The ownership transfer, which was announced Wednesday, will result in Joe Hession, CEO of Snow Operating, acquiring a controlling interest in the resort from the Koffman family ownership.

Under the agreement, Snow Operating will assume 50 percent ownership of Mountain Creek and will have exclusive year-round oversight of the resort’s ski and waterpark operations and all other day-to-day activities. Effective immediately, Hession will also take on a dual role as Mountain Creek’s CEO from Jeff Koffman, who has held the title since June 2015.

The agreement, which comes as the resort and the township are said to be on the cusp of a comprehensive settlement of the resort’s Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy lawsuit filed in May 2017, is still subject to court approval as well as agreement by Sussex County and other interested parties and creditors.

Hession — a 38-year-old ski industry entrepreneur who was brought in by the Koffmans in September 2017 to manage the mountain and ski operations, and who took over operation of the resort’s waterpark and other businesses in June — said he is optimistic the agreement will pass muster and mark a new beginning in the resort’s relationship with the township.

“We are very excited to be taking a larger role in Mountain Creek’s current and future well-being,” Hession said. “One of the resort’s biggest partners is the town of Vernon, and I feel confident we will come to a resolution that works for both the town and the resort. Vernon is my hometown, and I recognize that Mountain Creek needs the town and local support, and I also understand the town does best when Mountain Creek is strong and healthy.”

Under the agreement, Jeff Koffman — who took over as the resort’s CEO when his family acquired the resort in June 2015 — will remain an invested partner with Hession. In a statement Wednesday, Koffman expressed confidence that their relationship would continue to pay dividends for everyone involved.

“The team at Snow Operating has proven themselves to be very capable operators over the past year,” Koffman said. “We are very excited about working with them at Mountain Creek for years to come, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership for us all.”

The agreement effectively marks the fourth principal owner the resort will have had in the last eight years, going back to when resort developer Intrawest Corp. sold it in 2010 to an ownership group headed by Gene Mulvihill, whose stake had been acquired by Intrawest 12 years earlier. Full ownership later passed in June 2015 to the Koffman family, who had been part-owners with Mulvihill prior to his passing in 2012.

Hession said that despite the successive ownership changes, he remains supremely confident in the resort’s future and is in it for the long haul.

Vernon Mayor Harry Shortway, with whom Hession has been directly involved in the resort’s bankruptcy settlement talks for the past few months, said Wednesday that he, too, is optimistic — not only in the resort’s future but also in the prospects for a settlement that will enable the resort to make good on the $26 million of debt it owes Vernon for sewerage flow allocation that the township underwrote on the resort’s behalf more than a decade ago.

Under its bankruptcy action, Mountain Creek last year sought to be relieved of that debt, which constitutes roughly two-thirds of the more than $43 million owed by Vernon to the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority for the expansion of SCMUA’s Upper Wallkill sewage treatment plant, which was financed by bonds backed by Sussex County. For now, Vernon is continuing to make partial payments on its debt to SCMUA, but a permanent default by Mountain Creek would almost certainly cause Vernon to default as well, which could impact the county.

Shortway has said repeatedly that he will not allow Mountain Creek’s debt to fall on the taxpayers of Vernon, but he said both the township and Mountain Creek recognize they have a mutual interest in finding a solution.

“I’m highly confident we’re going to get this settled before the end of the year, and hopefully in the next few weeks,” Shortway said. “Both teams are working hard, and each of us understands where the other is coming from and are on the same page. The town needs to get this done, and Mountain Creek needs to get this done so they can be successful, which is something we all want.”

Hession, whose first job came at the age of 14 when he started out as a parking attendant at Mountain Creek, worked at the resort until he was 32 years old before moving to Colorado for a time. Since then, he has acquired something of a reputation as an international ski industry rainmaker.

Through Snow Operating — which Hession founded five years ago and owns jointly with his brother, Patrick Hession, and their attorney Scott Baldassano — he has entered partnerships with ski resorts in the United States, Canada and even China, and is currently invested in a partnership with the American Dream mall project in the Meadowlands that is expected to see North America’s first indoor ski and snowboard center open there next year.

Repeatedly, however, he has emphasized that his roots are tied to Mountain Creek and to Vernon.

“I’ve worked in every department at this resort from the time I was 14 until I was 32, and I know this place better than any person alive,” Hession said Wednesday. “We know the ski industry can be a finicky business, but we have a very good track record, and the years that I was GM here were also when the resort had some of the strongest results in its history.”

He said the results following his return last year have been equally as strong.

“It’s all about having the right team and right people and right plan, and not going for home runs but just trying to build a strong, sustainable business,” Hession said. “We know who we are and who we’re not, and even in bad weather, we know we’ll be able to support ourselves financially.”

Hession said Mountain Creek has set a targeted winter season opening date of Dec. 15, with winter season passes and triple play tickets now on sale at the resort’s website. Additional preparations underway include a new snowmaking expansion project that he said will allow the resort to open faster and maintain conditions better than it has in the past.

Further details on expected opening dates and resort operations can be found on its website at www.mountaincreek.com.