Black diamonds of Revelstoke

Andrew Findlay | Image: Revelstoke Mountain Resort | Published: August 01, 2008

It doesn’t take a Bob Rennie or Donald Trump to understand why Don Simpson loves Revelstoke. Simpson first visited the town back in the mid-’80s, one of many pilgrimages north for this Denver-based millionaire developer with an appetite for powder snow. Immediately, the 62-year-old American was struck by a place that seemed to have it all: affordable real estate, proximity to boundless outdoor recreation possibilities and an attractive sleepy ambience. Never mind the fact that nearby Mount Mackenzie had the high altitude, vertical drop and terrain that the powder pundits were saying could keep it operational when other ski hills were being washed away by climate change.

In 2004 Simpson first learned of plans for an A-list resort in one of his favourite ski towns after being approached by Hunter Milborne, managing partner of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada (BID), who, along with developer Robert Powadiuk, is a founding partner in Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR). Simpson smelled a winner and less than two years later signed on to the project and opened a Canadian subsidiary, Simpson Property Group Canada, to handle the resort’s property development.

The trio wasted no time demonstrating they were in town to do business. In January 2007, with residents in giddy anticipation, they summoned the media to unveil the future of Mount Mackenzie, and in the following frantic eight months the developers installed a high-speed gondola, a quad chairlift and a base lodge; they also snapped up Selkirk Tangiers Heliskiing and CAT Powder Skiing, creating a one-stop shop for lift, heli- and snowcat-skiing for a total initial capital outlay of $80 million.

Over the next 15 years, RMR plans to pour an estimated $1 billion into a resort that will include more than 20 lifts servicing 1,829 metres of vertical (which will be the highest in North America), 5,000 housing units and 500,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

In little more than a year, Sotheby’s, the firm handling real estate marketing for RMR, has already sold 190 luxury units – just part of an orgy of speculation that’s been going on in Revelstoke for more than five years. Market values have tripled since 2003, with the median price of a detached single-family house now

hovering at around $463,000 and rental vacancies sitting at a paltry two per cent. Though the real estate rush has made the town of 8,000 one of the most hyped resort developments in B.C., injecting life into a sagging heartland economy, it has also plunged the town into an identity crisis as Revelstoke transforms from funky, affordable mountain town into pricy “world-class” resort. Suddenly, any young person or family of limited means who was enjoying the mountain lifestyle has awoken to discover their town slipping beyond reach.

From Vail to Fernie to Whistler, the story’s the same: resort property development has invigorated towns and propelled real estate into the stratosphere, while leaving politicians and citizens scrambling to find ways to keep their towns diverse and affordable to people other than jet-setting resort investors. The question expert observers and locals alike are asking is, Why was Revelstoke caught snoozing at the steering wheel?

On a warm spring afternoon, Simpson, slightly built with a healthy tanned complexion, ambles down the hallway of RMR’s corporate office in downtown Revelstoke, fresh from a day of heli-skiing in the Selkirk Mountains. He greets me amicably but with a slightly impatient edge, like somebody who’d rather be skiing or dealing real estate than talking to a journalist.

Getting into the ski resort development game in Canada was an unexpected retirement diversion for Simpson. Several years ago, he had cashed out of the family firm, Denver-based Simpson Housing Inc., which was started by his father in the 1940s and grew into a multibillion-dollar apartment development powerhouse in the American southwest. Nowadays Simpson spends roughly half his time in Canada, helping to steer RMR onto the international resort road map.
“My sons tell me they’ve never seen me work this hard,” Simpson says as he settles into a swivel chair. “But you know, I realized right away that this could be the No. 1 resort in North America.” While Simpson acknowledges the concerns about housing, and the underlying sense among some locals that they’ve lost control of their town, he’s confident that Revelstoke can remain a livable, authentic town. “There’s no question that housing will be more expensive. Part of the problem is these things get studied to death,” Simpson says, pointing out that RMR’s master plan targets 10 per cent of its housing units for employee accommodation. “Look, our goal is to keep the small-town vibe. Whistler and Vail didn’t even have towns before the resorts were built.”