Greek Peak Press Conference 6/13/13

Rj1972 wrote

On a completely different note, I'm not sure how I feel about extending a deck over the creek from Orion's.  When do they think they will be using it? It seems that our seasons go from winter directly to summer, anymore.  Maybe the owners plans to boost the snowmaking on Iliad has something to do with extending the season.

WOW!! How I wish they where going to BOOST the snowmaking CAPACITY on Illiad. BUT the way I read it somewhere, this year they are only going to replace some sections of the main pipes lining Illiad that need maintemance from leaks or whatever. Although they won those 5 snowguns that won't increase pumping power. ALSO Camp says there are 3 wells over by the bridge going to the ski patrol building that can supply increased water & snowmaking capacity in the future - I hope he is right.

Yes, they began taking 1A down.  The chairs have been removed and the cable is dangling.

Found 2 pics on the net, of cable on 1a being removed:

I wonder what they plan on doing with 1A.  It has to have some value.

just found out, Big Al is still the real estate sales rep! What a joke. He is probably singlehandedly killing any deals out there.

Al might also be benefitting from commissions on the timeshare sales that were pending until the resort changed hands.  Say what you will about Al, but it would be in the owners interest to keep him around in some capacity.  He is the visionary and knows the place inside and out.

Oldies 101.5, wxhc will be doing interview with new owners Saturday 7/6 @9am. They will have it available on podcast later in  day I assume as per usual. They will be discussing the new developments, improvements, etc. Helps that Eric Mulvihill (reporter) and owner are avid skiers and will have lots of questions I assume. Looking forward to what they say.
Was out ther last weekend and the place looks pretty overgrown, no grass cutting being done much. Lots of kids at a birthday bash at Adventure Park though.
Maintenance had better get started soon though, buildings look really bad in the harsh light of day.

My daughter and I stopped at GP today on our way back from paddling the  Salmon River (and post Doug's FF).

The first two towers of 1A are on the ground. There was a big excavator at the base of the lift and it looked like maybe they used that to lower the towers after unbolting them.

Besides that no changes in evidence at the ski area.  I agree with snowshoe bunny - it looks pretty bad in the summer.  The road to Ch 5 was closed - not sure if it was bridge repair or what.

We rode the mountain coaster.  This was about the third time, and my 14 y.o. daughter - who was the one who wanted to ride it today - declared it boring and done. I have to agree, especially at $10 a ride - no discount for season passholders anymore.  I think they'd fill more cars with a different pricing structure, but what do I know...the place was pretty empty around 3ish in the afternoon.

Oh, and according to the big trail map at the main lodge, Castor Connection is open today.  

Billy, I agree whole heartedly regarding the $10 coaster rides. Their price points are all over the spectrum, and they haven't yet figured out that they are located in Virgil, NY--not suburban NYC or Philly.

What the new owners top priority should really be is to hire a sales and marketing director who has some proven experience. Becky is a nice lady, but that's about all. I have a strong feeling that part of the challenge is that GP does not pay very well, which means they will not attract national level talent. To drop $3M on improvements, and not have a PR person to jump on this, is a tragedy.  

They also still haven't learned that the place needs to be maintained year round. While not much occurs on the mountain during the summer, the Acropolis is used. Do the owners really think that Acropolis attendees (and potential winter customers) won't notice how shabby the place looks.

I would hardly call (with or without a new PR) investing 3 mil into the hill a tragedy. That part occurred by building a 40 to 50 mil dollar hotel and adventure center, one that everyone knew would fail, and completely taking your eye off the skiing ball.

It took 50 years to run the place into the ground---may take more than 5 months to bring er back

IMO: Well said Camp.

Every hardcore ski area homer has dreamed about how they would improve ops if they were in charge.

John and Marc are two guys who've skied Greek for decades and had those same thoughts. One difference between them and say... me... is that they have been really successful in business, so they can put their ideas in action.

They may not be PR pros, but from what they are tell us their primary goal is to up GP's game on the hill.

More soon.

I wholeheartedly agree it took 50 years to run GP into the ground. No telling how much maintenance didn't get done. The gas leak out there a few weeks back made me wonder...how many other infrastructure type lines were mislabeled, misplaced, and are just accidents waiting to happen. They had to evacuate a number of people in the condos until they could locate the leak.

