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Key Concessions Contracts Up At Yosemite National Park, Along Blue Ridge Parkway

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The Ahwahnee Hotel in the Yosemite Valley is one of the prizes in the concessions contract for Yosemite National Park/Kurt Repanshek

The coming months could tell whether Xanterra Parks & Resorts and Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts are both still in an acquisition mode, or will look to stand pat, as concessions opportunities are weighed in Yosemite National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

In Yosemite, the National Park Service is seeking bids for the chance to operate The Ahwahnee and other plum lodging, dining, and recreation operations for the 15 years beginning in 2016. Along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the agency is seeking a business partner to operate lodgings and dining operations at Rocky Knob Cabins near Milepost 168 and the Otter Creek restaurant and gift shop at Milepost 60.8.

Xanterra last year pulled off a coup by landing the concessions contract at Glacier National Park over long-time operator Glacier Park Inc., and also renewed its contract at Yellowstone National Park for 20 years. In addition, the company of late has been cementing its position in the outdoors, having acquired both Austin Lehman Adventures (now known simply as Austin Adventures) and Vermont Bicycling and Walking Tours in the past nine months. Going after the Yosemite contract would be expensive, particularly in the wake of Xanterra's new contract at Yellowstone that calls for an investment of roughly $135 million there. But Yosemite would be a nice addition to Xanterra's portfolio, which also boasts lodging and dining operations at Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Zion, and Crater Lake national parks.

Yosemite National Park, a jewel in any concessionaire's portfolio, has been held by Delaware North for many years. The company, which also manages concessions at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, has been expanding its footprint in the parks recently, adding the lodging at Shenandoah as well as the Peaks of Otter Lodge along the Blue Ridge Parkway since the beginning of 2013. The company also has expanded its lodging holdings in West Yellowstone, Montana, operates lodges in Olympic National Park, and has retail outlets in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks.

With Delaware North's acquisition of the concessions business at Shenandoah and Peaks of Otter Lodge, it will be interesting to see whether the company pursues the other Blue Ridge Parkway properties, although the operations are small. However, also up for bid is the contract to the Pisgah Inn located along the Parkway to the south of Asheville, North Carolina. That operation, with 51 guest rooms and a restaurant, might interest the company.

Also to be determined is how aggressive ARAMARK Parks and Destinations might be. The company lost the Shenandoah contract and that to the Kalaloch Lodge in Olympic to Delaware North. ARAMARK does operate in Denali, Mesa Verde, Glacier Bay, and elsewhere in Olympic (Lake Crescent, Log Cabin Resort, Sol Duc Hot Springs), and at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Otter Creek Facilities Review

The Otter Creek restaurant, gift shop and campground (MP 60.8) are located on Otter Creek, approximately 20 miles from Lynchburg, Virginia. The restaurant and gift shop facility at Otter Creek was designed as a modern board-and-batten frame building with traditional Southern Appalachian features such as a long porch across the front, a jerkinhead, or clipped, gable roof, and a stone chimney. The facility opened for business in May, 1960. Site stabilization of an area just behind the restaurant was also accomplished as a part of the restaurant building improvements that occurred during the spring of 1999. A montane oak-hickory forest is the principal plant community surrounding the restaurant.

Historically, the 3,190-square-foot facility was operated as a restaurant and gift Shop. The facility was open from May through October, serving breakfast and lunch. As it was configured, the dining room seated 57. The gift shop sold gifts, souvenirs, sundries and firewood. The facility has been closed since the end of 2010.

The adjacent, 69-site, Otter Creek campground, opened in 1960 with a small amphitheater established in 1962, is operated by the NPS, but was offered as a concession operation in the 2012 prospectus. Interested parties could improve and rent campsites, or have the opportunity to rent camping gear. Appendices to this RFEI contain additional information about the facilities.

Rocky Knob Facilities Overview

The Rocky Knob Cabins, a small, secluded complex of seven housekeeping cabins, a manager's house, and a shower/bath house is located near Floyd, Virginia. These historic structures constructed in 1941 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. First developed as "trail lodges," the cabins were remodeled for use as family housekeeping units in 1950. Six of the cabins include a bedroom and kitchen. The seventh cabin is ADA accessible and includes private bathroom in addition to a kitchen. Each cabin is 418 square feet. The 960-square-foot manager's house includes a bedroom, living area, kitchen, bathroom and office. The 792-square-foot shower house has men's and women's bathrooms and showers, and a laundry room. The cabins were historically available for rental May through October. The cabins have been closed since the end of 2012 due to lack of a concessionaire.

