Saddleback ski area up for sale Owner seeks $12 million for property

RANGELEY – One of the largest parcels of recreational land in Maine has gone on the market: the Saddleback ski area and 8,373 acres near Rangeley.

The package includes the 358-acre Saddleback Lake, 13 square miles of woodland, a mountain bowl cradled by high peaks, and 41 downhill trails on 4,120-foot Saddleback Mountain, the second-highest ski mountain in Maine. The Appalachian Trail crosses its summit on its route from Georgia to Mount Katahdin.

The asking price is $12 million.

The current owners said Tuesday that the area could be transformed into one of the largest ski resorts in the East with thousands of homes.

It is being marketed by Sotheby’s International Realty under a new name: The Saddleback Lake and Mountain Preserve.

“Our family’s dream,” said Katherine Breen, daughter of the owner, “is to see it become one of the most amazing ski areas on the East Coast.”

It’s also possible that the land could be sold to a so-called “kingdom buyer” for a private wilderness retreat.

Either scenario worries conservation and hiking groups. They are disappointed by the asking price, which they say is high enough to preclude more modest development and further preservation of the area’s hiking and wilderness potential.

Karin Tilberg, Maine director of the Northern Forest Alliance, said she hopes conservation groups and state agencies will take a hard look at the sale.

“Every time a chunk of the North Woods goes on the market,” she said, “we should be thinking as creatively as we can.”

The Saddleback parcel is on a similar scale with two recent North Woods sales to kingdom buyers, transfers that have alarmed conservation groups. Last year, 15,000 acres on Spencer Lake near Jackman sold for $13.5 million, and 20,000 acres on Moosehead Lake went for $9.2 million.

In its sales booklet, Sotheby’s says the property “presents new owners with an unspoiled, open palette. Over 95 percent of the property is undeveloped, virgin territory.”

The booklet says that existing utilities can support “a large, multi-use real estate development project.” It envisions thousands of lakeside and mountain-view homes and an alpine ski village.

Donald Breen has owned Saddleback for more than two decades and over the years has expanded lifts to the summit, developed snowmaking and built 46 condominium units. Breen is now 72, his daughter said, and his children live around the country.