Owners at the small Haute-Savoie ski resort of Drouzin le Mont claim they’ve been ripped off, amongst them Éric Amiet, a lawyer, who is lodging a suit for fraud. “They sold us apartments with skiing and today they tell us the ski area is no longer profitable. In fact the operator ran the area just long enough to flog his ski apartments. Now there is no longer constructable terrain they are talking about recurring losses, it is a con.”

If the ski area closes the apartments will lose between 30 to 50% of their value and it will be hard to rent as guests want skiing from their door, not 40 minutes away on snow covered roads.

Other residents agree with Mr Amiet. Jean-Paul Ainoux, former director of the ESF ski school says the solution is for the owners to buy the two chair lifts from Michel Vivien, real-estate promoter and owner of the ski lifts. If these lifts are removed people wont come just for a couple od drag lifts “Once they take the chairs out it will be the end for skiing at Drouzin” continues Mr Ainoux.

The town hall is prepared to buy the two drag lifts at the bottom of the domain. The 180 owners are prepared to buy the chair lifts and ask the town hall to run them. The mayor has a report from Cimes conseil. “if we run the station as it is we will face severe losses of 400 000 € per annum. We also have to buy the lifts and other equipment for 3 600 000 €. It is not possible. To run a drag lift costs around 30 000 € per year”.

http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2012/11/03/pour-le-maire-exploiter-la-station-represente-un-deficit-chronique-de-400-000-par-an

I know it, I’ve never skied there but I drive past from time to time. Basically it’s some blocks on the col with a couple of lifts.

I can’t imagine what the owners thought might happen. If I were buying a ski pad I’d be looking for a ski area over 2000m in height and over 200km in area. I’d want somewhere the station was big enough to justify development and maintenance, in fact I might ask if CDA might buy it out. If you reckon CDA wouldn’t buy it then an alarm bell or two ought to start ringing. There’s more to it than that but it’s a fair start point.

The small stations that do seem to work have maybe two or three characteristics. They’re near cities or within reach of an local population. They have a good non-ski business, sightseeing or VTT etc. Or they have something unique like La Grave and even there you have to wonder where the money for a new lift will come from.

In their wildest dreams the owners couldn’t have thought it would be linked to other stations or that any more lifts would be added. As they say, it’s a fair drive to other stations which cuts the other way as well, no one is going to drive by those other stations to get to Drouzin Le Mont.

If the council have their figures right they must reckon it runs at a total loss and that the income is close to zero. I bet they’re right, 400 odd season passes at few euros each won’t go far.

Google it and you find a few uk owners who’ve got websites advertising apartments there. Fairly standard stuff, they have “client” testimonials saying they were the only people on the slopes. First, they don’t have any clients, they’re not providing a professional service. But what their customers say makes the situation fairly plain.

I live at the bottom of the hill from Drouzin le Mont. I’ve also run a property website for 10 years that would in theory cover this area. The whole set-up has always been completely illogical. I’ve toured from the col but never been tempted to pay money to use the lifts, a few friends have but only once and only for the novelty value. It basically (feels like) a private area for the apartment owners. We have never taken an apartment for sale, they have always been sold by the local agent. My local area (Espace Roc d’Enfer - http://www.espacerocdenfer.com/) is much bigger, much busier and is covered by the Portes du Soleil ski pass, breaking even is touch and go every year. For the “locals” to take on Drouzin le Mont they’d have to be madder than the original purchasers. They have been ripped off but they should not be surprised!

endlessride - 06 November 2012 10:26 AM

I live at the bottom of the hill from Drouzin le Mont. I’ve also run a property website for 10 years that would in theory cover this area. The whole set-up has always been completely illogical. I’ve toured from the col but never been tempted to pay money to use the lifts, a few friends have but only once and only for the novelty value. It basically (feels like) a private area for the apartment owners. We have never taken an apartment for sale, they have always been sold by the local agent. My local area (Espace Roc d’Enfer - http://www.espacerocdenfer.com/) is much bigger, much busier and is covered by the Portes du Soleil ski pass, breaking even is touch and go every year. For the “locals” to take on Drouzin le Mont they’d have to be madder than the original purchasers. They have been ripped off but they should not be surprised!

Drouzin le Mont is not on the PDS pass? I was fairly sure it wasn’t. That tells a story doesn’t it?

I’ve no idea if there’s really been fraud or the owners have really been ripped off though. If someone told them it was going to be linked with the PDS or made some guarantee I suppose they’ve got a case but even then you wonder if it was ever reasonable to take anything like that at face value. Although, the lift system is fairly substantial in some ways, more than was required for the sake of appearance so I’d guess the developer was acting in good faith even if the project wasn’t realistic.

Skimming the websites it looks like the properties are nice enough though.

What does it all mean? That regions should have strategic development plans? So property development and lift development are in-step rather than one leading another? When there’s been regional planning before it’s basically consisted of providing soft finance to throw lifts into places that were never sustainable. Or should there just be a way to plan to remove these rusting old lifts before the alps looks like a scrapyard?

I assume this area was financed by the developer to sell the apartments. I don’t know the history but I’d like to think that the planners would not let this sort of thing happen again? Though who knows. I believe the Espace Roc d’Enfer has made an offer for a couple of the lifts. I don’t suppose that the rusting ones will be cleared up. They don’t tend to be very good with things like that.

The only link-up opportunity that ever existed was with Abondance, which went bust itself, it’s operating again now - but for how long?

The American investor in Abondance wanted to link through to Drouzin le Mont and maybe apartment buyers were hoping this would happen but....

The U.S. investor has decided to abandon the public service delegation that allowed him to operate the ski resort of Abondance. In 2009, it was thanks to him that the little station had been reopened after two years of closure. The town of Abondance is obliged to take over the management of the station.

“After two years of heavy losses, investors do not want to take the risk. They will no longer fund SVA (Abondance Ski Valley, ed),” wrote Woody Sherwood, president of SVA, in a letter to the inhabitants of this village of 1,400 inhabitants.

In his open letter, Mr. Sherwood accuses the community of being “unable or unwilling to offer political support for various development plans. “Among these projects, he cites the creation of a liaison with the Portes du Soleil, the largest ski area in Europe (which includes Avoriaz and Morzine), or the desire to develop artificial snow making.

Last season was “a catastrophic winter” due to the slowness of the municipality to provide a system of snow cannons.

The Mayor Paul Girard-Despraulex talks claims the connection to the Portes du Soleil is “impracticable in terms of budget and for environmental reasons.”

Since the resumption of the station, U.S. investors have spent a total of “more than two million” investment and financial losses, according to Christian Vigezzi, Director of SVA.

Management of the ski area should now go to the town hall. “We can continue alone, safety inspections were carried out, the station may reopen this fa seaison, “assured Mr. Girard-Despraulex.

-- google translate

http://alpes.france3.fr/info/abondance--le-repreneur-americain-jette-l-eponge-70932044.html

La Grave does not need a new lift but the old one needs refurbishing. A modern lift would kill the whole place…