NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
YELLOWSTONE – The National Park Service has selected Xanterra Parks and Resorts to provide visitor services in Yellowstone National Park for the next two decades.
The new 20-year contract covers lodging, retail sales and restaurants, and includes a 4.5 percent franchise fee and a 6 percent repair and maintenance reserve account. The contract also requires an estimated $134.5 million investment in facilities improvements.
Roughly half the money will go toward redevelopment of lodging at Canyon. Other projects include renovation of the Fishing Bridge RV Park, continued renovation of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, new concession employee housing at Lake and Old Faithful, rehabilitation of the Mammoth Haynes Photo Shop, and remodels to provide year-round lodging at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.
Work on these facility improvement projects is scheduled to begin in 2014 and to be completed by 2018.
Xanterra holds the current contract for the park’s concessions, which began in December 2005 and expires at the end of November 2013. The company reported gross receipts of approximately $89 million for calendar year 2011.
