The Bangor area’s only remaining ski area is up for sale.
New Hermon Mountain ski area was listed for $5 million on May 25, according to Jessica Wiltbank, an agent with SVN The Masiello Group, who is brokering the sale.
The 67.5-acre ski area, which closed for the season in March, is the only one in the Bangor area that still offers downhill skiing after a handful of other ski areas in Dedham, Newburgh and Winterport, as well as the Essex Street hill in Bangor, closed or were abandoned decades ago.
The Hermon ski area on Newburgh Road first opened to the public in 1960, when it had T-bar lifts and a primitive log cabin, according to Wiltbank.
“It was pretty rustic,” she said.
The Whitcomb family, its current owners, bought it in 1987 and modernized it, installing a new lift system and tubing hills and adding a new lodge in 2005. The Hermon ski area also offers skiing and snowboarding lessons.
The owners did not respond to a message Monday seeking comment.
Wiltbank said the Whitcombs are nearing retirement and are seeking a new owner who will invest in the property and expand it beyond its current capacity to offer summertime activities.
Ski areas have become popular recreational areas as the pandemic encouraged people to engage in outdoor activities, though some resorts initially cut capacity to accommodate social distancing.
While Hermon Mountain is the only ski resort in the Bangor area, skiing is available in the Moosehead Lake area, where a volunteer group has run a nonprofit ski area on part of the site of a longtime ski resort that closed in 2010.
A Rangeley-based developer, Perry Williams, has proposed expanding the area’s ski offerings with a $113.5 million ski resort at the longtime resort site in Big Moose Township that would also offer hotel lodging, a conference center, taphouse, restaurant and ziplining.
Perry Williams, the developer, has pitched the proposal as an opportunity for Piscataquis County that could revitalize the local economy and provide year-round jobs. Piscataquis County commissioners have previously backed the project, while critics have cited a fear of overdevelopment in their opposition.