I also agree $3M is no shabby number but these new owners had plenty of opportunity to check the place over before purchase and they had to know, or suspect, that some very heavy dollars would have to be spent up front, in short order, to convince people to come back until they could get some REAL money together for some REAL improvements on the mountain. They had to know their options would be limited as to who would lend them money, what vendors would no longer work for them based on past experience with Big Al...

Still, some paint and repairs to the buildings before November would go a long way until they can do the repairs we can't see. In the meantime, hills are looking very shaggy, buildings are looking very bad, road and parking lot (as usual) looking REAL bad. How long to they expect customers and homeowners to wait? The homeowners, in particular, pay some hefty HOA fees for what? Certainly would not convince me to buy out there. And they have a number of condos for sale and have had for some YEARS now.

Listened to that Radio interview. They mentioned that huge deck, off of Orion's Pub that will span the creek. Impressive was how they talked about massive rocks and timbers and that the bar will be open all year... Perhaps downhill mountain biking will finally come - could be increadibly popular.

Yes, Big D, I just finished listening to the re-broadcast of the interview as well, and noticed that comment about year round operations of Orions. I guess that explains the addition of the deck, as I had scratched my head wondering why they felt they needed a deck.  There will need to be a draw to attract people to Orions off-season, and mountain biking might just do that.

greek should look south to bear creek and and blue in pa - both have successful year round activities. blue certainly is a great example of shining sh!t as their lodge was as bad if not worse than greek's. it's amazing what a little fake stone and paint can do! this pic doesn't do blue's new slopeside pub justice but they do a decent weekend business.. mtb and disc golf are relativley low $ investments than bring a fair shair of people



 they reall need add a bit more of the terra cotta paint  color and get rid of the brillo pad carpets in orion's!

WHOA....Orions open year round?!?! That happens to be the easiest bar for me to get too
I dig it!

Form Cortland Standard today

"Cortland I-D-A Rejects Greek Peak Tax Break
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
The new owners of Greek Peak Ski resort in Virgil have asked the Cortland County Industrial Development agency for tax breaks in connection with their planned improvements to the resort, but withdrew the request due a lack of support from the board.

The new owners of Greek Peak John Meier and Marc Stemerman, who purchased the resort back in April for about $7 million dollars and announced in June that they planned to invest $4 million in a new chair lift and other upgrades has asked the I-D-A Board for a 15 year tax break worth $4.2 million dollars.
 
The proposal is based on the new owners continuing to invest in the resort over the term of the 15 year agreement, in addition to maintaining at least 75 jobs. Greek Peak employs over a thousand people during the winter months.
 
After considering the economic impact the resort has on Cortland County both in terms of jobs and tourism, the I-D-A board rejected the proposal.
 
According to I-D-A Director Gary VanGorder, the denial was based in part on the fact the Chemung County businessmen were able to acquire the resort with no financial assistance and have already moved forward with the planned improvements such as the new quad chair lift without taxpayer supported tax breaks.
 
The IDA has recently terminated previously approved payment in lieu of tax agreements for Greek Peak that were issued during the last expansion with included the $11 million dollar adventure park. The PILOTS were terminated due to a lack of payment under the previous management.
 
In addition, the Town of Virgil has already provided Greek Peak a significant tax break by reducing property assessments on the resort by $2.5 million.  That reduction amounts to an annual property tax break of more than $85,000 or $1.2 million over 15 years. Meanwhile the resort continues to receive Empire Zone benefits. This new proposed PILOT would provide benefits above and beyond those existing incentives.
 
VanGorder says while the I-D-A supports Greek Peak the owners have been vague and non-committal about their planned improvements beyond those that have been announced in addition there is no projected job creation associated with this recent request making it tough to justify the costs of this tax abatement."


I figured this was coming. Big Al burned a lot of people.

sorry, I meant oldies station wxhc not cortland standard.

It looks like there might have been a similar article in the Cortland Standard today, but their website does not provide access--only the headline of "Greek Peak withdraws tax proposal."

Rj1972 wrote

It looks like there might have been a similar article in the Cortland Standard today, but their website does not provide access--only the headline of "Greek Peak withdraws tax proposal."

There was, and it was a good one, too bad it can't be linked here.

One of the issues pointed out in the article is the number of jobs at GP. The IDA has always been lead to believe that GP has 300 full time jobs, when in fact, they only have 75....imagine that, the previous owner lying to get tax breaks and screw the tax payers of cortland county .

I know the the Cortland IDA Director, he's one good dude. They'll get something worked out, that you can take to the bank.