The Yellowstone Club, also Yellowstone Ski Resort, is an invitation-only residential club, ski resort, and golf resort located in the state of Montana, USA. The Rocky Mountain ski and golf club is located in eastern Madison County, just west of Big Sky, Montana, south of Bozeman and northwest of Yellowstone National Park. The club entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2008 [1] and emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009. It is owned by investors led by CrossHarbor Capital Partners, and is operated by Discovery Land Company.
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During its peak season, almost 600 people are employed at the club.[2]
The club was featured on CNBC's lifestyle show High Net Worth with Tyler Mathisen.
Cyclist Greg LeMond, an early investor and homeowner/member, sued the club in 2006, saying club founder Tim Blixseth and his former wife Edra Denise (Crocker) Blixseth had borrowed $375 million from Credit Suisse Group and took $209 million for themselves as a dividend, jilting him and other investors. The suit was settled in 2008 for $39.5 million.[3] Ms. Blixseth eventually agreed to pay Mr. LeMond and others a $21.5 million settlement; she’s paid only $8 million of that amount and Mr. LeMond and others are now among her creditors in her personal bankruptcy.[4]
Other members identified in, or cited in, the Times report were Burt Sugarman, a Beverly Hills businessman, and his wife, the Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart; Steve Burke, the chief operating officer of Comcast; Bill Frist, the former Senate majority leader; Todd Thomson, the former head of Citigroup’s private banking unit; Robert Greenhill, founder of the investment bank Greenhill & Company; Annika Sörenstam, the Swedish golf star; Frank McCourt, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Jim Davidson, a founder of Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm in Menlo Park (CA); Brian Klein, a former Goldman Sachs vice president who now runs an investment management firm in Seattle; Peter Chernin of the News Corporation; Barry Sternlicht, the hotelier and CEO of Starwood Capital Group; and Gary Rieschel, a venture capitalist with Qiming Venture Partners. Jack Kemp, the late U.S. politician, was on the club’s honorary board of directors with Mr. Quayle, among others.
The Times said that as of June 2009, Yellowstone Club had about 250 members. It said membership cost a minimum of $250,000 to join, plus the cost of a $5 million to $35 million mountainside home, plus annual dues of about $20,000, according to members.[4]
On November 10, 2008, in the midst of the economic downturn, Yellowstone filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It emerged from protection July 19, 2009.[5] Yellowstone had been in the planning stages of an expansion, in a development partnership with the Discovery Land Company of Arizona, which was to include 450 additional houses and condos, an ice rink, a baseball field, a luxury spa and more ski runs.[1] When filing, they owed US$343 million to creditors, such as banks and local contractors. However the club's property was listed in court filings as being worth US$778 million.[1]
In advance of a June 2009, court date, Edra Blixseth spoke to a reporter for The New York Times about her and her ex-husband's business affairs from Porcupine Creek, her 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) estate in Rancho Mirage, CA. She hoped to retain the estate and make it income-producing with its 240-acre (0.97 km2) private golf course. Porcupine Creek was sold to Larry Ellison in 2011 for $42.9 million. Edra Blixseth is currently being forced to sell Chateau de Farcheville in France because of her bankruptcy.
The Yellowstone Club was sold for $115 million to a private equity firm, CrossHarbor Capital Partners affiliated with a Yellowstone Club member, Sam Byrne. In 2009, negotiations with that same buyer had put a $400 million price tag on the club, but the deal did not close then. In the 2009 transaction, Byrne "has pledged to invest $75 million above the purchase price in repairs and has set aside $15 million to pay the club’s creditors," according to the Times.[4] The deal was brokered by Jeff Woolson, Managing Director of the CBRE Golf & Resort Properties Group,[6] and Steve Lehr, Managing Director of CBRE's Land Services Group. CB Richard Ellis was selected by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to market the property because of the firm's successful track record handling complicated transactions.
In November 2010 some parts of the bankruptcy reorganization were overturned, particularly concerning the settlement with Credit Suisse. A judge ordered reconsideration of those aspects in bankruptcy court.[7]
The ski runs are on Pioneer Mountain which is located here: . Pioneer Mountain is on the Sphinx Mountain USGS topographic map which indicates a summit elevation of 9,859 feet (3,005 m).
The resort itself has several lifts and runs that tie it directly into Big Sky Resort's lift system. Access into Yellowstone Club from Big Sky is provided via the Southern Comfort lift.
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