Billionaires’ Ski Club in Montana Stiffs Florists, Blacksmiths

[Joanne98]

By Anthony Effinger and Amy Linn

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Builders, florists and blacksmiths are counting their losses along with financiers and hedge-fund managers in the bankruptcy of the Yellowstone Club, a private ski-and-golf enclave in the Montana Rockies.

The club, where Persian rugs line the ski lodge and a trail is named “Learjet Glades,” sought protection from creditors on Nov. 10, brought down by the founders’ divorce, profligate spending, and a real estate slump. Members like investment banker Robert Greenhill, founder of Greenhill & Co., want to know where their $250,000 deposits went. A local wastewater company wants its $5,472.

Many small towns in the U.S. Rocky Mountain region rely on rich people who come to fish, ski and play golf. Now some destination spots are becoming desperation spots. Idaho’s Tamarack Resort is being run by a court-appointed manager after defaulting on a $250 million loan at the end of 2007. Creditors forced The Promontory in Utah into bankruptcy in March.

“It’s a pretty big impact on all the people who got stiffed,” said Todd King, owner of Advanced Wastewater Specialists, who hasn’t been paid for treating effluent at the Yellowstone Club. With the recession, the timing couldn’t be worse, he said. “We definitely don’t want to work for free.”

The pain is acute around Bozeman, Montana, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north, where many of the club’s workers live. The club employs 400 to 600 people, depending on the season, and has a monthly payroll of $882,000.

Gates a Member

It remains open after getting court approval on Dec. 12 for an emergency $19.8 million loan from club member Sam Byrne, founder of CrossHarbor Capital Partners LLC, a private equity firm in Boston.

Almost all members, including Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, built lavish houses at the site, creating work for local contractors. For years, cement trucks thundered up the narrow road to the club, and a parade of pick-ups lined up at the security gate each morning.

The list of 700 creditors filed in federal bankruptcy court reads like a Yellow Pages of Bozeman and the surrounding area. A local florist is owed $17,285 and a blacksmith $1,095, for shoeing horses. Scenic City Portables, which provides portable toilets, is waiting for $12,430. Even Montana’s utility company is out in the cold: NorthWestern Energy is owed $247,000.

‘As Whole as Possible’

Mary Warmoth’s company, We Dust Control and Deicing Inc., sprayed dirt roads along the 18-hole golf course to control dust last summer. The club owes her $4,147.

“The thing that was the most shocking to us was that they knew they couldn’t pay the bill when they asked us to do the work,” said Warmoth. “One of the guys up there told our driver, ‘Good luck getting paid.’”

Yellowstone Club spokesman Bill Keegan said the club is doing what it can to repay all the creditors. “The intent is to make people as whole as possible,” he said.

When Tim Blixseth and his ex-wife Edra opened the club, they billed it as the most exclusive ski resort in the world. The Blixseths signed up ski-film director Warren Miller to be director of skiing, and brought in a former U.S. Secret Service agent to be “director of privacy.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=atagRRfWXRds&refer=home

[Aviation Pro]

1. Ah, the lavish and private lifestyles....

...of the overextended. They want everything for free. Fuck it, line them up at the soup kitchen while their wearing their Armani and Gucci apparel.

Fucking oxygen thieves.

[agentS]

2. What is more pathetic than broke billionaires?

They went thru all that trouble building secluded communities and didn't bother paying the bills.
Interesting- I never thought I'd see billionaire ghost towns in my days.

Oh well- I say turn them into communities for the disabled and run then with state oversight.

[Sherman A1]

3. While I agree that it's just too, too bad that these little

gardens of eden are going belly up. There are a lot of working folks that draw their payroll from them in one way or another and they are going to get hurt. The example of the local florist and all mean that the people on the bottom rungs get left holding the bag for the rich once again.