Vail Resorts closes on acquisition of Seven Springs, Hidden Valley and Laurel Mountain ski areas
Summary
“These great ski areas in Pennsylvania are a perfect complement to our existing resorts, creating a much stronger connection and compelling offering to our current and future guests in Pittsburgh as well as those in other critical markets such as Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Cleveland.” Seven Springs is 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and is among the largest ski resorts in Pennsylvania, with 285 skiable acres and 750 vertical feet. From 2006 to the present, Seven Springs nearly doubled the number of personnel during winter operations — from approximately 900 to more than 1,700, the resort announced in a news release Wednesday. “The renewed focus on year-round programming helped to drive an equally dramatic climb in employment levels during the summer months, when the number of employees went from approximately 600 to more than 1,000,” according to the release. Robert Nutting announced that the company had purchased Swift — which owns newspapers in the ski areas of Aspen, Steamboat, Summit County, Park City and Lake Tahoe, as well as Vail — on Nov. 30. Vail Resorts began the month of August with $1.2 billion cash on hand, Chief Financial Officer Michael Barkin told investors in a fall 2021 earnings call.