A Boston investment firm has completed its purchase of Saddleback Mountain ski resort and said it intends to reopen the mountain at the end of this year.
Arctaris Impact Fund completed the reported $6.5 million sale from the Berry family on Friday afternoon, said Andy Shepard, principal at Harraseeket Consulting Group and the resort’s future general manager.
The new owners “will immediately shift our focus to getting ready to reopen the mountain at the end of 2020,” Shepard said in an email.
Saddleback, in Franklin County, is Maine’s third-largest ski mountain, and has been closed since 2015. Prospective buyers have come forward since, but no sale had materialized until now.
On Monday, the company secured a $2.5 million insurance package for a $12.5 million loan from the Finance Authority of Maine that will go toward making upgrades to the resort. The company also has received a $1 million loan from the Maine Rural Development Authority.
When news of the impending sale was announced last fall, residents of Rangeley, a resort town near the ski area, expressed hope the deal would serve as an economic engine to bring new jobs and investment to the rural area. Arctaris plans to invest $38 million into the mountain.
Shepard has previously said that upgrades will include the replacement of an old chairlift with a high-speed quad chair that will reduce waiting lines; installation of a new T-bar; a new kitchen and bathrooms in the lodge; expanded daycare and retail space; and new equipment to increase snowmaking capacity. The company also plans to hire 200 to 240 full- and part-time employees.
A call to Shepard seeking additional details of the deal was not returned Friday night.
At an elevation of 4,120 feet, Saddleback is Maine’s eighth-highest mountain. It offers 2,000 vertical feet of skiing and some of the toughest expert terrain in the East, according to the previous owners of the ski resort. At its peak, Saddleback boasted more than 110,000 annual skier visits and was the county’s largest employer.
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