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
I talked with some young ladies from Russia, Korea(?), and Ukraine(?) in Yellowstone a couple of years ago. There are some companies in those countries that work like temp hiring companies in the U.S. Those companies make travel arrangements, obtain visas and whatever else is needed to get them over here. I didn't ask who pays for that.
Companies of various kinds in the U.S. then may contract for employees through them. The McDonalds in West Yellowstain was almost completely staffed by Russians. Canyon's snack bar was full of Koreans (Asians of some sort, if not Korean). Every one I talked to was thrilled to be here. It was the experience of a lifetime for them. All had been learning English since they started primary school, and now they had a chance to actually use it and to experience the nation everyone in the world looks to as either the Greatest Place or the Greatest Satan depending . . . .
One store owner in West commented that these foreign kids are "not as particular as Americans" and so don't expect wages or working conditions to be as good as their American counterparts have come to expect. (Translated into English that means: "We can work these kids six days a week at minimum wage, charge them a bundle for board and room, and the won't complain -- at least not very loudly.)
But another thing that struck me was the fact that these young kids, who apparently were having some mighty good experiences among us, were going to go home in the fall. What kind of stories would they tell friends, family and neighbors? Is this international exchange an opportunity to develop some good friends who might be willing to try to stand with us when we need it some day in the future? Or will they realize that they have been used as cheap labor and have simply been taken as suckers?
Is this another aspect of the Great American Entitlement Mentaility at work? Are employers entitled to use and abuse their workers, regardless of where they may have come from? Are we not only cheating American young people, but perhaps risking loss of a chance to make friends from abroad?
Dr. Runte,
Your point about the rising costs for a basic university education creating
sizeable student loan debts is well taken since "student debtors' prison" prevents
many young couples from qualifying for a house mortgage, not to mention a
family visit to a national park especially those where the NPS has allowed Xanterra
to upscale the entire experience for the "high end" earners. When we use to visit
Crater Lake Lodge with an elderhostel group, lodge management became furious
that these elders dare sit inside the Great Hall (out of the cold wind) with their box
lunches. Many of these elders could easily afford the high priced dining room, but
they had learned frugality long ago and managed their assets well to avoid debt.
At times, one even had to bring their own toilet paper for use in the Lodge public
restrooms because Xanterra maintenance was poor at best. The young people
serving guests in the dining room often are from other countries and just beginning to
understand American Cultures, so they would not dare provide any negative input about
Xanterra in their "slave labor" status. The original Crater Lake Lodge with all its
maintenance issues did weather 75 winters with little maintenance, but was far
more affordable for families. So, by rebuilding the Lodge, the historians who
"saved the lodge" from upper NPS management (NPS decided to remove it in 1989)
allowed the "high end" to gain entry vs the middle class. Rebuilding was accomplished
through Oregon's Senior Senator Mark Hatfield. So, when the Pacific Crest Trail Hikers
arrive this month from their trek beginning near the Mexican border, some lodge guests
perceive these visitors arriving on foot to be "homeless tramps" invading their "Private
Reserve." Again, on the issues of rising university expenses driving
student debt burden, one University of Idaho Administration priority is focused on
spending a few million dollars from the University Foundation to rebuild a mansion
for the next University President who will probably be treated like royality with little
effective concern about rising student debt. So, the future dwindling middle class
families will not be able to afford visits to national parks, and given their children focused
on digital devices indoors will not be learning and discovering the Beauty of the Creation
found in the parks' forests and wildlife.
When I worked for Xanterra in 2003 at Yellowstone, my roomate was a university student from Bulgaria. The internationals that work for Xanterra in Yellowstone(there were over 500 from 27 countries in 2013) are students with J-1 or F-1 visas.
The Girl Scout camp I worked at one summer during college also used one of these J-1 visa companies to hire international staff. About 20% of the staff that summer(1992) were from half a dozen foreign countries.
http://www.yellowstonejobs.com/international-j-1-visas-7591.html
http://www.yellowstonejobs.com/UserFiles/October%20Grizzly%20Gazette.pdf
Never said they improve education. I just made the point that if the money isn't coming out of the students' pockets, they have no incentive to resist rising costs. Its that indifference that lets this public entity pad its payroll and bloat its bureaucracy. The removal of market forces is precisely what is causing the balooning cost. Its the same factor that will doom Obamacare.
BTW - The football program - even after paying the coach - is a net contributor.
M13- Please report the names of these people to the Justice department. I am sure they would like to know that people are being forced to work against their will.
Kind of interesting the complaints here about aliens that have come into the country legally through our visa system. I'd wager many of those complaining are giddy over our open borders and potential amnesty for criminal aliens.
A very good dialogue, but I think we have exhausted it. Oh, heck, why shouldn't I get the last word? Yes, the university football program is a net contributor--to itself and other sports. I have never seen the football program fund a history position, or for that matter someone in the medical school right across the street. The day when the football program starts funding any faculty position is the day when I will sit down and shut up. Then it will indeed be a net contributor to the university instead of the monopoly it is now. Finally, I like the foreign kids in our national parks--always have and always will. I just don't like the assertion that American kids are substandard hires because they need to return to school. That is where they should be--and the foreign kids, as well, if not at a university then in a first-class trade school that will teach them productive lifetime skills.
And I have never seen a history department fund the football team. So what. Your initial suggestion was that the football coach was getting paid so much money and drawing it away from educational expenditures. The fact is, its not. It is self funded and funds many other sports activities as well. If you have a lousy coach because you don't pay him enough, you won't fund those other activities and the football program may be a drain rather than a contributor.
Then you should be silent. How many of your history students that DO pay for the history department come to your school, at least partially, because it has a strong football team. The number isn't zero.
Complaining about the cost of Yosemite accomodations is a bit ironic, when a few months ago, we had an article on the NPT complaining about the overcrowding of Yosemite. :) Apparently, campsites get all booked in a matter of days, it not hours (I would not know, I can't stand camping). The Ahwanee is exhorbitantly priced, but then again, there's only one, and they don't seem to have any issue selling out. For fun, I just tried to make a reservation. Well, there's a room available this w-e and then there are only 3 nights (on separate days) available for all of August.
The above is telling me that the Awhanee could probably charge even more, and that camping is totally underpriced based on current demand.
Frankly, I'd rather see the parks charge prices that reflect the seasonal demand. Use the extra funds to take care of the maintenance backlog.
As for the cost of higher education, I agree that this has become completely ridiculous. If we start pricing the middle class out of the one great equalizer in our society, we're in for a lot of trouble, but this is no longer about the parks. :)