Photo courtesy of Mt. Bohemia A snowcat is used to carry skiers to the top of Voodoo Mountain.

KEWEENAW COUNTY – For the past two and a half years, Mount Bohemia ski resort has been negotiating with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for the purchase of 775 acres of leased land, most of which is ski terrain, according Mount Bohemia owner Lonie Glieberman. Bohemia owns about 300 acres of the ski area on which it operates. Both parties agreed on a purchase price for the remaining land in April, he said.

“I’ve got emails from them saying ‘We should be able to close this transaction in December, there are no outlying issues,” Glieberman said.

Glieberman said last month TNC informed him the conservancy was moving ahead with an unnamed third-party buyer.

“I want to be really clear,” said Glieberman. “There is no legal dispute at all. They have every legal right to sell to a third party. Mt. Bohemia doesn’t dispute that at all.”

Glieberman said TNC’s decision to back out of the purchase places Mt. Bohemia in a catch 22 situation, because the rent paid for the lease is contingent on the number of skiers who visit the resort. Rent, he said, is Bohemia’s third highest expense, behind payroll and insurance. Purchasing the land would eliminate the rent.

“The more we encourage skiers to come here, the more our rent goes up,” he said. “Why am I going to invest a ton of money to bring more skiers if I’m just going to pay higher rent? That’s kind of a contradictory situation.”

Keweenaw Heartlands Project Manager Julia Petersen has denies the claim TNC made a final decision to sell the leased property to a third buyer.

“We have not made any definitive decisions or agreements with any parties,” Petersen said last week, “and that’s it. That’s the gist of it. We’re working hard to find the best outcome for people.”

Petersen said as a conservancy organization, TNC has to explore any credible buyer that would keep nature and conservation in mind.

Glieberman said he is confused by that. As part of the purchase agreement, he said, Mt. Bohemia would accept conservation restrictions on its land and would give up its lease on Voodoo Mountain, which is a snowcat mountain. Skiers ride an 18-passenger snowcat to the top, then ski down the mountain. They then ride the snowcat for a return to the top.

Glieberman says by backing out of the purchase agreement, TNC is damaging the conservation they are attempting to preserve, because, he said, Bohemia needs to expand to pay the increasing rent as business increases.

He said under the proposed purchase agreement, TNC had placed restrictions on what Bohemia could do.

“I was willing to do that,” he said, “because I’d be saving the rent. The tradeoff was TNC would get what it wants, which is conservation, and we would get what we want, which is no rent.”

From a business standpoint, Bohemia should want to develop as much lodging as possible because buildings won’t last 70 years, but they will bring significant revenue, Glieberman said.

Bohemia currently has 1,100 acres of property, with 1,020 acres zoned as a resort service district, which allows it to develop the land, even establishing businesses like restaurants and lodging.

“If we want to build cabins on the mountain, we can,” said Glieberman. “If we want to build a restaurant or a hotel on the mountain, we can for 75 more years. So, you’re going to see a lot more lodging development than you would have and less ski hill development, because ski hill development is very expensive. If you read our lease, there is no requirement for us to operate a ski resort to keep the lease intact.”

Glieberman said that under the lease, there are no conservation restrictions on Mt. Bohemia. “The landlord has restrictions on what Bohemia can do on the property.”

“We’re going to build out Voodoo,” he said. “We’re stuck with it for 85 more years, so we might as well build it out. Had they kept the agreement, it would have been conservation land.”