Garibaldi at Squamish sale approved with $80 million bid

A BC judge has approved the sale of the assets belonging to a company behind an ambitious proposal to build a new ski resort in the Sea to Sky region.

The court green lit a starting bid of $80 million for the assets of Garibaldi at Squamish. The bid was called a stalking horse bid — a minimum bid so the assets of the insolvent company aren’t valued lower.

The bidders hoping to take over are Aquilini LP, Garibaldi Resort Management Company Ltd., and a numbered company.

It’s not yet known what will become of the plans for the ski resort. It’s been in the works for more than 20 years and got conditional environmental approvals as long as construction started by January 2026. It is the only new ski resort in BC to get such a nod from the government.

Many of those approval conditions have still not yet been met.

The Garibaldi at Squamish project was estimated to cost $3.5 billion, with 1,600 acres of skiable terrain.

Post-pandemic, the company was deep in debt with repayment deadlines approaching. It entered receivership, and the most recent documents suggest it owed approximately $73 million.