Luxury Resort Sells for $115M in Ch. 11 Auction

BUTTE, MT-Yellowstone Club, a luxury private resort here, has been sold in a bankruptcy court-led auction for $115 million. CrossHarbor Capital Partners of Boston emerged as the winning bidder.

According to an AP report, of the $115 million CrossHarbor will pay for the club, $35 million is in cash with the other $80 million in the form of a promissory note to Credit Suisse. Under the agreement reached earlier this week, a claim that Credit Suisse drove the resort into bankruptcy with a fraudulent $375-million loan was dismissed. Credit Suisse also retains the option to buy at stake in the new CrossHarbor investment.

However, according to the AP report, former club owner Tim Blixseth still faces charges that he breached his fiduciary duty to the resort when he used most of that $375-million loan, made in 2005, to pay down personal debts and buy luxury estates in Scotland, France and Mexico.

“CrossHarbor remains committed to the Yellowstone Club, its members and the community,” says a statement released by the firm. “We are pleased that the bankruptcy court has approved our agreement with the debtors, the pre-petition lenders, the Ad Hoc Yellowstone Club Members Committee and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors. This will enable the Yellowstone Club to emerge from Chapter 11 as a well-capitalized enterprise, positioned to thrive for the benefit of the club’s members, employees and the Big Sky community. We look forward to final confirmation of the Plan of Reorganization.”

Sam Byrne, managing partner and co-founder of CrossHarbor Capital Partners, says in a statement that the resolution surrounding the reorganization plan is a positive outcome for Yellowstone Club members, employees and creditors. “We are extremely pleased that the future of the club has been secured and we can now turn our focus to serving the needs of our members and enhancing our world-class private living and recreation community. It was also important to us that the creditors and local tradesmen who helped build this special place will be made whole through the settlement process.”

Edra Blixseth, CEO of Yellowstone Club, says in a statement that, “I am very pleased that my goal of ensuring that the club will live on for generations as intended has been achieved.” Discovery Land Co. of Scottsdale, AZ will serve as CrossHarbor’s joint venture partner, developer and manager of the Yellowstone Club.

A 2006 article in the New York Times magazine describes the Yellowstone Club as an opulent private vacation club for the very wealthy in which members pay millions of dollars to access the club’s properties. A golf and ski resort, it sits on 14,000 acres and features 864 residential properties.

Alan X. Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine, CA, tells GlobeSt.com that he has closely followed the “messy” bankruptcy proceedings of the resort and was not surprised by the outcome. “This is the start of many luxury resort properties coming to market through bankruptcies and foreclosures,” he says. “They are going through tough times.” CrossHarbor, which owns other properties in the Yellowstone area, was a natural fit for the club, Reay says.