that they basically just gave up on it. Now with all of the tax issues, and slew of random adjacent land development issues, some ACT 250 issues, etc. And that doesn't even get into the issues I'm sure there would be with members should the Hermitage go under.....

If I'm not mistaken, isn't that more like five miles peak to peak? I thought there used to be a sign at the ridge trail headwall off Sundance that stated as such. Don't know if it's still there. It's been a couple of years since I made that me. Great hike for those of you who have not done so. Butt your feet might get wet. Gets soggy up there. And bring weapons.

Lewis of Clark, out.

Along the Ridgeline from the basic summit of Mount Snow to the basic summit of Haystack, is only roughly 2 miles. And you are correct, in the non snow sports season the Ridge hiking/snowmobiling trail between the 2 peaks is very often a boggy, sloppy mess (I speak from experience that high top gore tex hiking boots often aren't tall enough to keep your feet dry in some places!!)

The original plans to link the 2 resorts had the straight line distance at about 8000 ft. As from the Mount Snow side the connection would be from the base of their Sunbrook/Bear Trap lifts and on the Hermitage side, the connection would be out on the corner of their most Northern trail (I honestly can't remember it's name as I've only skied it a few times back in the Haystack era days).

The simplest connection plan was 2 lifts and roughly a dozen trails. The topography of the terrain between the 2 would likely make for some nice moderate pitch mainly intermediate cruising trails with probably 700-800 vertical foot runs

[heiusa]

ILMINGTON — The Hermitage Club has a few days to make a payment owed for a bond or the company could lose the ability to expand due to water and sewer rights being pulled.

Kimberly Hicks, administrator at Cold Brook Fire District, said the Hermitage asked the Prudential Committee for a week to get the money together. The committee, which governs the fire district, held a meeting Saturday.

“We gave them until Friday at noon,” Hicks said.

The Hermitage runs a private ski resort at Haystack Mountain, a golf course, inns and restaurants. The sewer/water allocations, or rights, are important for building projects proposed by the company in its Act 250 master plan.

A lack of allocations would mean there’s no wastewater plan in place, Zoning Administrator Craig Ohlson said.

“I think everything would come to a screeching halt,” he said.

Cold Brook Fire District signed an agreement with the Hermitage to take out a $3.1 million loan from the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank on its behalf for improvements already completed. Upgrades were needed on Cold Brook’s water and sewer systems in order to move forward with plans at the Hermitage.

Under the agreement, Cold Brook does not make payments on the bond. The district enhances infrastructure based on development needs. Two payments from the Hermitage are due each year. In May, the bill was for about $49,000. The annual combined payment “balloons” to $320,000 in 2019, Hicks said.

The defaulted payment of $117,485 was Cold Brook’s responsibility to resolve.

“We’re trying to deter the precedent they’re trying to set,” she said. “The Prudential Committee decided that this was the way to go.”

Hicks said her group’s attorney advised that since Cold Brook had to use money from a reserve fund to make the payment for Hermitage, an agreement between the fire district and Hermitage has been defaulted. That would require payments to accelerate and could cause all remaining payments to be due as soon as possible.

Cold Brook is responsible should the Hermitage stop making bond payments. “We don’t want the Hermitage Club to fail,” Hicks said. “No one does. But we have a business to run as a municipality. We need to make sure they’re given every opportunity. I would say we have been very, very accommodating.”

As a municipality, Cold Brook has the right to hold tax sales. Hicks said future permits could not be secured without water and sewer allocations. She called the threat of taking allocations away “our biggest leverage.”

Right now, Cold Brook has enough money in a reserve fund to make payments.

“We couldn’t sustain it the way we would need to,” Hicks said. “The Vermont Municipal Bond Bank is a bank that gives these to municipalities, so they wouldn’t want us to fail.”

This summer, another bond proposal was shot down by voters in the district. Hicks said the plan involved borrowing $7 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture but there were concerns related to the company’s ability to make payments.

Issues with the Hermitage paying property taxes and contractors have been reported in the past. In October, the company announced it would be charging members a one-time $10,000 fee on top of regular dues to “provide some relief to several suppliers and vendors in town.”

Cold Brook also recently sent the Hermitage shutoff notices, which go out once two water and sewer payments are missed. The company must pay $89,289 by Jan. 3 to avoid having services shut off.

Hermitage properties in jeopardy of losing water and sewer operations include the Clubhouse at Haystack, a golf course and townhouses that were built but not yet sold. All fire suppression systems would also be powered down.

“We plan on keeping payments with our obligations including the CBFD,” said Jim Barnes, Hermitage founder and CEO.

[Mister Moose]

Berkshire Bank files for foreclosure on all the Hermitage properties, including Haystack.

Outstanding is 16.5 million to the bank, plus other creditors have filed 9.7 million in liens.

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[daytripper]

The state has shut it down now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/vtdigger.o ... taxes/amp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kpdemello]

Wow. When I first heard a Hermitage salesperson pitch this thing in their little storefront in Nantucket, with it's $75,000 buy in, I thought it was a risky venture. I raised the point that if the thing ever went under, you'd potentially lose your $75k buy in.

I did not, however, expect it to fail so spectacularly so quickly.

[Codensnow]

Wow. When I first heard a Hermitage salesperson pitch this thing in their little storefront in Nantucket, with it's $75,000 buy in, I thought it was a risky venture. I raised the point that if the thing ever went under, you'd potentially lose your $75k buy in.

I did not, however, expect it to fail so spectacularly so quickly.

$75,000? They told me $60,000. Wish I had taken them up on the free daytrip they offered me.

[Kpdemello]

Take a look at their web site - it's $85,000 now! With the added benefit of buying into bankruptcy...