The lease for Mount Sunapee, which came less than 18 months after the federal report was issued, includes a small annual base rent payment to the state, plus 3 percent of gross revenues.
With other states receiving between 5 and 15 percent of revenues for leasing their property, this suggests that New Hampshire is not getting fair market value for the Mount Sunapee lease. And if that's the case, it shortchanges the state park system and Cannon Mountain while providing a sweetheart deal for the leaseholder, CNL Lifestyle Properties, which is now North America's largest owner of ski areas.
The Mount Sunapee lease payments help fund capital improvements at Cannon Mountain. The rationale for leasing Mount Sunapee was to eliminate the need for state-funded capital improvements at both mountains, while retaining the state-run Cannon as an integral part of Franconia Notch State Park. (For background on this topic, click here.)
Although this arrangement is far from perfect -- and one can question the wisdom of using one state park as an ATM for another -- it has addressed Cannon's capital needs. But SB217 puts this in jeopardy by threatening to lease Cannon and diverting Mount Sunapee lease payments for purposes not spelled out in the legislation.
