Looks like even the rich are driving into a few ditches in this economy as the exclusive members-only Yellowstone Club resort gets sold in bankruptcy for $115 million dollars, a fraction of the $470 million previously offered by the buyer Boston Based CrossHarbor, according to a story on the Frequency: The Snowboarder’s Journal.
At the height of the luxury real estate boom, the 13,600-acre club in Montana’s Big Sky area north of Yellowstone National Park attracted such high-profile names as Bill Gates, Dan Quayle and cycling star Greg LeMond. To join, more than 300 members bought multimillion dollar mountain properties and submitted deposits of at least $250,000.
In a January 2009 essay on NewWest.com former ski filmmaker and Yellowstone Club founding Director of Skiing Warren Miller said the reason the club has not yet reached it’s ultimate goals is because of a few high profile divorces among the club’s 320 members.
And then a contentious divorce by the founders of the Club, the Blixseths, has temporarily delayed the fulfillment of the dream that every member has come to expect. Having one of those ugly divorces in my own background, I know that when you split your married financial nest egg in half, it takes a long time to recover.
Looks like even exclusive resorts can be ruined by love.
[Link: Associated Press via Frequency and NewWest.com]
