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Homewood Mountain Resort Sold To Development Company

By J.D. O'Connor
June 12, 2006

Owner Jeff Yurosek had hoped to sell Homewood to the U.S. Forest Service for more than $60 million in a deal that was muddied last week by the intervention of 4th Distric Congressman John Doolittle, R-Roseville - a move that instantly picqued fears the land would be carved up and sold off as estate parcels.

But JMA President Art Chapman, who lives in Truckee and who skis at Homewood, said JMA would keep the "family-owned" appeal of Homewood while updating its four lifts, two surface lifts, and lodge.

"We don't want to make it look like a Squaw Valley," Chapman said. "We want it to be Homewood."

The Yurosek family, who bought Homewood in 1998, will stay on as minority partners. JMA Ventures is best known for rebuilding Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. The firm specializes in historic redevelopment.

Tahoe area newspapers are reporting that Chapman is still hoping for a deal with the Forest Service to secure $22 million in funding under the Santini-Burton Act - which taps revenue from surplus federal land sales to buy environmentally sensitive properties in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Forest Service officials had asked for an estimated $65 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to purchase Homewood but the move was blunted by Doolittle, who has since said neither Yurosek or the Forest Service involved him enough in the process.

Chapman was quoted Friday as saying that Doolittle's opposition to the plan to secure and preserve Homewood with Forest Service funding will fade once the Congressman is fully briefed. He also said that JMA's plan is to preserve Homewood, but that the mountain has been losing money for years and that JMA's goal is to restore it to profitability.

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Comments

	I knew it.
	Posted by: Ticia Maxwell | June 12, 2006 08:15 AM

	Ha! Told you so!
	Posted by: Azim PEI Alternatives | June 12, 2006 03:02 PM

	I hope this somehow doesn't change the character of this wonderful place. Fond memories of great skiing!
	Posted by: Ann Crane | June 15, 2006 08:42 AM

	It always remains to be seen in situations like this. So much of the over the top development we've seen in the past has started out this way. I hope not but we'll see. And once we do see, it'll be too late.
	Posted by: Geoff Keyes REI Ltd. | June 15, 2006 11:16 AM

	When does Doolitle come up for re-election?? I feel this is a tradgedy
	Posted by: Donald Jozovich | August 24, 2006 05:19 PM

	John Doolittle is up for reelection on November 7, 2006.
	Posted by: J.D. MountainNews | August 28, 2006 01:06 PM