King of the mountain

Panorama's new owner, Rick Jensen, offers a view from the top

Rick Jensen, the president and CEO of Panorama Mountain Village Inc. and part owner of Grey Wolf Golf Course, sees potential in the four-season resort, which is already one of the leaders in the region. — Tanya Laing Gahr

Every winter morning, when Rick Jensen leaves his Panorama Village home, he puts his laptop in his backpack, steps into his skis, schusses down to the Toby chairlift that he rides to the top of the run, and then skis to the door of his office. All in all, not a bad commute—and just one of the many perks that come with the job of being the owner, CEO and president of Panorama Mountain Village.

Jensen is the head of Panorama Mountain Village Inc., a company he created to purchase the resort in late January of this year when Intrawest ULC, the previous owners, put the property on the auction block. Intrawest, a multinational corporation with resorts worldwide, divested several of its smaller properties when the recession made it difficult to maintain them—and Jensen was ready.

Jensen is the founder and chair of Cranbrook-based New Dawn Developments. He began the company in 1978 as a land development operation but moved into single- and multi-family homes when his son, Chad, joined the organization full time as president in 1996. In the intervening years, New Dawn has constructed several homes and resort developments throughout the Kootenays, including Fernie, Kimberley, Invermere—and Panorama.

“We came to Panorama in 2000,” said Jensen. “Chad and I came up . . . and negotiated a contract for the construction of Wolf Lake, and fell in love with Panorama. I stayed up here and worked on those projects (and) I got to know Panorama and I got to know Intrawest.”

In Jensen’s estimation, Intrawest—which had owned Panorama since1993— had brought Panorama to a level of excellence that made it a player among the region’s other ski resorts. When New Dawn became the developer of choice for Panorama, a mutually beneficial relationship was established, opening the door for Jensen to negotiate when the time was right.

Jensen and his son were discussing the long-term opportunities for New Dawn in early 2009, and floated the idea of a joint venture with Intrawest. Jensen’s suggestion was that Intrawest would supply the land, New Dawn would deliver housing and they would split the profits. Intrawest liked the idea but, because of the soon-to-be-announced liquidation of smaller resorts, offered instead to sell the land to New Dawn.

“We looked at that and discovered quickly that what happens on the resort impacts the potential on the development,” said Jensen, “so we if were going to look at purchasing the land, we should really look at purchasing the whole thing.”

Jensen knew that it was beyond New Dawn’s immediate means to buy the resort, so he contacted several friends, clients and business associates to put together the capital necessary to make an offer.

While making such a substantial investment in a sluggish economy may seem audacious, Jensen said the purchase is just part of a long-term plan for growth. That said, from idea to signing on the dotted line took only a few months. Sometimes long-term strategies don’t require a great deal of time to enact.

However, Jensen does have several goals for the development of the resort that were beyond the power of the former management team at Intrawest.

Intrawest managed or owned 15 properties before selling more than half of its resorts in 2009 and 2010, and was unable to devote 100 per cent of its energy or capital to further developing Panorama. Panorama Mountain Village Inc. will have that luxury, said Jensen.

“In the development sense, there’s enough property here to double the size of the resort over the next 10 to 15 years as the market is there,” he said, “and there is enough room to double the size of the ski resort—the runs, the chairs and everything else. It’s an exciting opportunity because of our vertical here (and) our snowmaking capacity. Within five years, I’m estimating that we’ll be the national training centre for Alpine Canada with facilities to accommodate that.”

That’s just the beginning. Jensen recognizes that the industry caters to a limited number of skiers and snowboarders, and that resorts are all vying with each other to earn that business. But one of the things that Jensen learned in his 32-plus years of development and construction was the importance of creating value. So Jensen and his team of managers at Panorama—many of whom were Intrawest employees who stayed on after the purchase—are looking at ways to make the resort more accessible to families and create the value that will keep them coming back. The five-year plan is to build what Jensen hopes will be the premier family ski destination in Canada.

“All of our pricing (has changed),” said Jensen. “To ride the chair for sightseeing last year was $19; this year it’s $10 because it’s better value. Our season’s passes for skiing dropped by $100 on the pre-season sale, and sold over twice as many.”

Jensen said it’s about accessibility—making the resort and the sport affordable for families, and designing the runs so that beginner and intermediate skiers feel they can take part, will ultimately bring more customers to the hill. It’s a matter of numbers—the more people who come through the gates, the more money gets spent in the restaurants and the retail outlets, as well as on rentals and accommodations.

Jensen is, by nature, a man who gives a great deal of consideration to his plans. There’s not much that catches him off guard. But he said that one of the few aspects of Panorama that surprised him was the moment of clarity when he realized just how great the potential for the property really was. And he’s not just thinking in terms of the tenure and the development. He’s also considering the professional growth of up to 525 employees—most of whom he knows by name. He’s thinking about the opportunities for activities that will bring new focus to the Columbia Valley economy. And he’s thinking of new ways to engage his clients.

“Barnum and Bailey best said it in the ’30s—find out what people want and give it to them,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”