Western Resort Properties sells out to Seattle firm

Ward Jones always insisted he wasn’t a developer. Maybe it’s time to believe him.

Jones’s consortium of forty-odd investors (Western Resort Properties), which controlled three corners of the Main/Minaret intersection, recently sold out to Goodman Real Estate of Seattle.

The price for the 10.6 acres, acknowledged Steven Schneider, a Principal at Goodman, sold for upwards of $5 million an acre.
Before the deal could be completed, Jones had to buy out Mammoth Brewing Company from its lease. Terms were undisclosed. Mammoth Brewing Co. will relocate its operations to the Industrial Park.

Jones said that of the 40 investors in Western Resort Properties, no one person had voting control, but a majority had decided it was time to sell and move on. Jones had been working on developing the property since 1999.

“Goodman is a much larger company with deeper pockets,” he acknowledged. “Maybe if I were a younger man, I would’ve stuck with it.”

Jones is not abandoning Mammoth, as he still retains ownership of the Holiday Haus property and will tear down the current building and has the right to build 54 condominium units. He will also retain a home in Mammoth. “There is no doubt Mammoth is going in the right direction,” he said.

FYI, for those who think Mammoth property values are too high, Jones notes that a 1,000-square foot two-bedroom condo in Wailea now sells for $3 million.