Of Prophet or Profit
The motivations for a new business venture in the East Kootenay may not be simply financial. Heaven’s Gate is a proposed ski development in Fernie, British Columbia, whose owners are envisioning much more than just another ski hill on the province’s Powder Highway; they’re planning a spiritually enhanced skiing experience.
Craig McLeod and Roi Bannerman, the two Alberta-based businessmen at the centre of the project, have been actively pursuing it for the better part of a decade. The proposal is massive, featuring a gondola that would shuttle skiers and tourist from the downtown area to the backside of what is known as the Fernie Bench, on the opposite side of the valley from the Fernie Alpine Resort. Heaven’s Gate hope to develop of 1,619 hectares of land into a world-class tourist destination. The grandiose idea focuses primarily on the mid-station features, which would include a pedestrian epicentre with multiple hotels, a conference centre, family housing and a school the website refers to as a “Global Leadership Campus.” This is what makes this project unique: McLeod and Bannerman are not only proposing a new ski destination – they want a fait-based community 150 metres above Fernie.
The Heaven’s Gate project was first mentioned on web forums in 2008, but the details still remain relatively vague. When asked for information, such as a timeline, Craig McLeod says it would be “premature” for any type of press coverage as it could potentially hinder development. He did invite questions at a more opportune time yet did not specify when that would be. McLeod and Bannerman initially worked on the project with Heiko Soccer, who Brough the local ski hill, Fernie Alpine Resort, then known as Snow Valley, to life in the 1970s. (It was sold to Resorts of the Canadian Rockies in 1997). Many in the community say Heaven’t Gate was Socher’s ultimate dream, and he pushed hard for it before his passing in the fall of 2016.
Fernie’s mayor, Mary Giuliano, first heard of the project as a city councillor in 2009. She’s been an outspoken supporter ever since because she believes it will diversify the city’s financial interests from coal mining, which is its primary economic driver, but she’s not sure of the project’s timeline either. “Even it if doesn’t happen in the next three to five years, if it happens 10 years from now,” she says, “I think it’s just another item that would cement Fernie’s future.”
Heaven’s Gate Holdings first presented its idea to the City of Fernie and the Regional District for the East Kootenay (RDEK) in 2011 and received letters of support in principal. Mike Sosnowski, Area A director for the RDEK, says it was easy to sign on because of it's ingenuity. “I did have an interest in the project because I thought it was a novel idea,” he says. However, other than a phone call a few years after the company’s initial presentation, Sosnowski says he hasn’t heard much about the development’s progress. McLeod and Bannerman were back in Fernie council chambers on February 27, 2017 asking for another letter of support similar to the first on they received. They haven’t returned to the RDEK in search of a second letter, something Sosnowski says he would do with a bit of hesitation. “It didn’t cost us anything to give a letter of support for the principal plan,” he says. “[But] anybody that is going to invest any money in it, you would hope would do their due diligence.”
Mayor Giuliano acknowledges the multitude of issues the project faces before it can even break ground. “I’ll tell you, if they get all of their funding and are ready to go, they have a lot of hurdles.,” she says. “The property is not within the city country, so they would have to bring it into the city boundary".” First, they must purchase the land. At the time of writing, Heaven’s Gate Holding still had to negotiate with multiple parties to obtain the 1,619 hectares. A source once involved in the project, who asked to remain anonymous, says there was an opportunity to purchase the land in the fall of 2015 for $10 million, but the deal ultimately fell through. One theory on the holdup implies the use of an interesting business practice. According to Giuliano, McLeod and Bannerman are hoping to complete the entire project with incurring any debt, a big ask for a project of this scale. “They want o be able to have all the money, all the funding, in cash,” says Giuliano. “And so that has been why it has taken so long.”
During the writing of this story, 18 people were interviewed about Heaven’s Gate, and while some expressed support, many were suspicious and most declined to speak publicly about their opposition. One Fernie local who is familiar with the plan and the players involved, says he was unsure pf their business experience. “I wouldn’t say they’re really experienced at what they’re trying to accomplish. They left a lot of bases uncovered.” He then cites the fact that they promoted the project before Heaven’s Gate even had the land secured.
The name Heaven’s Gate is an interesting pick for a business venture, considering its unfortunate connotation. Twenty years ago, a UFO religious group under the same moniker received a lot of media attention when 39 people died after injecting a cocktail of applesauce miked with barbiturates, which they washed down with vodka. The participants, who were based in San Diego, California, hoped to leave behind their human forms and board a spacecraft they believed was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. McLeod says he was unaware of the mass-suicide incident when the name was chosen. When asked, he says they have “nothing to do with them” and the same is something they have had “since day one.”
“I think it must be that they have such a feeling towards this name that it represents their feelings towards the property,” says Giuliano. “I think they’re the type of people that see the goodness in people and not the bad. They see the positive and not the negative. I actually really admire them for their faith.”
From the beginning, the partners of Heaven’s Gate have focused their eyes on the sky, with a project massive in size and aspiration. Maybe their faith won’t move mountains but, in time, it might get something built on them.
Originally published in Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine, Winter 2017/2018