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Resort Group in Steamboat Springs has new owners

The Resort Group offices at 2150 Resort Drive. (Photo by John F. Russell)

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Resort Group has a new owner, but Mark Walker, the company’s president, said it’s business as usual for the property management company, which has been a fixture in Steamboat Springs since Andy and Arlene Van Baak started the business in 1986.

“I’m super excited,” Walker said. “Basically, there is really going to be no change other than Andy (Van Baak) will be moving on, and Phil (Lloyd), who has been on our board for almost 10 years, is moving in representing the McDowell Family. It’s great, exciting news.”

The Van Baaks sold their ownership interest in the company to McDowell Steamboat, LLC in January.

The McDowell family has been part of the Steamboat community since buying a vacation residence in the Rockies II condominium complex in 1974. The family became financially involved in Resort Group in 2009.

“We are not part of some hedge fund company or some larger company outside of Steamboat Springs,” Walker said. “It’s a family-owned business, and they have been in Steamboat for years, and there will be no change.”

Lloyd said the McDowell family is solely focused on continuing Resort Group’s tradition of offering total resort services to more than 5,000 property owners in more than 90 commercial and homeowners’ associations.

“The McDowell family looks forward to promoting exceptional customer service to Resort Group’s clients and guests while placing an emphasis on a strong and loyal work ethic as well as continued community involvement from our valued team members,” Lloyd said.

Walker said Resort Group currently employs more than 350 people in the winter, making it one of Steamboat’s largest employers.

“The past 35 years have been the most exciting, occasionally stressful, but always satisfying years of my life,” Van Baak stated in a letter written to employees by Resort Group CEO Dan Dean. “Hiring, training and teaching a new generation of leaders has been both a welcome challenge and an immensely rewarding opportunity. Seniority among Resort Group’s employees is now measured in decades, not in years.

“Resort Group did not grow into the largest, locally owned employer in Routt County because of anything I have done,” Van Baak continued. “That success is due to the professionalism, hard work and dedication of the employees of the company. Knowing that we can be confident that the company will remain in ‘good hands’ is a satisfying way to conclude my career.”

Dean wrote that he also is excited about the transition and having another family-based organization that is familiar with the employees and the operation of the company as well as the financial strength to provide Resort Group with continued success well into the future.

“As part of the Resort Group team, it is our collective responsibility to carry on, without missing a step,” Dean wrote. “The company will continue to operate utilizing the same people, in the same locations and retaining the same business partners. I am confident that you, as members of our exceptional team, will conduct ‘business as usual.’ Please embrace the transition of ownership as an exciting new chapter in the company’s history.”

To reach John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.


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