Losing a Mountain Over a Molehill

How Park City Lost Control of its Ski Slopes by Missing a Lease Renewal

Failing to renew a lease on time is a scary but realistic situation that can cost commercial tenants their livelihood if they lose a business location. It happens to pizza shops, ice cream parlors — and even ski resorts.

You read that right.

As odd as it might sound, a big company leasing thousands of acres is vulnerable to the same “gotchas” that can trip up a mom-and-pop business.

Park City Mountain Resorts found that out the hard way in 2011 after it missed the deadline for renewing its lease on nearly 3,000 acres of ski slopes from Talisker Land Holdings. At the end of a blockbuster three-year legal battle, a judge ruled that the property would revert to Talisker.

The ruling sees Powdr Corp losing a sweetheart deal that had it paying only $150,000 in annual rent for the mountain. By comparison, Vail Resorts currently pays $25 million and a percentage of their revenue to lease the nearby Canyons ski area in Park City.

“I cut my commercial real estate teeth working in property management, and I’ve repeatedly seen how missing a small detail can derail a business,” said Steven Vogel, Senior Vice-President of Global Development at Construction Management & Development Inc. “Mistakes like that shouldn’t happen these days, because we have access to lease management technology that can help operators stay on top of key dates and critical clauses.”

At Leasecake, our easy-to-use app is designed to make lease management simple. The platform provides an intuitive organization and notification system that reduces risk, increases cash flow, and delivers information quickly to enable better decisions.

Want to learn more about how Leasecake simplifies commercial real estate lease management? Please request a demo, and we’ll show you what it’s all about.