A Boston investment company offers to buy Saddleback

A Boston-based investment firm made an offer to buy Saddleback Mountain, pledging to invest between $ 25 and $ 30 million after the sale to help revive the four-year-old Rangeley ski resort.

Some details of the Arctaris Impact Fund's offer to the Berry family, who owns the property, were released this week via e-mail to condo owners in Saddleback. The email was sent by Andy Shepard, CEO of Outdoor Sports Institute, and Tom Federle, a Portland lawyer, who worked with Arctaris to try to buy the ski area.

At the time of its opening, Saddleback was the third ski resort in the state, attracting thousands of tourists each winter and providing hundreds of local jobs.

Shepard has not confirmed the conditions of Arctaris, but only that the $ 500 million investment group is interested in buying the ski mountain and can afford it. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

"Tom Federle and I have been quietly trying to find a buyer for the mountain for four years and came into contact with Arctaris last fall. We were very impressed by their commitment and their ability not only to buy the mountain, but also to do it with a long-term goal, "said Friday Shepard, former CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center. "Arctaris is the real deal and I hope the Berry family and the people of western Maine can reach an agreement."

Federle owns a condo in Saddleback. Shepard said his interest in the agreement was to "preserve one of Maine's most notable ski mountains and its role in the economy of the region, an interest shared by Tom".

Saddleback, owned by Irene and Bill Berry of Farmington, has been on the market since July 2015. The Ski Mountain – one of Maine's largest mountains with an elevation of 4,120 feet – is no longer open since the 2014-2015 season.

Arctaris is an investment company that works with banks, foundations and economic development agencies to revitalize communities. He expressed his interest in buying the property last summer, but said that at the time, an agreement was based on obtaining state approval for certain tax breaks proposed in the bill. framework of newly designated development areas. But former Gov. Paul LePage, who had the authority to designate census tracts that could be included in the taxation program, refused to include any community in Franklin County and Arctaris withdrew his interest.

Jonathan Tower, the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of the Arctaris Impact Fund, did not respond to calls for comment.

Mark and Faith Berry, children of Bill and Irene Berry, could not be reached for comment.

The email from Arctaris to Shepard and Federle was released on Tuesday to the Rock Pond Condo owners, who have homes on Saddleback Mountain, to show Arctaris' desire to buy Saddleback. The Portland Press Herald has obtained a copy of the email. It included a section of Tower, which explained the offer and the process it was hoping to follow to complete the deal.

Tower's insurances in the thread include:

• The fund has the ability to close the transaction and would use its own capital to finance the purchase. It does not need any funding through the New Market Credit Program or the Opportunity Zone Tax Programs.

• It is expected that the transaction will be closed within 120 days, although the date of the offer is not clear in the email.

• Not-for-profit organizations and the community at large provide significant support to help fund improvements to the chairlift system.

Tower also notes that the resort's long closure, upgrade costs and uncertainty surrounding future real estate sales will compromise the fund's return on investment.

"Despite the significant challenges Saddleback has faced, Arctaris believes there is a way to reopen Saddleback, which includes combining our capital with the philanthropic contributions of the Rangeley community," said Tower. "For scale, we are planning a $ 25 to $ 30 million medium-term investment plan that would include a philanthropic component of $ 3 to $ 5 million. … Arctaris is uniquely positioned to lead this type of bold initiative that will help stabilize the Rangeley community by bringing local businesses, jobs and real estate values ​​back. "

DEPANNE

Luke Labbe, owner of the Rock Pond Condo Association in Saddleback, said the mail sent to condominium owners was the second time that Arctaris included owners of the condominium association in sales discussions. He therefore thinks that they are serious about becoming new owners.

"They are interested and have recently included condominium owners in discussions to help influence a sale with Mark Berry," Labbe said Tuesday in an email. "It would be a huge energy and enthusiasm not only for the Rangeley area, but also for the skiers of the great state of Maine and the country, quite frankly, who call Saddleback their ski mountain."

Saddleback offers 2,000 feet of skiing and some of the toughest terrain of Eastern experts. It also offers significant employment opportunities in Franklin County, as the county's third largest employer, with no less than 350 employees in winter.

The Berrys have announced that they were in a buy and sell agreement to sell the Saddleback ski area in June 2017 to the Australian developer Majella Group, but this has never happened. And his CEO, Sebastian Monsour, who had promised to become "the first ski resort in North America," was later arrested in Australia for fraud after allegedly using $ 5 million from a Chinese developer.

In October 2016, the Saddleback Mountain Foundation, a group of newly established companies in Rangeley and holders of a seasonal passport for Saddleback, announced the conclusion of a verbal agreement with the Berry family for the 39 purchase of the ski area and surrounding land – purchase of the main ski area. for $ 6 million. In the same agreement, the Trust for Public Land and the New England Forestry Foundation announced an agreement with the Berrys to purchase an additional 3,249 acres around the ski area to retain them as protected lands, although the sale price has not yet been determined.

In both cases, a purchase and sale contract has never been signed.

Editor-in-Chief Deirdre Fleming can be reached at 791-6452 or at: [email protected]

Twitter: FlemingPph

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