NEDERLAND — The Town of Nederland’s nondisclosure agreement (NDA) regarding their attempted acquisition of the Eldora Ski Resort has kept the public in the dark on nearly every step of the process, leaving those curious for information at the whim of the Frequently Asked Questions format favored by the Town and the Mayor. 

With the 2026/2027 ski season about to begin, residents are more curious than ever about where the acquisition currently stands. And though there are avenues for those seeking answers, including utilizing Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests to legally obtain public data and information, residents and journalists have had issues breaking through the seemingly ironclad and all-encompassing NDA. 

On September 4, civil case 2026CV30797—BusinessDen, LLC. v. Nederland Town Clerk Macy Caligaris—was filed with the Boulder County District Court. 

The lawsuit is for the release of “all documents prepared for and being provided to potential investors/buyers of bonds being issued by the Town of Nederland, including the Town’s Preliminary Limited Offering Memo (PLOM), in conjunction with its planned purchase of the Eldora Ski Area.”

“Nederland structured this in a specific way so to never share anything,” said Aaron Kremer, Founder of BusinessDen. “They made it a special subsidiary so the Town residents never got a vote, but the amount of debt per resident is beyond bananas.” 

Factoring in the reported $120 million dollar bond purchase amount and a flat estimate of 1,500 residents, the amount of debt per resident is roughly $80,000 per person. 

BusinessDen.com is an online publication based out of Denver that, since its inception in 2015, has maintained a focus on breaking Colorado business news. Much like the people of Nederland, Kremer has burning questions about the acquisition.

“There are more and more red flags, and the Town has shared absolutely nothing month after month,” he said. “What are the basic financial metrics of the business that they’re buying on behalf of the town? Municipal bonds are usually a kind of futzy, not-very-exciting side of finance, but what is the rate?

“Towns usually borrow at very low rates like 3%, 4%, but no legitimate business can borrow at 9% and pay that back. What are the cascading effects if they miss a payment, or if the ski area doesn’t perform? The devil is in the details, but who knows what they’re signing away?”

On May 1, 2025, BusinessDen reporter Thomas Gounley filed a CORA request with the Town of Nederland for the aforementioned documents, as well as the PLOM, a document used to market bonds before the sale that details the bond issuer’s financial status and the terms of the bond.

On August 28, 2025, Gounley received a denial from the Town. It stated the records in question are “exempt from disclosure pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS) § 24-72-204(3)(a)(IV), as they were provided to prospective investors under a non-disclosure agreement and contain confidential commercial information.” 

Previous counsel for BusinessDen responded with an Application to Show Cause, to which Nederland’s Attorney Jennifer Madsen doubled down and confirmed the Town’s stance on denying Gounley’s CORA request.  The Town believes that the aforementioned statute pertains to the PLOM since it includes information about POWDR and Alterra Mountain Company. Private entities like POWDR are not subject to CORA requests.

“The PLOM also contains evaluation materials developed in connection with the proposed acquisition of the ski area,” a May 27, 2026, response letter from Attorney Madsen reads, “including a market study, environmental assessment, property condition report, and water resource evaluations.

“These evaluation materials are analogous to valuation and appraisal-type analyses prepared in connection with a governmental acquisition, which the General Assembly has recognized as sensitive in certain contexts.”

Representing Kremer and BusinessDen is Rachael Johnson, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Committee—originally formed in 1970 to legally protect a New York Times reporter who was being forced to reveal his sources—provides pro bono legal services to journalists. 

“If they thought I didn’t have any legal claim, then they would’ve told me to just move on,” Kremer said about being represented by Johnson and the Reporters Committee. 

The lawsuit claims the Town’s excuse for denying BusinessDen’s CORA request is invalid due to the documents in question falling under the definition of public records—CRS § 24-72-202(6)(a)(I)—as they are “writings” by the Town that are “made, maintained, or kept for use in the exercise of functions required or authorized by law or administrative rule.” 

The Town’s explanation that the PLOM is protected from public release under a sub-statute claiming that such action would violate federal securities law was also brought into question.

According to Johnson, this trade secrets exemption—CRS § 24-72-204(3)(a)(IV)—does not apply to information that the government created themselves or with others, based on the Colorado ruling of Zubek v. El Paso County, which states that “a custodian is required to produce, in full or in redacted form, material that it generated or coauthored.” 

“Defendant cannot cloak all sought documents as ‘appraisal materials,’” the lawsuit reads. 

“There are more detailed questions that we would love to ask, but we need that document,” Kremer said. “We have no information from which we can stitch together our questions from.”

Kremer describes the Town of Nederland’s public outreach regarding the acquisition as providing nothing more than “evasive double-speak,” damaging to public trust. 

“Interest rates are going up, so I think the borrowing conditions for Nederland are probably getting worse,” he said. “They’re facing a stiff headwind in the bond market, but there’s been nothing from their perspective on that.  

“I think ski area visits were generally down about 25% in Colorado. It was an awful ski year, so how does Eldora’s numbers look? What if it’s three years like that in a row? How is the town going to pay the bond holders if they have three really crummy years for whatever reason? It’s a boom and bust business; it always has been, and the Town has never answered any of that.”

As for legal Relief, BusinessDen is requesting that an Order to Show Cause be completed, after which an order be made declaring the PLOM and all related materials as non-exempt to disclosure, and then be released to the plaintiff for review. The lawsuit adds that all fees for releasing the documents should be waived, as should the plaintiff’s attorney fees. 

Photo courtesy of Jzehnder

Town of Nederland officials did not respond to requests for comment.

As of the publication of this article, a preliminary hearing has yet to be scheduled.