Click to enlarge: Cascade, Devil's Head (3)
Cascade Mountain, Wisconsin (1999)
Cascade is a regional resort located in central Wisconsin. It is a pure skiing operation without lodging or real estate developments, although it does have significant excess land available for ski terrain expansion and real estate development. This appraisal was for refinancing. The appraisal included a package of ski area improvements including a new, detachable, quad chairlift (only the second to be installed in the Midwest). A separate valuation was provided for the excess land.
Devil’s Head Resort, Wisconsin (2001, 1998)
Devil’s Head is a year-round regional destination resort located in central Wisconsin. It has 247 hotel rooms, a conference center, golf course, two restaurants and skiing facilities including 500 feet of vertical and lift capacity of over 12,000 skiers per hour. Devil’s head was involved in a long-running property tax appeal with the Town of Merrimac. Closser Associates was retained jointly by both sides who agreed to accept our appraisal as the final tax assessment value. Values were prepared for four tax years. The appraisal included detailed cost and income capitalization approaches and a complete investigation of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan ski resort sales. Richard Haughton, a golf course appraiser with McKay Golf and County Club Properties of East Lansing, Michigan, assisted on the appraisal. In 2001 we again appraised Devil’s Head for an appeal of two additional tax years.
Alpine Valley Resort, Wisconsin (2002)
Alpine Valley is a regional ski resort in southeastern Wisconsin serving the Chicago-Milwaukee market. Our assignment included a narrow scope of work and was designed to analyze three years of financial statements in order to determine whether or not the resort was overassessed for property tax purposes. We analyzed the reported income and expenses and capitalized the net operating income or EBIDTA (Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Taxes and Amortization) from each of the three years to derive estimates of value for each year. We then compared these value estimates to the property assessment for each year and rendered an opinion as to whether the resort was overassessed and whether a full appraisal would be appropriate.
102 W. Washington St. Suite 224 
Marquette, Michigan 49855 (906)228-9133 bclosser@closserassociates.com