Brodie Mountain sold, but new owners are ‘tight-lipped’ on what they have planned

Skiing on Brodie Mountain dates back nearly 100 years. (File)

Earlier this year, commercial real estate investors NAI Norwood Group placed Mt. Whittier up for sale. The abandoned ski area, located in Ossipee, N.H., hasn’t been in operation since the mid-1980s. 

The price tag: $3.2 million. 

So just how, exactly, was a group of Florida-based investors able to land a Massachusetts ski area for a cost reportedly less than a third of that price? It’s complicated. 

The Berkshire Eagle first reported the recent purchase of Brodie Mountain by a group of four investors at a recent auction for a reported $975,000. Dormant for nearly 20 years, the western Mass. ski area, long-celebrated for its St. Patrick Day festivities, was once dubbed, “Kelly’s Irish Alps” by founder Jim Kelly, who died last year at the age of 87. 

The investors haven’t yet revealed what their plans are for the 500-acre property in New Ashford, which comes with an interesting wrinkle; the ski area can not offer lift-serviced skiing to the general public. 

That’s thanks to a deeded restriction that prevents new owners from simply opening the doors to a new ski area.  

The Kelly family sold Brodie to nearby Jiminy Peak owners Brian Fairbank and Joseph O’Donnell in 1999. According to the New England Ski Industry web site, Brodie was shuttered for skiing in 2002, and two years later was sold to Silverleaf Resorts for $2.6 million. It was a deal that also came with a deeded restriction preventing “public downhill skiing” on the property in order to keep competition with Jiminy Peak at bay. 

But as Todd Oifer, one of the four investors, told New England Ski Journal, the deed mentions nothing about preventing a ski area with a private membership, perhaps similar to The Hermitage Club at Haystack Mountain in Vermont. 

“There’s another 10 years on the deed restriction of public skiing,” Oifer said. “So we can still do private skiing. There’s other things we can do there if we choose to do that.” 

Oifer said that he had been looking at mountain property for a while. “This one came across and it was very compelling,” he said. “I’ve been looking at it for about two years. I put a couple of offers on it over that period of time.” 

According to New England Ski History, “Brodie Mountain’s skiing history dates back to the 1934-35 season, when the 1.1 mile, 930 vertical foot Brodie Mountain Trail debuted. Described as novice except in fast snow conditions, the trail was 8 to 12 feet wide. The first competition on the trail was held on New Year’s Day of 1935, when Joseph Aspinwall won the Eastern Amateur Ski Association open novice race.”

According to the web site, lift service likely started when a 1,100-foot rope tow was installed for the 1940-41 season.

The property was listed at $1.9 million as recently as April of 2022. The most recent listing touted that the unique property is “being offered as a prime residential development site” for activities like cross-country skiing and zip lining. 

Interestingly, while skiing isn’t mentioned specifically as an opportunity at the property, snowboarding is. Oifer, though, wasn’t offering any clues.  

“We’re staying kind of tight-lipped about what we’re going to do with it,” he said. “But we’ll work closely with the local town and we’ll be working with the state and tourism figuring out all the nitty-gritty of it.”

Oifer said his group is not looking to create any issues in terms for what they are planning, calling it a “win-win” for everybody. 

“It’s a beautiful piece of property with a lot of great history,” he said. “Once it’s cleaned up and we figure out where we’re going with it, I think everybody is going to be very happy.”