"Before this, it was all speculation," Mayor Nichole Sterling told The Mountain-Ear at the end of September. "Nobody had the actual data as to what a down snow year would look like."
She was talking about the 2025-26 season. Record-low snowpack helped push Colorado ski area visits down by 24%. The investors being asked to finance Nederland's purchase of Eldora Mountain Resort asked to see the deal modeled against exactly that kind of winter. The town went back and rebuilt the deal around it. The new version decides who pays for the Jolly Jug expansion, the Corona lift upgrade and a summit lodge, and it says when the mountain is allowed to skip them.
The agreement trustees signed in January has expired
On January 6, 2026, Nederland's trustees unanimously approved an Asset Purchase Agreement with POWDR. It set a $120 million price for the resort's principal assets, which could drop to no less than $115 million depending on financing. The Denver Post put that at about $80,000 per Nederland resident. Two weeks later, trustees approved up to $225 million in special revenue bonds, capped at 9% interest and 40 years. The bonds would be repaid from resort revenue, not from town property taxes, sales taxes or the general fund.
The agreement said it would terminate if the deal did not close by 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time on April 30, 2026. It didn't close, and the agreement lapsed. As of October 2, the bonds still had not been sold. A POWDR spokesperson told The Mountain-Ear the company has no contractual obligation to sell Eldora to the town but is "still working with the Town." Sterling said she meets with parts of the POWDR team every week.
On September 30, Sterling and the Board of Trustees posted an update on the town website. Its main point, in the letter's own words: "We are continuing to pursue the acquisition of the resort."
Here is what moved since the town first went to market
| Original plan | Late September 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase agreement | Approved January 6 | Expired April 30; updated agreements still to be negotiated |
| Interest rate modeled | About 7.5% | Closer to 8.5% |
| Security for bondholders | Resort revenue | Resort revenue plus a sale-leaseback tied to the real estate |
| Capital upgrades | Bond proceeds could cover improvement costs | About $20 million to be raised from donors |
| Snow assumptions | Modeled without actual down-year data | Must include last season's actual results |
According to the town's letter, prospective bondholders wanted two main things: "stronger security tied to the asset," and less "leverage and debt in the transaction." Every row in that table answers one of those two requests.
How the sale-leaseback would work
Sterling explained the new structure to The Mountain-Ear in this order:
- At closing, POWDR transfers the resort assets to the Mountain Enterprise Fund, the entity Nederland created to run the resort separately from town operations.
- Under the bond documents, the enterprise transfers title to the real property and improvements to a bond trustee.
- A third party, sometimes a financial institution, leases the property back to the enterprise fund, which keeps operating the resort and collecting its revenue.
That gives investors "two sources of security," in Sterling's words: the revenue the mountain already brings in, and "this mortgage-like collateral structure that's supported by the real estate." The town first thought a public entity couldn't offer that kind of security. Further research showed a sale-leaseback could be considered.
The upgrades now sit outside the ski revenue
This is the change locals will feel on the hill, and it ties straight back to the bad-snow problem.
The town's letter lists the investments it believes would strengthen Eldora over the long term: the Jolly Jug expansion, a Corona lift upgrade, a mountaintop lodge and jumpstarting summer operations. Under a typical bond structure, projects like these sit in the "waterfall," the order in which resort revenue gets spent. Sterling described the risk: "If those capital improvement projects are tied to the waterfall, then that means that we're essentially tied to do them even during a down snow year."
So the town plans to raise about $20 million from donors and keep those projects out of the bond payment order. The letter says that in a poor snow year, the mountain could put debt payments, essential maintenance and reserves first, and wouldn't be "forced to undertake a discretionary capital project simply because a financing document says it must happen that year."
The trade-off is that the improvements are less certain to happen on any given timeline. They move forward in strong revenue years or as donations come in. The letter floats donor recognition through "named runs and spaces, designated parking, or other opportunities," and mentions family offices as possible contributors. The first contributor the town is exploring is the State of Colorado. Sterling called those talks "at the beginning stages."
For anyone who has stood in the Corona line hoping for a faster chair, the honest reading is that these are plans tied to a fundraising campaign that hasn't been completed.
What it has cost the town so far
The letter estimates that if the deal falls through, Nederland would owe about $2.5 million in transaction costs. Those would be paid from the CSAFE investments the board began in 2023. If the deal closes, the costs are reimbursable from bond proceeds. Sterling told The Mountain-Ear that "this is not something that's gonna bankrupt the Town," and expects any further costs to be marginal because the team is "plugging and playing a couple of sentences" rather than redrafting from scratch.
The town has not set a new closing date. The letter says it is working toward "a closing schedule that meets Eldora's operational needs." Sterling told BusinessDen that if the reworked deal goes ahead, POWDR would be contracted "to continue supporting operations."
This winter is shaping up like a normal one
None of the restructuring changes the basic plan for this season. Snowmaking was set to start within a month of Eldora Fall Fest, and The Mountain-Ear reported that Eldora is projected to open the week before Thanksgiving, weather permitting. A Denver Post roundup published September 29 listed Eldora's opening as November 13, subject to change due to weather.
Dates worth knowing before the first chair:
- October 22: last day of guaranteed pricing on Eldora's 2026-27 Unlimited Adult pass, listed at $789. Eldora remains part of Ikon.
- October 9 and 10: Eldora will be at the Outdoor Gear & Sample Sale at the Avalon Ballroom in Boulder.
- November: Boulder County expects to finish resurfacing Ridge Road and Hurricane Hill Drive outside Nederland. Expect weekday delays of up to 15 minutes until then.
- Mid-November: seasonal Eldora service starts on RTD's NB route and runs to mid-April.
Parking works the same way as before. Eldora charges a fee for single-occupancy vehicles on weekends, certain holidays and weekdays with at least 10 inches of new snow. Cars with two or more people park free, and cars with three or more can use first-come, first-served premium HOV parking. Eldora lists this season's fee days as "TBA." The resort does not offer parking reservations or paid parking spots.
October in Nederland before the lifts turn
Art at the Center's fall exhibition opened October 1 at the Nederland Community Center and is scheduled to stay up through March or early April, so it will outlast the opening-day uncertainty. The 2026 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour plays the Backdoor Theatre at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 8. On Halloween, Ned General hosts a southern-gothic party at 8 p.m., and the Caribou Room has a masquerade at 7 p.m. featuring Banshee Tree and Cycles.
Boogie Records at 150 N. Jefferson St. has new owners, Jeff and Kristianna Sanders, and is open Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
At Fall Fest in September, volunteers hauled just under a thousand pounds of trash off Challenge and Little Hawk mountains. The oddest find was a single Lange ski, from a company that stopped making skis in 1973. Whoever ends up owning the hill, it's getting ready for winter on the usual schedule.
If you live in the Peak to Peak communities and are wondering how a town-owned Eldora could figure into decisions about your own home, Juli Kovats is glad to talk it through. Start the conversation and schedule your free market consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
