Too late, said David Hirasawa, director of financial analysis and investor relations for American Skiing Co., which still owns and continues to operate the resort although its formal dissolution has begun.

"It's already under contract," he said of American Skiing's July sale of The Canyons for $100 million to Talisker Canyons Finance Co. LLC, which previously bought and is developing the extensive holdings of United Park City Mines around Deer Valley. "It's a definitive binding agreement and we intend to honor it. For that reason, we cannot even consider this so-called offer."

"It's unfortunate that Vail did not submit an offer like that during our negotiations," he said.

Vail had been looking to expand its Colorado skiing empire into Utah, but its negotiations with Park City-based American Skiing about purchasing The Canyons were terminated when American Skiing announced in mid-July that it had accepted Talisker's $100 million offer.

Rebuffed, Vail asked a district court in Denver for a preliminary injunction to halt the sale. That request will be the subject of a court hearing Thursday.

In the meantime, Vail upped its offer last month to $110 million. And then on Monday, according to documents filed by Vail with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Vail Resorts' chief executive Rob Katz sweetened the pot even more.

The SEC filing included a letter Katz sent Monday to American Skiing board chairman Steven Gruber, offering American Skiing a 30 percent cut of the revenue Vail derives from developing real estate around the Park City resort.

"We currently estimate that such 30 percent interest could produce up to $650 million in incremental cash for [American Skiing] through 2020," said Katz's letter, which also projected those real estate development profits at $2 billion to $2.5 billion.

But American Skiing is proceeding on the premise, Hirasawa said, that its sale of The Canyons to Talisker is legitimate and will go through once Vail's lawsuit and several related legal actions are resolved.

Until that is completed, Hirasawa stressed, American Skiing will continue paying employees of The Canyons and working with vendors who provide goods and services for the resort.

"We are dissolving and will go away completely at some point, but we're very much in existence and preparing for the season," Hirasawa added.

mikeg@sltrib.com