Madison-based Great Wolf Resorts Inc. expects to sale the Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan by the end of the first quarter, executives said in a conference call last week.
“We do have the resort under contract with a party that we believe is a highly qualified buyer,” said Great Wolf chief financial officer Jim Calder. He did not name the potential buyer.
The sale must be approved by Sheboygan city officials, because the city provided a $4 million loan and $8 million in additional assistance to Great Wolf to build the 182-room resort and conference center, which opened in 2004 on a peninsula between Lake Michigan and the Sheboygan River.
“We’re working with the potential buyer and the city to proceed with the transaction,” Calder said.
Blue Harbor Resort has struggled to attract guests year-round to a community that is not seen as a tourist destination by many. The resort anchor’s Sheboygan’s South Pier District which, despite its location between Lake Michigan and the Sheboygan River, has been slow to attract additional development.
Great Wolf put Blue Harbor on the market in mid-2010. In 2009, the company recorded a $24 million write-down of the property and company executives placed the resort’s fair market value at $6 million after the write-down.
