Intrawest Crosses The Border (08-Feb-11)

In a significant step away from its roots, Intrawest...

In a significant step away from its roots, Intrawest, the company established, grown-in and based from Vancouver, Canada for 35 years, has announced it will be moving its headquarters to the Denver area of Colorado, USA by the end of this year.

"The relocation consolidates the strategic, corporate, and financial functions in one location and brings senior management closer to Intrawest's core business assets," says a company statement.

Intrawest grew inexorably for more than 30 years from a small local property company to own or run more than a dozen international resorts including Whistler, Tremblant and Arc 1950 and a new sector of Flaine in France, it even ran an indoor snow centre in Madrid, Spain. At one point it was the largest ski resort operator in North America and one of the world’s largest. It epitomised the success of building state-of-the-art base villages at the bottom of international ski areas.

In 2006 the company was sold to a US hedge fund for $2.8 billion and the company has been selling resorts in recent years including European operations, Panorama in British Columbia, Mountain Creek in New Jersey and Copper Mountain in Colorado.

Intrawest still owns Stratton in Vermont, Blue Mountain in Ontario, Tremblant in Quebec while in Colorado it owns Steamboat and operates Winter Park, which is still owned by the city of Denver.

America’ largest ski resort operating company, Vail Resorts, which owns six ski areas in Colorado and California is also headquartered in Colorado.

www.intrawest.com