So the Yellowstone Club's apparently for sale

[Jumper Bones]

Jan 5, 2:54 PM ESTLinka to Bozeman Daily Comical

Blixseths negotiating sale of exclusive Yellowstone Club

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) -- The exclusive Yellowstone Club south of Big Sky is for sale, and negotiations are under way with a Boston-based real estate and private equity firm, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The sale is likely to be completed in a couple of months, and the price will be between $400 million and $600 million, the newspaper reported Friday.

Owner Tim Blixseth said he believes the millionaires-only, gated community will continue to thrive under new ownership.

"The club will grow even at a greater pace than the past 10 years, and it should provide superb opportunity for local employment as well as subcontractor work," he said Friday in an e-mail to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Blixseth and his estranged wife, Edra, are in negotiations with the Boston-based company Crossharbor Capital, and that Crossharbor's managing partner, Samuel Byrne, is a longtime Yellowstone Club member.

In an e-mail to club members this week, Edra Blixseth said Byrne "is the current front-runner to become the new owner."

She said Byrne and his company have bought land in the community and developed the club's first "vertical, multifamily effort." Byrne also has purchased a "significant number of YC (Yellowstone Club) golf course lots this past fall and plans to build on those in the near future."

Should the deal be completed, she said, "I am confident that he and his team will 'keep the dream alive!'"

Edra Blixseth said she plans to remain a club member and was writing to other members to alert them about the upcoming Journal story. "I look forward to sharing the YC experience with our families together for many years," she wrote.

The couple decided a year ago to call an end to their 25-year marriage. They said earlier that they had reached an agreement on how to divide their estimated $2 billion in assets, and that they both would retain ownership of the Yellowstone Club. However, the negotiations have become increasingly bitter.

Tim Blixseth told the Wall Street Journal his pending divorce was "certainly among the factors" propelling the sale.

Blixseth, a timber man from Oregon, came to Montana in 1992, when he and partners bought 165,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. land in the Gallatin National Forest.

He began logging some of the land, sold some environmentally sensitive parcels to the U.S. Forest Service and completed a set of swaps with the federal government that left him and Edra in sole control of 13,500 acres adjoining the Big Sky Resort.

Meanwhile, property prices began to skyrocket in western Montana. By the late 1990s, Blixseth announced plans to build the Yellowstone Club, where early members had to prove they were worth $3 million to join.

Today, vacant lots there sell for $1 million and up, and homes go for $10 million and up. The club also includes a private ski hill, golf course and other amenities.

The community "redefined the luxury vacation-home business in the past five years and became a Rocky Mountain refuge for the rich and famous," the Journal reported Friday.

But it has not existed without controversy. Some conservationists resent the extreme consumption it represents; and in 2004, Blixseth agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $1.8 million to settle a water pollution case related to construction at the club.

In 2006, former Tour de France bicycle racing champion Greg LeMond and some other early club investors sued Blixseth, accusing him of trying to force them to leave the club and sell their shares for a fraction of their value.

That case has now been settled, said Bozeman attorney Jim Goetz, who represented LeMond and the others. Goetz said the terms of the settlement are confidential.

---

Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com

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So...anybody got 4-600 million bucks? All the skiing in the world can be yours...

...sounds like his Yellowstone World Club (and divorce) really blew up in his face.

[Ole703]

Haha that doesnt suprise me Greg Lemond trying to sue them........I went to high school with one of his sons.....Scott. That family is way too cocky with money. I hope Lemonds case gets thrown out and they have to pay court fees.

[Sensisnow]

Originally Posted by Jumper Bones

So...anybody got 4-600 million bucks? All the skiing in the world can be yours...

...sounds like his Yellowstone World Club (and divorce) really blew up in his face.

I'll kick in $500.

If we can get 1,199,999 other people to chip in the same amount we'll have it covered!

[coldrain85]

I guess it's fine for when you get too old to barge the high T, and stay ahead of the maggot convoy at the same time. You can buy your own piece of untracked for a mere 10 mil.


http://www.theyellowstoneclub.com/skiing/trailmap.pdf


The names of the chairs and the ski runs are extremely lame, except Little Wing cuz of the Hendrix song. Fuck Yellowstone Club. I'd rather fight for turns on Alf's.

[Lonnie]

Originally Posted by Ole703

Haha that doesnt suprise me Greg Lemond trying to sue them........I went to high school with one of his sons.....Scott. That family is way too cocky with money. I hope Lemonds case gets thrown out and they have to pay court fees.

^^^^ 2nded. Lemond is a first class asshat.

[DharmaBum]

If you don't buy the Yellowstone club this year, you'll just be another year older when you do.

