New York Times - March 5, 2008

OGDEN, Utah - Michael Dowse was talking on the telephone one day in January and watching the snow build up outside the windows of his newly rehabbed office in a 1915 factory complex in this historic railroad town, where his company, Amer Sports Winter and Outdoor Americas, has made its headquarters since last summer.

"We're getting pounded," said a cheerful Mr. Dowse, who is president of the company, a unit of Amer Sports, a Finnish concern with subsidiaries that make skis and snowboards.

"We've got seven or eight inches already." He sounded hopeful for more.

Fresh powder snow has marketing advantages to the company, which recently played host to nearly 100 retailers from across the country to test equipment personally on local slopes, some as close as 20 minutes from the old factory building.

Amer Sports signed a 10-year lease last year for 57,000 square feet, with an option to renew the lease, in the 209,000-square-foot former American Can building. The company moved in with 300 employees last August.

The building is owned by Jon Peddie, a developer based in Steamboat Springs, Colo., who renovated a portion of the complex for Amer Sports. Mr. Peddie would not disclose costs.

Amer Sports is the latest sports-related company to move into Ogden, a former manufacturing town that is emerging from hard times as a center of skiing and other outdoor sports.

Other companies that have relocated here in the last five years include Rossignol, the French ski maker; Scott Sport, a maker of sportswear and bicycles; Goode Ski Technologies; and Nidecker, a Swiss snowboard maker. Kahuna Creatives, another snowboard maker, and Descente North America, a unit of a Japanese ski-wear maker, also have their headquarters in the city.

There were a number of attractions, both natural and financial, that drew Amer Sports to Ogden, a city of 87,000 people 22 miles north of Salt Lake City. A commuter rail line connecting the two cities is scheduled to open next month.

The recreational advantages can be seen on the helicopter rides that Matthew R. Godfrey, the city's boosterish mayor, likes to give to business owners.

There are two separate kayak parks in the city, where two rivers converge. Rock climbing and hang gliding are also available nearby, while extreme sports enthusiasts who want to sample rock climbing in a safe environment can do so in Salomon Center, an enclosed year-round facility. Salomon, an Amer Sports subsidiary that makes winter sports equipment, recently acquired the naming rights to the attraction.

City officials are also studying the possibility of building a gondola to carry skiers directly from downtown Ogden to nearby slopes.

A Los Angeles developer, Gadi Leshem, has proposed three waterfront developments along the Ogden River and has offered to clean up a portion of the waterway.

Subsidies from the state of Utah totaling $7.94 million may have been as instrumental in recruiting Amer Sports as good ski conditions, however. The state provided $2.5 million in an upfront grant to Amer Sports to cover relocation and building improvement costs. In addition, the company can collect up to $5.44 million in the next 10 years in the form of a property tax rebates.

In the end, "the city had the mayor, the mountains and the money," Mr. Dowse said.

The subsidies reflect efforts by state officials to attract makers of sports gear and other industries. "Land economics and the cost of doing business in Utah are very low, and our labor force is young and very well educated," said Jason P. Perry, executive director of the governor's Office of Economic Development.

Ogden's hopes of turning itself into a resort town contrast with the torpor that hung over the city for much of the last 40 years. Ogden had been the state's industrial center, largely because of its location along the original transcontinental railroad line. Many of the prominent buildings and factories in the town date from the first two decades of the 20th century, perhaps the height of the city's prosperity as Utah's industrial and transportation hub.

The growth of the Interstate highway system, however, began to hurt Ogden in the 1950s and '60s. The American Can building closed in 1979, and remained empty until Mr. Peddie started to restore it in 2005.

Mr. Godfrey, who was first elected mayor in 1999, has spent much of his time in office buttonholing business prospects for the city. He approached Amer Sports officials early this decade, but "kind of got the brush off," he recalled.

Mr. Dowse, who grew up in Salt Lake City, was looking for a United States headquarters site for the company, which had operations in Portland, Ore.; Amherst, N.H.; and Carlsbad, Calif. But he acknowledges Ogden was not on the list.

"I had a perception of Ogden as a boarded-up railroad town," he said.

When Mr. Godfrey and state officials persuaded some company officials to visit the city during a swing through the state in 2004, however, a brief meeting turned into a full-day discussion.

The image of the old American Can complex - a group of handsome structures in buff-colored brick with atrium-style factory spaces lined in sash windows and set off by a smokestack that rises 65 feet from the ground - may have persuaded Mr. Dowse.

When Amer Sports officials saw the factory complex, "they just came alive," Mr. Godfrey said. The idea of being part of an effort to salvage an old building, rather than building a new one, was also appealing to a company with a strong environmental ethos, the mayor added.

"Being able to preserve the building was very important to them," he said.

Mr. Dowse concurred. "The building was perfect," he said. His new office space is supported by columns made of heavy square-edged timbers.

Beyond architecture, there are other advantages to working close to the mountains, including a lenient attitude toward winter recreation. When the snowfall reaches 20 inches or so, he said, "we close the doors and tell the staff to go skiing."