Despite never recovering from its pandemic closure, it appears as though Tenney Mountain might not be totally dead quite yet.
The New Hampshire ski area, which has made repeated trips on and off the long list of lost ski areas in New England, has reportedly come under new ownership.
According to New England Ski Industry, Northcountry Development Group acquired the defunct ski area, which had never recovered from its March, 2020 closure, from Tenney Mountain Development Group “via quitclaim deed for $6.125 million.”
A quitclaim is defined as being a deed “used to convey property between two parties but offers no guarantee to the title of the property.”
According to New England Ski Industry, “Northcountry Development Group was formed in Delaware in February, 2022 and registered as a New Hampshire business entity on March 11, 2022 with Steven Kelly as manager. The company is affiliated with Timberline Construction of Canton, Mass.”
Kelly did not respond to an email from the New England Ski Journal seeking comment. On Thursday evening, Tenney Mountain’s Facebook profile picture was updated with the promise that updates for the 2022-23 season would be soon to follow. Prior to Thursday, Tenney’s Facebook page had not been updated since late-2020.
A few years after the lifts were first shuttered in 2010, a Boston-area family (officially, the Tenney Mountain Development Group) purchased the ski area (at an estate price of $1.5 million) and started making improvements. The first 2½ years were spent getting the lift infrastructure back up and running, assessing the quality of infrastructure from a surveying standpoint, and putting energy and money into getting the Backcountry Bar and Grill up and running again.
In all, the Tenney Mountain Development Group put an estimated $4.5 million into improvements prior to opening 2019.
That year also happened to be Tenney’s 60’s anniversary, The ski area’s goal, at the time, was to become a throwback of sorts, one among the handful of independent mountains considered to still be among the more affordable, dependable options in New England.
“I think the timing is perfect for that,” James Hamilton, co-founder of the marketing firm that had been handling Tenney’s public relations in 2019, said at the time. “It becomes harder and harder to find an authentic ski area with a unique identity. Beyond even the value and accessibility of a mountain less than two hours from Boston, there’s also the cultural piece of it. This is what ski areas were, historically, in the United States. The fact that here, in New England, we have such a rich history in the development of the ski industry, it’s a special place because it’s a great example of why people love skiing and why skiing has grown so much as a sport since the middle of the 20th century. More places used to be like Tenney.”
Another resurgence for Tenney could very well be on the way.
Eric Wilbur can be reached at eric.wilbur@skijournal.com.
