Busy times at Blue Mountain as Skyline International eyes an expansion plan

December 28, 2012

Busy times at Blue Mountain as Skyline International eyes an expansion plan

Skyline is making its mark.

A lot of you probably don't know much about this company, but chances are you've heard of their (growing) lineup of resorts and hotels.

It was announced on Thursday that Skyline International has acquired a $20 million stake in Blue Mountain, the province's largest ski and golf resort. The company plans to double the size of the village at the base of the mountain over the next 10 years, with some 1,200 condos, townhouses and detached houses within walking distance of the ski hill. It also will add 20,000 square feet of retail space.

Skyline has been picking up properties all over southern Ontario in the past eight years. They also own Horseshoe Ski/Golf Resort and Deerhurst, plus three downtown Toronto hotels: the King Edward, the Pantages and the Cosmopolitan.

Apparently there have been plans for more ski runs at Blue but they haven't gotten off the drawing board, The Star's Susan Pigg reported in today's Business section.

"We don't have any say in what Blue Mountain does, but they have expansion capacity to the south of the (existing) hill," said Skyline CEO Michael Sneyd. "It's up to them but we'd love to see them expand."

Blue Mountain Development - half-owned by Fortress Investment Development, which bought Intrawest in 2006 - will continue to control mountain, commercial and condo rental operations, Pigg reported.

Sneyd apparently isn't content to have locked up so much of southern Ontario's resort biz, and he's said to be eyeing other hospitality holdings in Eastern and Western Canada.

Whatever their plans are for the rest of the country, the investment in Blue Mountain ought to mean good things for hotels, inns and restaurants in and around Collingwood. And that's positive news.

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The deal includes:

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One $25 Milestone dinner voucher
2 48-hr WEGO Shuttle Passes
2 Drink tickets
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Offer Details

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Posted by Jim Byers at 08:46:34 AM in Bargains, canada, Current Affairs, Food and Drink, golf, hotels, ontario, Skiing, Southern Ontario getaways, toronto, tourism, Travel

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Travel Blog by Jim Byers

Jim Byers is the Star's Travel Editor. He has been writing travel stories for more than a decade, covered five Olympic Games and spent years covering the Blue Jays, the Toronto Raptors and the PGA Tour. He's been everywhere from Bonavista to Vancouver Island, as well as China, Hong Kong, Australia, the Caribbean, Thailand, Mexico, Tahiti, New Zealand, Vietnam, a dozen countries in Europe and just about every major city in the U.S. Okay, he was only in Liechtenstein for a couple hours in a rental car and his only visit to New Orleans was when he was 12, but you get the picture.

December 28, 2012