The new owners of CBMR… CNL

CNL Lifestyle Properties, Inc., formerly CNL Income Properties, Inc., is a real estate investment trust that owns a portfolio of 115 properties in the United States and Canada in the lifestyle and recreation sectors. Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., CNL Lifestyle Properties specializes in the acquisition of ski resorts, golf courses, amusement parks, shopping malls and marinas.

CNL owns Northstar at Tahoe, Sierra at Tahoe, the Copper Mountain base area village, Elitch Gardens in Denver and many more.  
According to CNL chief communications officer Carolyn Gosselin a REIT is a type of investment tool.  “REIT’s are investment vehicles that allow you to have the value of real estate in your portfolio, without having to operate it,” she says.    
Gosselin says CNL is a public investment company, but it is “non-traded”, and therefore is not listed on trade venues like the New York Stock Exchange.
She said public, non traded REIT’s are not as susceptible to fluctuations in the stock market, and are not suitable for short term investments.  
As a business, CNL receives rent payments from its various holdings, and must distribute 90 percent of its revenue to shareholders. Like most REITs, CNL does not have to pay corporate income tax.  
According to a May 2008 10-Q financial form for CNL Lifestyle Properties the company has had two stock offerings since its inception in 2003, drawing a total of 65,369 individual investors and capital resources over $2 billion.  The company has approximately $500 million in outstanding loans as of May 2008 according to the report.    
“They are good people and we’ve known them for years,” Diane Mueller says of CNL. “We trust them.  The banking industry is such that with the amount of growth we were looking at, to have a reliable lender was not always easy…so this is better.”
Carlock shares that trust. “Tim and Diane Mueller have positioned the properties of Triple Peaks for ongoing success. We are proud to establish a relationship with such seasoned and respected operating partners and enable them to carry out their vision for these properties over the long-term,” Carlock said.  
Gosselin says not every lifestyle property purchased by CNL retains their former operators.  “If the business doesn’t have a best in class operator, we will find a best in class operator to run the business,” she says.    
And if the operations fall below standards or fail to make lease payments, Gosselin says several things could happen. “We might list it on the New York Stock Exchange, or we could take it and liquidate it,” Gosselin says.    
Gosselin says CNL spent considerable time researching Triple Peaks and the current demographics and skier traffic at each resort. “We do not enter into these types of transactions lightly,” Gosselin says.  
When asked if she knew about the potential for a large scale molybdenum mine outside the town of Crested Butte, Gosselin said, “I was most certainly not aware,” but she said the company’s investment team members had likely researched it.