Fort Worth Texas-Ski Destination?
May 22nd, 2007 by alyoung
I just read in the Wall Street Journal of a new ski development being planned. It will be a 25-story mountain with slopes for year-round, outdoor skiing and snowboarding. Surrounding the mountain will be an “Alpine Village” with chairlifts, ice rinks, a bobsled track, a winter wonder-park for children, a retail center, a 600-room hotel and a convention center. Total cost of the proposed Bearfire Resort: $696 million. If you read the Wall Street Journal regularly as I do, you will always see stories of big developments and big deals being. I enjoy reading them and get inspired by them.
What caught my eye about this article, is that this big ski resort is being planned in an area that has no snow, and that this will be a man made mountain. It will be in Fort Worth where I own several properties. I travel to the Dallas-Fort Worth area frequently for business, and in the summer, the heat can be stifling. Hot and humid. In 2006, it had 43 days in which the temperature topped 100 degrees. Not my first choice as an area to build a mega ski resort. However, you have to admire the vision of someone to build an huge ski resort with a man made mountain and artificial snow in one of the hottest region in the country.
The most impressive fact of this story to me is how the development cost of $696 million is to be raised. $150 million will come from investors and the remaining balance is to be borrowed. Not only has someone thought of this concept, it is able to convince investors, and banks to buy into this plan. I’m skeptical of this project. It will either a colossal success or failure. We will see, but, it is a masterful selling job to get this project financed.
As a real estate entrepreneur and devloper on a much smaller scale, I work with investors and banks to raise money for my projects each day. I believe my projects have as much merit as a ski resort in Texas, but no body is throwing $696 million dollars at my projects……yet. Some lessons to learn here.
- Think Big
- No idea is too crazy if you can convince someone to fund it
- Selling your vision is just as important as having a good idea
