Reed Hastings knew Powder Mountain came with baggage when he bought into the ski and snowboard area in 2023 — and it wasn’t the kind that fits in the oversized bins at the airport.
In 2016, the former owners of the Summit Mountain Holdings Group got underwater with a foreign investment firm that backed the ski area in exchange for green cards.
Media entrepreneur Elliott Bisnow and venture capitalist Greg Mauro took out a loan of up to $120 million to transform the Eden-area resort from a locals’ mountain into the home base of a posh, environmentally conscious and celebrity-studded conference series. When the money came due in 2021, however, they had paid back just a third of the funds. By the time Hastings stepped in to take over Summit Mountain Holding and become Powder’s chief investor in 2023, the foreign group had sued Summit Mountain Holding and it had filed a countersuit against the investment group.
Now, the investment group is suing Hastings for $75.9 million. It’s what the group says is the total owed by Powder Mountain’s owners plus interest.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Skylodge, a private yurt at Powder Mountain open to Powder Haven homeowners and their guest, accommodates patrons on Friday, March 21, 2025.
The lawsuit, which is sealed, was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in April. It was first reported by The Real Deal.
In an interview in which the Netflix cofounder announced he’d made a $100 million investment in Powder Mountain that would also make him the majority owner, Hastings said he hoped to work out an arrangement with the investors.
“There’s a lot of mutual finger pointing,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune in September 2023. “But hopefully we can find a settlement now that we have some money to be able to do that.”
Forbes estimates Hastings has a net worth of $6.6 billion. At the time of the interview, Hasting called the debt “a modest amount of money.”
Since Hastings’ arrival, Summit Mountain Holding has made “serious, good-faith efforts to resolve this matter,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to The Tribune. A recent cash offer was rejected, the spokesperson said, but the group remains willing to negotiate.
Per the terms of the loan agreement, the spokesperson added, the investors also have the ability to recoup their losses through other means, such as foreclosing on the land.
The investment group bought into Powder Mountain through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. A popular tool among ski area developers — Keystone in Colorado, Tamarack in Idaho and Jay Peak in Vermont have all received EB-5 infusions — it guarantees foreign investors permanent residency via green cards in return for their money. Businesses benefit from low interest rates without being saddled with development guarantees.
Most of the investors in Powder Mountain were Chinese nationals. According to court filings, Summit Mountain Holding paid NBA star Kobe Bryant $250,000 to go to China to woo potential investors.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Skiers and snowboarders take a ride up Hidden Lake Express at Powder Mountain on Friday, March 21, 2025.
In March, Summit Mountain Holding filed a lawsuit against the foreign investors in Utah’s Business and Chancery Court. The resort owners claimed the EB-5 group raised less than 20% of the potential $120 million it was supposed to put toward developing Powder Mountain. Instead, according to court filings, the heads of the investment group directed potential investors toward their own projects. Summit Mountain Holding asked that the court award it at least $82 million in damages plus attorney fees.
That case is ongoing. It is one of two lawsuits filed by Summit Mountain Holding in the past year, a spokesperson said, in an effort to “consolidate the litigation before a single court.”
Last season, Powder Mountain embarked on an innovative public-private ski resort model. It converted two previously public lifts to private and added a third private lift, all accessible only by Powder Haven residents and their guests. The resort also added a lift on the public side and upgraded two others.
For the 2025-26 season, Powder — the largest resort in North America by acreage — intends to add another private lift out of the Davenport area. Though some of the lifts are private, the public can ski all the resort’s terrain.
Summit Mountain Group is not concerned about the lawsuit, a spokesperson said. They added that the litigation will have no impact on operations nor the span or timeline of development plans.
“We are moving full steam ahead,” they said.