Less than two years after the 11,000-acre resort was purchased by James C. Justice Companies, it is back on the market, with the sale including 129 acres of skiable terrain, 26 trails, two golf courses, 22 tennis courts and several dining options. “We feel Wintergreen is doing very well,” the resort’s General Manager said, “we just happen to be for sale.”
Wintergreen (Va.) Resort is up for sale less than two years after its purchase by James C. Justice Companies, the Lynchburg (Va.)-based Work It, Lynchburg reported.
The 11,000-acre, four-season resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains is listed in an advertisement by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., a Chicago-based international real estate sale and investment firm, and was made public Monday, Work It reported.
“The information I can provide [on the sale] is really pretty limited,” Hank Thiess, the resort’s General Manager, said. “What is available publicly is really what I have to share.
“We’ve just come off a good year and we’re in the midst of another successful year, and we feel Wintergreen is doing very well,” Thiess said. “We just happen to be for sale.”
The sale includes the entire property, facilities, and amenities, including the resort’s 129 acres of skiable terrain and 26 trails. The resort also includes two golf courses, 22 tennis courts and several dining options, such as The Edge restaurant, The Copper Mine Bistro, Devils Grill restaurant and lounge and the Stoney Creek Bar & Grill, Work It reported.
C&RB featured Wintergreen’s F&B program in November 2010 (“Making F&B Sing at Wintergreen Resort”); the online version of the article can be read at http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2010/11/01/making-food-beverage-sing-at-wintergreen-resort/
“A purchaser of Wintergreen will enjoy an operating resort generating significant cash flow, as well as the opportunity to further enhance returns with the development of hospitality and additional residential components,” according to the listing.
The resort was purchased for an estimated $16.5 million in June 2012 by James C. Justice Companies, which also owns The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and The Resort at Glade Springs, also in West Virginia. Since then, the company has injected millions of dollars into facilities and infrastructure improvements around Wintergreen, such as $6 million for a water storage tank to increase the resort’s snow-making capacity in 2012 and an $850,000 makeover to Devils Grill in 2013, Work It reported.
“There’s no rush or hurry to sell it,” James Justice, President and CEO of James C. Justice Companies, told The Associated Press. “If the right person comes along that I think is the right fit, yeah, I will sell it.”
The resort holds sentimental value for Justice because it’s one of the last places he played golf with his father, but he’s had no chance to visit. That, he said, is because of other demands, including The Greenbrier, his coal and other properties, his involvement in the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic, and coaching high school basketball, Work It reported.
“It’s like, what in the world, you own a business and you’re not even there?” Justice said. “You’re not really actively participating in the management and you’re really not enjoying your assets. I keep telling myself, I’m going to go, I’m going to go. And I just don’t make it there. It’s a heck of a property. But in my world, if it’s just being something that’s making great money, that’s not good enough for me. It needs to mean more to me.”
Justice sold a large portion of his coal and mining interests prior to buying the Greenbrier, according to Forbes Magazine. In September, Forbes estimated his worth at about $1.6 billion but noted his coal operations have struggled, as has the mining industry, Work It reported.
Wintergreen is one of the largest private employers in Nelson County, with about 300 year-round, full-time positions. When seasonal winter employees are included, the total approaches about 1,000 employees, Work It reported.
The resort’s employment has stayed fairly consistent during the past three years, Thiess said, and “we don’t see the sale process tainting our numbers at all.
The resort implemented a new membership system that went into effect December 1, 2013, in a move toward greater exclusivity, which “seems to translate very well into value,” Cindy Cobb, Wintergreen’s vice president of membership, said in an interview in May 2013.
Also starting in December, certain facilities—such as Devils Knob Golf Course and Tennis, Devils Grill restaurant and the Stoney Creek Pool, Tennis and Fitness Center—transitioned to being exclusively for members and resort guests, while other areas and services, such as Lake Monocan, are available to non-members and the general public only during designated times, Work It reported.
Wintergreen offered a limited number of memberships to non-property owners in 2013. At least two Wintergreen property owners contacted by the Nelson County Times on Tuesday afternoon said they were given no forewarning the resort was going up for sale.
About 1,300 detached, single-family homes are on the mountain. In the valley, there are about 780 lots overall with about 500 homes. The rest of the lots are undeveloped. There also are another 140 development rights on parcels not yet platted on the mountain, Work It reported.
No price was included in the listing by Jones Lang LaSalle. The listing states interested parties may execute a confidentiality agreement, available on the website, and return it to representatives from the agency “to obtain due diligence information about the opportunity.”
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