Liko Smith: Sugar Loaf no longer on “front of my to-do list”
“Sugar Loaf is like a beautiful girl who wants to get married. But she keeps getting left by guys at the altar, so she keeps coming back to me.” — Liko Smith
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Sugar Loaf, the long-shuttered ski resort in the heart of Leelanau County, is no longer on the front of Liko Smith’s to-do list, the enigmatic Las Vegas hotelier and “extreme CEO” told the Glen Arbor Sun last night.
This despite a Feb. 13 press release published by Smith’s “Rok at Sugar Loaf” Facebook page, which stated that he is close to acquiring Sugar Loaf.
“It’s important to me, but it’s not on the front of my to-do list,” Smith said during a phone interview from the Las Vegas airport before reportedly catching a flight to New York City. “We have an option to move forward on the property. But I’ve got big deals I’m taking care of in Vegas first.”
“We see tremendous opportunity in Vegas right now. As soon as that wraps up, I’ll take a close look at Sugar Loaf.”
Using boisterous and flowery language for which Smith is known, he made the following analogy about Sugar Loaf’s frustrated inability to find a new owner with the will or ability to re-open the resort, whose chairlifts haven’t run since the year 2000.
“Sugar Loaf is like a beautiful girl who wants to get married. But she keeps getting left by guys at the altar, so she keeps coming back to me.”
Smith said he knew of no other serious suitors looking at Sugar Loaf.
“Right now we’re the only ones at the table.”
Smith had written in the press release that acquisition terms were reached on Feb. 10. The property, derelict ski lodge and decades-old chairlifts are currently owned by Remo Polselli and Rock Investment Advisors. Polselli officially acquired the ownership deed from Kate Wickstrom late last year.
Here’s what the release disclosed about the potential deal:
“A substantial cash deposit followed by an abatement period, following the abatement period, a scaled monthly lease schedule over a period of 3 years. Extension periods are possible under separate agreement. Smith and his partners see a lease with option structure much more feasible given the scale of work and breadth of issues surrounding the resort as well as the general economic conditions of the area. Smith will present the terms to his financing partners, which upon acceptance will wire the requested deposit to the current Owner. Final Lease terms will then be drafted for final signatures. Smith plans to complete the process within the next 30 to 60 days.”
With Sugar Loaf no longer on the front of his to-do list, however, the 30-60 day statement appears out the window.
Smith wouldn’t say what deals he is cooking up in Vegas, but repeatedly used the word we instead of I. He revealed nothing about which financiers are backing him in Vegas.
“Some of the guys have massive money,” Smith disclosed, “But money needs ideas, not the other way around.”
He also declined to comment on who, besides Remo Polselli, is behind Rock Investment Advisors, or whether the “Rok at Sugar Loaf” and “Rock Investment Advisors” are one in the same. Smith chuckled at the suggested connection between “Rok” and “Rock”.
Smith is known to be a business associate with Polselli. In September 2013, when he claimed, erroneously, to have acquired Sugar Loaf, Smith was working out of Polselli’s “New California Hotels” office in Laguna Beach, Calif.
Smith said that if he does set his sites on Sugar Loaf again, he’d take a more collaborative approach next time. “I want to talk to business owners in the area,” he said.
