<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 45pt;”>Prospective Saddleback buyer
disputes claim that he just wants resort for immigrant visas</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px; line-height: 12pt;”> </p>
<p style=“margin: 0px; line-height: 18pt;”>By Lori
Valigra • March 15, 2018 10:28 am
Updated: March 15, 2018 12:11 pm </p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>The
Australian executive planning to buy Saddleback Mountain Resort in Rangeley
disputed news reports that he wanted the resort mainly for its immigrant visa
program potential rather than reopening the ski operation.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Sebastian
Monsour, group CEO for the Majella Group of Brisbane, Australia, said extensive
planning at great cost has gone into making Saddleback a year-round resort that
“takes in all the benefits, offerings and services of the landscape.”</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>He
added that the EB-5 immigrant visa program is not the major funding mechanism
for closing the purchase, as had been indicated in media reports Wednesday.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Excerpts
alleged to be from an audiotape of Monsour talking during a Sept.
11, 2017, staff meeting were released Wednesday by Portland NBC affiliate WCSH.
The tape was reportedly leaked by former Majella employees.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>On it, Monsour seems to be heard saying, “The EB-5
program is the reason we are actually buying Saddleback. The mountain and opening
the mountain is something we would like to achieve, but if we don’t, we are not
going to lose any sleep with regards to it.”</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>The
EB-5 visa program allows foreigners who invest at least $500,000 into a U.S.
business and create at least 10 local jobs to qualify for permanent U.S.
residency.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Sen.
Tom Saviello, a Republican who represents the district that includes
Saddleback, said the comments on the tape about the EB-5 visa didn’t make sense
to him.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>“You
need a viable running business on the ground, and there are job creation
requirements,” Saviello said.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Saviello
said he’s heard from a person close to the resort operations that five to nine
people are currently working at Saddleback to care for its structures and to
plow, and they’re being paid by Majella under an operating agreement while the
funds are raised to complete the purchase.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Monsour
said he is finalizing funding agreements that “do not include the EB-5 program
to finalize the sale and to fund the reopening of the mountain.”</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>“We
were looking into the EB-5 program, but it is not a priority funding model for
Majella and we are [finalizing] other funding models that make more sense for
Majella to get this deal done and the mountain reopened,” he said. “It should
also be clarified the any EB-5 program or approval requires job creation and
that Saddleback would have to be operational and running for use in any EB-5
program and not the other way around.”</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Commenting
on the tape, on which he appeared to say Majella is cash poor and hadn’t paid
certain contractors, he said Majella doesn’t comment on internal meetings or
financial statements.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>“But to
clarify, we are in a compensation dispute with one former employee and for
legal reasons I would prefer not to comment further,” he wrote in the email to
the Bangor Daily News.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>“Our
priority is completing the deal to close the land, then to reopen Saddleback
and the resort,” he wrote in an email. “We will be making announcements about
this in the future, but rest assured we have been developing an extensive plan
that is about a year-round resort.”</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>He gave
no timeframe for closing the purchase. He signed an asset purchase agreement
for the property last June.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>The
resort, which is Maine’s third largest, has been closed since July 2015, when
the Berry family that owns it said they couldn’t afford to replace a chair
lift.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Monsour
said his company is in the final stages of a process that will fund all its
commitments now and into the future.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>“This
is a complex deal and has posed numerous challenges to our investors. We are
focused not just on closing but ensuring we have the long-term, sustainable
plan in place for future of the mountain and the existing approved development
district which includes opening the resort and keeping it open,” he said.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>He
added that the Berry family has helped with the operating agreement that allows
Majella to continue work to maintain and reopen Saddleback. He said when the
deal is done, it will bring jobs back to Rangeley year-round, and not just
seasonally.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>The
private deal has been cloaked in silence. People involved Rangeley’s economic
development seemed cautiously optimistic about Majella being able to complete the
purchase, but did not want to be quoted.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>Meanwhile,
the Saddleback Mountain Foundation, a nonprofit
group that had bid to buy the mountain a couple years ago, continues to look
for an opening to buy the resort, according to its spokeswoman, Crystal Canney.</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>“We
meet monthly should an opportunity arise for the mountain to become available
for purchase,” she said, describing the foundation as a group of people
passionate about the mountain. “We are in a good situation to take advantage of
that.”</p>
<p style=“margin: 0px 0px 18px; line-height: 25pt;”>http://bangordailynews.com/2018/03/15/business/prospective-saddleback-buyer-refutes-claim-that-he-just-wants-resort-for-immigrant-visas/</span></p>
