A Resort is Re-Born

ESI leads the renaissance of Snowshoe Mountain

Rimfire Lodge
Snowshoe, West Virginia

Intrawest Corporation, the world's largest developer of mountain resorts, learned of ESI in November 1997. Intrawest had recently purchased Snowshoe, a 25-year-old ski resort in the mountains of West Virginia. The company planned to pre-sell Rimfire Lodge, a ski-in/ski-out condominium located at the top of the mountain.

Several key challenges existed in introducing the new product to the marketplace. Soon after its acquisition of Snowshoe, Intrawest introduced a townhome product for sale that was unsuccessful. Only two sales were made. Prior to this, there hadn't been new development at Snowshoe in more than 10 years. ESI's management team was hired to oversee the launch of Rimfire Lodge, which would carry a price tag that was three times higher than the average price per square foot of existing resale inventory - which was in abundance. The resort had been through several owners in past years and unfulfilled promises by the previous developers caused an aura of skepticism among property owners and potential customers.

Intrawest had developed an elaborate vision for the renaissance of Snowshoe, with plans to transform the stale ski mountain into a four-season destination resort. The center of the plan called for a commercial village and resort core. Rimfire Lodge, a 142-unit condominium-hotel, would be the first product offered in the village and the successful launch of this product would be the key to turning the new vision for Snowshoe into a reality. Once again, industry analysts, this time from the United States and Canada, argued that success could not be obtained in such a depressed real estate climate - and certainly not at those prices.

Ignoring the skeptics, ESI established a plan, assembled a team and introduced both the new vision and new product to the marketplace. The "exhibition/launch" program was carried out over a 10-week period and culminated with a one-day grand opening event that generated 77 buyers for more than $6 million in pre-construction sales - the largest total in the history of Snowshoe.

"A key component to our success was hiring ESI to help direct the sales and marketing efforts for the sale of Rimfire Lodge," says Michael Coyle, senior vice president of Intrawest. "Their blend of leadership, motivation, and sales and marketing knowledge helped propel us to the largest resort sales event in the history of Snowshoe Mountain. ESI did not just help us sell a building, they helped us launch a resort."