BCBUSINESS.CA DECEMBER/JANUARY 2017 BCBUSINESS 49
famous. In 2004, San Diego-based law-
yer, cosmetics entrepreneur, construc-
tion company owner and avid skier
Howard Katkov purchased the Ross-
land resort for an undisclosed amount.
The 66-year-old says he was attracted to
the property because it reminded him
of the folksy community-focused hill
that Mammoth on the eastern slope
of the Sierra Nevadas used to be when
he was a SoCal surf-and-ski bum. Since
buying Red, Katkov has £nanced devel-
opments and improvements through
institutional investors—but this year he
decided to switch gears, launching a
crowdfunding campaign through Start
Engine. By mid-September, Katkov had
exceeded his funding target with more
than 1,000 people pledging a total of
approximately $5 million to "own a
piece of the mountain," in what he calls
"the testing the waters phase."
"I'm not in the business of putting
down other ski resorts, but public com-
panies usually grow through acquisi-
tion and consolidation and ultimately
have a duty to shareholders. You tell
me if that's good for keeping skiing
affordable and community-focused.
What I'm saying is that Red is one of
those places that are memorable and
unique, and I see myself as a custodian
of that," says Katkov, adding that Red's
2015«16 season was its biggest revenue-
earner on record.
While the crowdfunding model
might work when you're in need of $5
million, the challenge is a bit di©erent
when you need hundreds of millions
of dollars to pursue capital projects on
the scale of Whistler's Renaissance. So
too is the challenge for residents liv-
ing in the shadow of a "world-class"
resort with global ambitions. Unlike
Rossland, where tra¬c is nonexistent,
a house can still be bought for less than
$300,000, and lift tickets at Red go for
$89, Whistler residents grapple with
perpetual tra¬c jams from Vancouver,
a real estate market in which $800,000
detached homes are considered a bar-
gain and $140-a-day lift tickets.
And yet for residents like Chris Winter,
an Ottawa native who £rst chased the
skiing lifestyle in Whistler 15 years ago,
the positives still outweigh the nega-
tives: "It's an amazing community that
lies beneath the tourism machine."
®
The Cities of Cranbrook and Kimberley are
joining forces to produce jobs, lower taxes,
and increase the population in our region.
As a corridor we oer workforce, lower costs,
operational and lifestyle advantages.
And we're working together to share the secret
for everyone's benefit.
To be part of this contact Kevin at:
250.427.9666
or 250.489.0232
A secret worth sharing.
THE UNCOMMON
BUSINESS CORRIDOR
Cranbrook.ca \
InvestKimberley.com
Two Rocky
Mountain
communities,
working
together, for
tomorrow.
kwilson@kimberley.ca or kweaver@cranbrook.ca
