The Bozeman Daily Chronicle has reported that CrossHarbor Capital, the owners of the Yellowstone Club, and Boyne Resorts, owners of Big Sky Resort, have partnered up to buy Moonlight Basin, which sits on the opposite side of Lone Peak from Big Sky and encompasses 1,900 skiable acres with a 4,166 vertical foot drop and 6 chairlifts. The buyers plan to combine the two ski areas into a single resort - one that would encompass 5,700 skiable acres serviced by 23 chairlifts. CrossHarbor and Boyne partnered up earlier this summer to buy a bankrupt Club at Spanish Peaks for $26 million, and seem intent on aligning their combined investments going forward.
Moonlight was formerly owned by Lehman Brothers, who bought the resort out of bankruptcy in January 2012 after it gave the mountain two multi-million dollar loans, one of which it demanded be repaid after the bank collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis. That itself plunged Moonlight into bankruptcy and forced the mountain to change strategies, from focusing on luxury real estate development to the on-mountain experience for success. Lehman bought the resort with the hope of finding another buyer, and the deal between CrossHarbor, Boyne, and the New York bank had been rumored as of this winter.
· CrossHarbor and Boyne partner to purchase Moonlight [Bozeman Daily Chronicle]