Bear Creek PA Improvements 07/08

This is from the GM at BC - Not my place to announce it, but since the news has been out over 2 weeks. I thought I might spread the word.


Time to break the silence.

Here are the improvements for this year:
1) Separating lower Black Bear from Lower Kodiak to allow more features to be put in that area and eliminate cross traffic
2) Adding an additional pump house with another 4000 gpm capacity, doubling our total pumping capacity to 8000 gpm
3) Doubling the size of the upper pond to accommodate storage requirements for doubled pumping capacity
4) Addition of 20 new automated fan guns
5) Permanent separation between the tubing park and the terrain park set up in the tubing area
6) Additional lighting in the tubing park area of the terrain park
7) New 64 room hotel, spa, outdoor pool and a new bar and grill
8) Dedicated park patrol to educate users on proper use and direct users to parks appropriate for their skill level
9) Increased park crew size with the goal of keeping all our features pristine and enable more frequent changes in the park
10) New Pisten Bully groomer, allowing 2 cats to be dedicated to the park each night

Now, to dispel some myths and confirm some rumors. Yes, the doubled pumping capacity will allow us to run all 120 guns at one time down to a wet-bulb of 23F. This will translate into the ability to open with more terrain and deeper base depths, earlier creation of larger features and faster recover from warm spells.

As for pass prices, we did increase pass prices by roughly 10%, adding roughly ½ day to the break-even point.
The hotel has no bearing on the price increases, nor does the weather the previous year. The fact that petroleum prices have gone through the roof over the last 18 months is the largest contributor to the need to increase prices. Petroleum price increases impact almost every expense we have, whether directly in fuel charges or indirectly through supplier price increases to offset production and transport charges.

Our electric provider also received the green light to increase their tariff this year, driven by rising production costs, which translates into a 10% to 12% increase in our largest non-payroll expense.

The only confirmed improvement for 2008-2009 is the replacement of A-Lift (the double). The lift to replace A-Lift has not been specified as of yet, but we will be finishing the needs analysis, placement and function of that lift in the next two months and ordering the lift for install in April/May 2008.

I don't want rumors to start flying around, so what follows is just an effort to gauge interest.

When I was in TX last year I stopped in at a place called the Texas Ski Ranch. They have a cable tow wakeboard park that looked like a good fit for our market. With the expanded pond, it might be feasible to put something like that in at Bear Creek.
Here are a few sites if anyone is interested, texasskiranch.com and cablewakeboard.com

We have to do a lot more research to determine what the potential revenue and return on investment would be. In addition, we have to assess the impact on other summer revenue streams and determine what potential conflicts we might have with events like weddings and corporate retreats.

So in a very informal market study, would something like that interest anyone?