{"id":116757,"date":"2014-11-04T18:14:31","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T01:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/buyer-of-dmr-looks-to-expand-operations\/"},"modified":"2014-11-04T18:14:31","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T01:14:31","slug":"buyer-of-dmr-looks-to-expand-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/buyer-of-dmr-looks-to-expand-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Buyer of DMR looks to expand operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Coleman\"
Coleman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last summer, James H. Coleman Jr., who was announced on Wednesday as the impending buyer of Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort, went to a ski camp held in Aspen.<\/p>\n

Coleman spent much of the day skiing moguls with Kirk Rawles, a longtime Purgatory ski coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkiing moguls isn\u2019t the easiest thing,\u201d Rawles said. \u201cHe did a great job with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman caught many locals by surprise Wednesday when Durango Mountain Resort CEO Gary Derck announced Coleman was the resort\u2019s buyer. It was public knowledge that DMR\u2019s aging ownership group was shopping the resort, but selling to the largely unknown son of a Texas developer raised eyebrows.<\/p>\n

At least the guy can ski.<\/p>\n

Coleman, age 47, grew up in Austin, Texas, and Southern California. He first skied at Purgatory in 1983 as a high school sophomore.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the time I started skiing, even as a high school student, I knew I wanted to be in this industry,\u201d Coleman said in an email response to questions Friday.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s quickly become a player in the industry since going on something of a buying spree, acquiring three ski areas this year.<\/p>\n

In addition to Purgatory, Coleman recently agreed to purchase Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, news that emerged the same day as his acquisition of Purgatory.<\/p>\n

And in May, Coleman\u2019s management group, along with Los Alamos County, took over Pajarito Mountain Ski Area in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Los Alamos Ski Club\u2019s members approved selling the ski area to fund infrastructure improvements, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

Coleman\u2019s most extensive experience is with Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort in Taos County, New Mexico, which he purchased in 2000.<\/p>\n

Since then, he\u2019s doubled skiable terrain at Sipapu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been the first ski area to open in New Mexico for 11 straight years,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cMost of those years, we also offered the state\u2019s longest season.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI love it when people come up to me and say, \u2018First to open, last to close!'\u201d<\/p>\n

The four ski areas \u2013 Sipapu, Pajarito, Arizona Snowbowl and Purgatory \u2013 will offer reciprocal skiing to season pass-holders. The properties will fall under the umbrella of a to-be-named company.<\/p>\n

Coleman said the mountains together offer a cohesive product.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile each ski area has its own unique offerings and distinct flavor, this collective of Southwest mountains share several important traits: they are within a convenient drive of each other, they are family-friendly, they provide an incredible product and they offer tremendous value,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coleman said he has no immediate plans to add to his collection of ski areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am always open to new opportunities, although I do not have anything in the works right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI am focused on Purgatory and our other resorts as we get ready for the upcoming ski season and plan for future improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Purgatory, Coleman said he wants to work on ensuring long seasons and developing new terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkiing is my first priority, and opening additional terrain is always at the forefront of my to-do list,\u201d he said. \u201cMy plan is to add new terrain every year for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman moved to Durango in 2005. He is married and has two children. His son, Garrett, participates on Purgatory\u2019s Freestyle ski team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family relocated here to be closer to Sipapu and because Durango offers a great quality of life,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cWe love it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman enters a ski area deeply embedded in the local culture and economy. Purgatory will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, and he\u2019ll be the first owner fully removed from the founding ownership group.<\/p>\n

Many locals have specific wishes for Purgatory.<\/p>\n

Rawles said he hopes Coleman replaces chairlifts 5 and 8 on the mountain\u2019s backside with higher-speed lifts. \u201cI like the idea that maybe the potential is there for that to happen,\u201d Rawles said.<\/p>\n

Coleman said no changes are planned with regard to Music in the Mountains, the popular annual summer festival.<\/p>\n

Coleman said he got in \u201caround 50\u201d days of skiing last winter. So what\u2019s his favorite ski run at Purgatory?<\/p>\n

Styx, he said. It\u2019s a black diamond.<\/p>\n

cslothower@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coleman doubled terrain at New Mexico ski area<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[606,13,712],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-durango-mountain-resort","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-purgatory"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116757"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}