Interest in Silver Mountain properties picks up

More than 20 potential buyers have shown some interest in Silver Mountain Resort since Jeld-Wen put it on the auction block earlier this year.

The auction deadline was pushed back to March 19 in February to allow more time for interested parties to do their due diligence and allow potential buyers to bid on one feature or all of the features of Silver Mountain - ski resort, water park, property management, golf course.

"It's not a liquidation, we haven't had one call like that," said J. Murph Yule of Waterford Development Corp.

Yule, who is coordinating the sale for Jeld-Wen and the Massachusetts-based development company, said bids were rejected early after the first auction to sell Silver Rapids and the property management contract of the condominiums at the Morning Star Lodge.

However, many more potential buyers started surfacing a month ago, and they generally weren't looking to just buy one part of the resort.

"In mid-February, we started getting a lot more interests, specifically in buying the resort in its entirety. We made a calculated decision to extend the deadline," Yule said.

Yule said by March 19, any and all qualified potential buyers can make a bid on all or part of Silver Mountain Resort. And while Yule said March 19 will "hopefully" mark the end of it all, he also said there are several factors that go into play.

The nature of the sealed-bid auction means Jeld-Wen has the right to accept or reject any offer. There is no reserve, there is no guarantee. It's all based on whether or not the seller accepts the offer, but Yule said a potential buyer with a "realistic but too small" bid would possibly receive a counter offer from Jeld-Wen.

He added that this form of auction is good for accelerating the process by narrowing the negotiations and highlighting the serious bidders.

"It gets people off their ass to make a bid," Yule said. "We have a serious owner and seller, and we're trying to get a serious buyer."

Yule said the potential buyers include ski resort owners, waterpark owners, hotel moguls and what Yule called "money people."

Those money people are generally buyers looking to do work on Silver Mountain before trying to sell it again in a few years.

While some possible buyers said the ski hill needs more accessibility with just a gondola to take people to the slopes, others have said they wouldn't make any big changes.