Fight The Man, Own a Piece of Red

[geargrrl]

I tried to convice DH to go for the $1000 minimum.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...an-ski-resort-leads-crowdfunding-to-snub-vail

 

[Jilly]

If I lived closer, I would!!

 

[marzNC]

I tried to convice DH to go for the $1000 minimum.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...an-ski-resort-leads-crowdfunding-to-snub-vail

The article seems to be about the Canadian campaign. But it looks like the U.S. campaign got started in late October. The FAQ is pretty comprehensive.

https://www.startengine.com/red-mountain-resort



Red Mountain started the process of testing the waters to see how much interest there could be back in August 2016. Was mentioned in a blog post in Feb 2017 by the CEO of Red that was a reaction to the purchase of Stowe by Vail Corp.

 

[marzNC]

Check out this link for all the info about "Fight the Man. Own the Mountain." for Red Mountain. The investment window closes on Dec. 1, 2017. Open to Americans, Canadians, as well as investors outside North America in Australia and other countries. I know Red is a popular destination resort for Aussies who spend 2-4 weeks skiing in N. American during their summer vacation.

https://www.redresort.com/ownthemountain/

 

[marzNC]

This video was post in Feb after the Phase 1 Reservations had reached $9 million of the $10 million goal. In Phase 1, nothing was binding. The idea was to see if moving forward was going to make sense. Given the solid response, Phase 2 started some time in 2017.

 

[newboots]

Their campaign set a fund-raising record. People flocked to the chance to Fight the Man!

 

[kiki]

Very cool. Glad to see the investment and diversification.

 

[marzNC]

Had a good time listening to the Q&A with Howard Katkov, Red Mountain CEO, about how the investment program works. Was a webinar on Sept. 27 after the Canada was open, about a month before the U.S. opened. They also hope to allow Australians and New Zealanders use the U.S. based website to invest. They chose which countries to focus on based on the number of Reservations from each country.

At Minute 42, Howard answered a question about future expansion plans. There are plenty of them. All based on the idea of keeping Rossland in mind, and keeping the place family-friendly and great for a mixed-ability group from absolute novice to expert who are happy to hike a bit to earn their turns.

https://www.redresort.com/news/join-ceo-howard-katkov-live-online-qa-session/

They also pulled out specific Q&A into separate videos:
https://www.redresort.com/ownthemountain/live-webinar/

 

[marzNC]

Learned a lot about Howard Katkov from an interview he did on Oct. 29, 2017. I like this man. Pretty clear that making Red successful and sustainable is a passion, not just a business move. He's over 65, but plans to stay on as CEO for at least another five years. He is a Californian who is shuttling between CA and Rossland, was a surfer who didn't pay attention to academics in high school, started skiing at Mammoth when he was 16 but really got into skiing at Mt. Rose while in college, has a J.D., has been married 40 years, and has four kids who grew up taking ski vacations to destination resorts before they settled at Red as their favorite ski area. A ski buddy told him about Red. He bought land and started building a house in 2000 even before he skied at Red. He’s held leadership positions in more than one successful business ventures in the last 35 years. He built a successful cosmetic company that was sold to The Estée Lauder Companies in 1997. Then he stayed on for a few years after the sale. The purchase of Red took a few years to come together and finally happened in 2004. Howard was in charge of operations for a while.

The current President and GM of Red Mountain, Don Thompson, is a Canadian who worked at Snowmass, Keystone, and Copper before moving to Rossland. That means he has first hand knowledge of Vail and Intrawest business strategies. He was part of the original partnership that bought Red in 2004. Don was the VP of Planning for the partnership for a while before moving into an operations role in 2012. To me, that probably means Don knows what he doesn’t want to see at Red based on what’s become standard at destination reports that have been built by Vail and Intrawest.

 

[marzNC]

Over $C1 million from about 450 Canadian investors, plus almost $300,000 from 116 Americans as of Nov. 6, 2017. The Canadian investment website opened in August. The American website opened in late October. The first target is $1.5 million.

There are a lot of documents on the Canadian investment website, FrontFundr. For Americans and a few other countries, StartEngine is being used. Turns out residents of a few U.S. states cannot invest. Working on paperwork for a couple. Definitely a completely different process than a Kickstarter or Indiegogo crowdfunding project.

https://www.frontfundr.com/Company/redmountainresort

 

[marzNC]

Red Mountain has passed the $1 million mark for investments based on the amount of money in escrow brought in via the Canadian and U.S. OPO investment websites. Putting on another push for the second half of November. The goal is to reach $1.5 million by Dec. 1, 2017. That's the amount that will allow Red to commit to the capital improvements such as the cabins for which owners will get priority reservations and the small owner lodge (and their guests). The ultimate goal that's approved in the paperwork is $10 million. Regardless of the amount raised, the idea is to close this campaign before the end of the 2017-18 ski season.

16Nov2017 article in Pique, an online news outlet based in Whistler
Is Red Mountain an alternative to the ski industry's growing corporatization?

 

[marzNC]

With about a week to go to the first deadline date of Dec. 1, 2017, about 800 people have invested ($500K from 600 Canadians, $500K from 200 Americans/Australians).

The Offering Memo on the Canadian investment website includes the cost of future developments envisioned for Red. Also found it interesting that the CFO not only has worked in the BC ski industry for a while, he was a ski patrol Director at one point. Hadn't noticed that before.

 

[marzNC]

I tried to convice DH to go for the $1000 minimum.

You have a few more months to convince him.

The CDN $1.5 million minimum was met, with quite a few new investors in the last 24 hours. Excerpts below from the Update letter posted on FrontFundr. Just over 700 Canadians and 300 Americans/Australians invested. Canadians account for almost half of the total. There will be "rolling closings" until April 2, 2018, or until the maximum of $8 million is reached. Next closing date is in 33 days. Investors will be able to get their season passes or lift tickets to use as soon as opening day, which is expected next weekend. Howard Katkov signed it "Lifelong Skier, CEO, and Fly in “The Man’s” Soup."

 

[marzNC]

An organization that has been following the Red Mountain OPO closely is the Mountain Rider Alliance. Howard Katkov was interviewed by MRA twice in 2016 during Phase I before any real money was changing hands. The latest interview was done on Nov. 23, 2017. At that time there was about $1.2 million in the bank from the first stage of Phase II. I found the second half of the interview very interesting because Howard talked about the actual process, told a story of a man from MA who wanted to invest, and made it clear that he understands the importance of following thru in the coming years and decades to make the new owners happy in the short run and long term.

https://www.mrablog.com/ever-wanted-piece-ski-area-interview-red-mountains-howard-katkov/

 

[marzNC]

About a week left to invest under the current OPO in the U.S. and the equivalent in Canada. Final Closing Date is April 2, 2018. Almost 700 people have invested more than $2 million.

 

[marzNC]

The Red Mountain OPO is done. The last closing date was April 2, 2018. Since the summer of 2017, just under 750 people bought non-voting shares for a total of just over CAD$ 2.5 million, well over the goal. Presumably this number reflects people who finished the entire investment process and actually provided some money. Early numbers included people who started the process, but hadn't completed it yet. The latest update letter dated April 13 included final numbers. Looks like almost half of the investors were Americans who provided $1 million. The rest of the money came from Canadians and a few countries outside N. America.

Between the buzz over the OPO and the good winter weather, Red reached a high for skier/boarder visits during the 2017-18 season. Early investors who made a commitment before by mid-season could use their lift ticket or season pass perks this season.