At Yosemite, the concessions contract would cover all lodging, dining, and retail shops in the Yosemite Valley, as well as the lodging operations at White Wolf, Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona, and the High Sierra Camps. The recreation businesses in the contract include the Badger Pass ski area and guide services for the mountaineering, nordic instruction, and ski school operations. Park Service officials estimate that if a company other than Delaware North landed the new contract, it would cost that company $32 million (in 2016 dollars) for "personal property, inventory, supplies, start-up costs (staff hiring, training, etc.) and working capital." Additionally, another $22.5 million would be owed Delaware North for "personal property such as furniture, trade fixtures, equipment, and vehicles," and an estimated $6.5 million for existing inventory. 

Start-up costs for a new concession are estimated at $3 million, and another $3 million would be needed to address deferred maintenance in park facilities run by the concessionaire.

The new concession contract is scheduled to begin on March 1, 2016, and will be issued for a term of 15 years. This is the park'™s primary concession operation and the largest concession contract in the National Park System.

Comments

But were national parks intended to operate as profit centers with no ceiling, or as a public commons? Companies shouldn't have to operate at a loss, but what ceiling should be kept within sight in a park?


but what ceiling should be kept within sight in a park?

Kurt, if you are talking about basic access to the park then there may be some rationale for a "ceiling".  Perhaps rates could be set as we do with public utilities, but then we probably would not have the most efficient of operations. 

At $80 for unlimited access, $5 for a back country campground and $20 for an rv/tent site, I don't believe we are pricing anyone out of the Parks nor is anyone making unconscionable profits.   

When it comes to luxury accomodations in the park - the first question might be why are they there.  After that, I would have to ask why should anyone have any more right to a luxury accomodation in a Park then in Hawaii or Martha's Vineyard or Vegas.


Well, I think the luxury accommodations are there -- and Al can better answer this -- because there was a desire by Stephen Mather and Horace Albright to make Eastern bluebloods comfortable in the parks. They needed that part of society's support of the parks. 


They needed that part of society's support of the parks.

Probably even more so today.


No offense Alfred, but in 1959, 3.00 has the same inflation value as 25.00 today.

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=3&year1=1959&year2=2014

Taking into consideration, that the population of the United States has gone from about 180 to 330 million in that time period, there is a lot more pressure on the resources today, than there was back then too.


No offense Alfred, but in 1959, 3.00 has the same inflation value as 25.00 today.

Why would he be offended.  That is exactly what he said. 


I'm not sure I see a problem with a range of fees for different kinds of accomodations in the park, but I do agree with Kurt that the parks should be viewed as a public commons and an effort made to continue to make them available to folks regardless of income.  That said, these might be incommensurable views--an interesting issue to discuss.


Kurt is right about how we got luxury accommodations in the parks. A century ago, only the rich could afford to see the West; a railroad ticket was the equivalent of an upscale cruise today. Thus in 1915 only 51,000 people came to Yellowstone, 44,000 of those having come by rail.

What concerns me is entirely different. In 1959 my mother spent $600 taking my brother and me across the country. That would probably be $5,000 today. Her income was $222 a month from Social Securty (survivor's benefits), my father having died the previous year. She had a ninth grade education (Depression interrupted) and obviously needed to go back to school. But what if she hadn't made that trip? Every day, the Park Service rings its hands about minority participation in the national park idea. Practically nothing else these days is said. Well, we were that minority back in 1959, unless only color makes for minorities. You want minorities to visit the national parks? Then don't price them out of the experience. It is not will preventing them from visiting; it is price. Mom made the sacrifice, and even then it was a sacrifice. Fortunately, the campgrounds were dirt cheap or free, and still first-come, first served. There was no reservations bureaucracy standing between us and a cheap campsite. Now there usually is.

Look at the "campgrounds" and look at the "campers." Yeah, right! Even the backpackers start off at REI. It all makes for a "vision" of the parks that is offputting to poorer people, but you will never hear our Park Service saying that. Mom felt at home among the Chevy and Ford station wagons. Many of those campers were poorer, too. Granted, it was a different age, but that itself is what we should be looking at. The Park Service repeatedly spits out reports about "inclusiveness," then ignores the fundamental cause of the lack of inclusiveness, which still is price.

As for the higher end, I still think that a night in a lodge is a treat every American should get to enjoy. And again, the parking lot should not be filled just with luxury SUVs. A few aging Fords and Chevies should be welcome, as well. We never got that treat in 1959, but the more I learned about the architects and their principles, the more I feel the lodges and luxury hotels belong in the parks, as well. Just don't get greedy about the price, which seems to keep going up at ten percent a year while middle-class salaries stagnate, again, forcing the general public out.

I have lots of wealthy friends and know lots of wealthy people. God bless them for their success. Most earned it and did not inherit it. Well, some of us march to a different drummer, and still the biggest drumbeat is the middle class. Price them out the parks and the poor will never come. And isn't that the problem we now face all across the land?


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