[AKPogue]

Originally Posted by Ole703

Haha that doesnt suprise me Greg Lemond trying to sue them........I went to high school with one of his sons.....Scott. That family is way too cocky with money. I hope Lemonds case gets thrown out and they have to pay court fees.

Call me stupid, but doesn't it say in the last line of that article that this case got settled.

[Jumper Bones]

Actually, around here, LeMond's usually thought of pretty highly - he's known for being a pretty decent skier, and sneaking in Big Sky shop dirtbags to ski with him all the time - kind of a local Robin Hood.

I think the suit has something to do with the World Club - essentially Blixseth used company assets to acquire overseas locales, like castles in Scotland and Yachts in the Med, to be used as further properties for his members to use. Problem is that at their level of wealth, members probably already have access to stuff like that...and he was using funds that maybe should have gone to the existant Club and finishing certain aspects of its development (like the Warren Miller Lodge).

[Phall]

maggot owned mountain? anyone?

[moonlightdbag]

YC being for sale is kinda old news, moonlights sale is the new rumor mill

[axebiker]

Originally Posted by moonlightdbag

YC being for sale is kinda old news, moonlights sale is the new rumor mill

...and that SCARES me. I love that area.

[Jumper Bones]

Originally Posted by moonlightdbag

YC being for sale is kinda old news, moonlights sale is the new rumor mill

The YC sale rumor is old news, but the concrete 'yup it's for sale' is new, headline stuff from yesterday.

And MLB, hasn't that been known for like a month? Wonder if Boyne will scoop it up...

[RootSkier]

Building houses at the YC was the catalyst for a major career change for me.

That place is a disgusting waste of resources.

[bodeisthetits]

Ole703, whats your real name.

[gamma]

maggots should own a ski hill. how many of us are there?

[mnflyfish]

At $400Mil, and assuming that the article in Skiing is right and there are 15,000 maggots, that would amt to approx $27K a person and we could buy the place and give the current membership a little something else to worry about. That would be a ton of fun, safty meetings in the Lodge, car camping in the parking lot, PBR on tap...

Jay

[mnflyfish]

Originally Posted by Ole703

Haha that doesnt suprise me Greg Lemond trying to sue them........I went to high school with one of his sons.....Scott. That family is way too cocky with money. I hope Lemonds case gets thrown out and they have to pay court fees.

I wish he'd move. Every spring there's a bunch of weekend warriors trying to follow him around the lake on hwy 15 and they fuck up traffic something fierce. I do like the Lamond road bikes but wouldn't buy one.

Let me know if you're in the neighborhood, I'm always up for a beer at Dailys or the Rooster.

Jay

[Benny Profane]

I saw some little thing on a cable channel along the likes of Lifestyles of the People with More Money than God, and Lemond was giving a tour of his little "camp" in that place. Even if you don't like the guy, and I never met him, he has damn good taste in building a mountain home/s. I'd buy it in a flash if I had 100 mil in liquid assets. Real nice.

[axebiker]

Originally Posted by mnflyfish

I do like the Lamond road bikes but wouldn't buy one.

I don't... The name is too treacherous!! After all his crybaby showboating in regards to Lance (drug accusations and so forth...), I lost all respect for that guy. His ego seems a tad fragile.

[JoeStrummer]

Tim Blixseth is a worthless uncle-fucker! I hope his wife leaves him with nothing and then she gets defrauded by a Nigerian scam ring.

[Tap]

Originally Posted by DharmaBum

If you don't buy the Yellowstone club this year, you'll just be another year older when you do.

Here here!

[Ole703]

Originally Posted by AKPogue

Call me stupid, but doesn't it say in the last line of that article that this case got settled.

Opps I guess I missed that.........anyway I still hope the Lemonds go in the poor house and stop being cocky bastards.

[Hugh Conway]

Just to reinforce how much skiing is about the real estate and not the skiing, Mammoth mountain with over 1.5million skier days sold to starwood for $365 million ~2 years ago.

[Ole703]

Originally Posted by mnflyfish

I wish he'd move. Every spring there's a bunch of weekend warriors trying to follow him around the lake on hwy 15 and they fuck up traffic something fierce. I do like the Lamond road bikes but wouldn't buy one.

Let me know if you're in the neighborhood, I'm always up for a beer at Dailys or the Rooster.

Jay

Haha finally a local. You would be more likely to find me at the Peppercorn. I have never personally met Greg but His son Scott his a first class cocky bastard. I know that he drove a Bmw M coupe and a volvo S60 R.

[Ole703]

Originally Posted by bodeisthetits

Ole703, whats your real name.

Why do you care? I graduated from Orono Senior High School. I am a local to the area and know it well.