Update: In 2021, Pacific Group Resorts, Inc., acquired complete ownership of Wintergreen Resort from the EPR Properties.
This week the leadership of the REIT financing Wintergreen Resort announced they have looked afresh at where they want to put their money. The result: EPR Properties wants to do more with “experiential real estate.” An example: enterprises such as Wintergreen Resort.
What is experiential real estate? The EPR Properties’ website explains HERE.
• EPR Properties acquired the title to Wintergreen Resort about five years ago (February 2015) from James C. Justice Companies. (See the 2015 announcement here; Jim Justice is the current governor of West Virginia.) Justice still owns "Grassy Ridge" at Wintergreen, the 400+/- acres below the Big Acorn chair lift. Justice bought the resort in the summer of 2012 from Wintergreen Partners Inc., saving the resort from bankruptcy. At the same time as the EPR purchase, the operation of the resort was taken over by Pacific Group Resorts, which operates (and in some cases, owns) other ski resorts in the U.S and Canada.
This news came in a November 24 press release about EPR's sale of its charter school portfolio, saying the sale was, in part, the result of the firm making a "strategic migration toward focusing its growth on experiential real estate."
Experiential real estate has "venues which create value by facilitating out-of-home leisure and recreation experiences where consumers choose to spend their discretionary time and money. These are properties that make up the social infrastructure of society," EPR's website offers.
Saying they see strong demand for what they call "location-based experiences," the press release quotes Greg Silvers, President and CEO of the EPR Properties saying, "We believe our decades of experience, long-standing relationships, and institutional knowledge will continue to provide us with a sustainable competitive advantage."
Toward that end, EPR said it will no longer organize its portfolio around the discrete segments of Entertainment, Recreation, and Education, but instead will be "organized by the primary property types targeted for growth in experiential real estate. These property types include: Theatres, Eat & Play, Ski, Attractions, Experiential Lodging, Gaming, Fitness & Wellness, Cultural and Live Venues."
EPR Properties currently finances a dozen ski resorts across the United States, which generates seven percent of their revenue. Movie theater properties bring in 45 percent, a category called "eat and play" brings in 23 percent.
The 12 skiing properties "provide entertainment and recreation during the winter when outdoor recreational opportunities can be scarce," their website explains, adding, "Increasingly, summer has become important for the industry, as optimizing all four seasons provides advantages to ski operators ready to expand their business beyond winter."
EPR Properties stock price for the last five years. (Yellow line is the S&P 500) via BigCharts