New Mexico's bankrupt Ski Rio resort about 10 miles from Colorado, which has been closed since 2000, has been sold to a group of investors for $6.5 million.

Mountain Highlands LLC of Albuquerque, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, sold the property last Friday to CIMEX Invest Inc. of Naples, Fla., and the Czech Republic.

Taos real-estate agent Pavel Lukes, who brokered the deal, described the investors as "very private." He told The Taos News: "They are in the hotel and office building business, and I've seen what they own. However, they have asked for privacy at this time, and I am honoring that.

"I met them socially about four years ago in Vail," Lukes said. "They would ask me about (real estate) opportunities, and they obviously liked this one."

Taos attorney Bruce Kelly, who represents CIMEX, said sale documents have been filed with the Taos County Clerk's Office, and the bankruptcy judge has indicated creditors will be paid.

What the new owners plan to do with the 2,700-acre parcel south of Amalia, N.M., is unknown, Lukes said. "They don't even know yet what they are going to do," he said. "They are not in the ski-area development business now. But the place has so much potential. We're just happy for liberating Ski Rio."

Kelly said little beyond paperwork for the deal will be done this winter. "They've got legal work and permits to get," he said. "They have no date in mind for opening, and they're leaving their options open."

The lifts last ran Jan. 17, 2000, in a poor snow year that hamstrung Mountain Highlands financially. Since then, the property has been accessible through the locked gate on N.M. 196 to only a dozen families who own homes within the resort.

The ski resort purchase includes 900-plus acres of terrain with 2,150 feet of vertical drop, six lifts, accommodations and equipment, about 120 building lots, a loop of underground utilities, a sewage treatment plant, elk-hunting permits and water rights, which Kelly said the new owners would retain rather than sell. The price works out to $2,400 an acre for the 2,700-acre parcel.

Residents of the Rio Costilla valley have seen this scenario before, and they remain guarded. "Oh, I'm happy it happened," said veteran ski area employee Dennis Trujillo, who is a member of the Rio Costilla Cooperative Livestock Association, which formerly owned the land. "We'll see what happens now."

In the past, local residents have worried about the impact of the ski resort on water and neighboring lands.

Tom Atkins has managed the property on and off since 1990, when the federal Resolution Trust Corp. ran the ski area. He left in 1996, then returned in 2003 — four days before Mountain Highlands went into foreclosure.

With a long view, Atkins said this ownership looks better than any of the previous ones. "It looks like a new ballgame to me," he said.

Naresh Patel, a homeowner on the resort's property since 1985, said he was "excited" about the new owners. "It has some future," said Patel, who was in a homeowners' group that failed in an attempt to buy the ski area.

Just under 50 lots around the base of the ski area are privately owned, he said.

The business history of what began as Rio Costilla Resort reads like a primer on questionable Western land transactions.

The livestock association, which owns about 84,000 acres around Ski Rio, put up a lodge and three lifts in 1980 and started operations. A year later, the ski area was sold to California developer Mitchell Brown, who put in two more lifts and cut new trails but filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection when he couldn't make payments on a $205,000 loan.

In 1986, the name changed to Ski Rio, and Liberty Federal Savings & Loan Association of Raton brought it out of bankruptcy for 15 cents on the dollar. The operators went in for the new sport of snowboarding, including installing one of the first half-pipes around.

But in 1988, Liberty Federal went under, and the RTC, the federal bailout agency, ran the ski area until it was closed in 1990, citing losses and a slew of lawsuits, bad debts and broken contracts. "Funny, but the feds were the best operator," said Atkins. "Budgets were made, paychecks were paid. Things ran smoothly."

After several abortive attempts by purchasers, San Remo Vacation Club of Tierra Verde, Fla., bought the property for $1.125 million in 1992 — but never opened it for skiing. A year later, Texas investor David Hendricks purchased Ski Rio and ran it for four consecutive years. In the winter of 1995-96, good snow attracted more than 70,000 skier-visits.

However, foreclosure ended Hendricks' operation in 1996, and Jon Lau of JNC Corp. in Texas bought the resort for $2.9 million. Despite some good years and a number of improvements, he failed to make a go of it, and the area closed for good in January 2000.

For a ski area once known by local ski bums as Ski Free-o, a future as a skiing, snowmobiling and snowboarding playground now seems to be, at the very least, a possibility. "I don't know what they plan to do," said Lukes, "but at least we've removed all of the past."

Contact Andy Dennison at adennison@taosnews.com.