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At An Old Millsite, Big Plans Get Put on Ice
A prominent brownfield clean-and-build project in downtown Missoula has been put on hold until the…
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CrossHarbor Wins Inside Track In Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy
A hard-fought struggle for control of the bankrupt Yellowstone Club ended mid-afternoon on Wednesday when…
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Yellowstone Club Returns to Bankruptcy Court, to Sink Further Into Debt
As Edra Blixseth and the Yellowstone Club return to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday,…
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Montana Loses Jobs as Construction and Support Services Decline
Montana's unemployment rate has inched upward to a still-healthy 4.8 percent, according to the most…
Real Estate
How's-It-Going? Category
At An Old Millsite, Big Plans Get Put on Ice
A prominent brownfield clean-and-build project in downtown Missoula has been put on hold until the economy picks up.
The weed-infested former Champion Mill site just west of Ogren Field, the home of Missoula's minor league baseball team, has long been an example of urban blight and a symbol of the lost glory days of Montana's logging industry.
More than two years ago, local developer Kevin Mytty and finance partner Ed Wetherbee teamed with the Missoula Redevelopment Agency and others to clean the land of its minor environmental contaminants -- basically a lot of sawdust -- and transform it into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood with houses, apartments, townhouses and space for commercial and retail tenants.
The Yellowstone Club Debacle
CrossHarbor Wins Inside Track In Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy
A hard-fought struggle for control of the bankrupt Yellowstone Club ended mid-afternoon on Wednesday when a federal bankruptcy judge gave CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a Boston-based hedge fund, the right to loan the club $20 million while it reorganizes its debt - a process that will likely last until the end of April.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher issued his order after weeks of negotiations and three days of court testimony.
The Yellowstone Club filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 10, citing debts of more than $360 million, with about $311 million owed to investors assembled by international bank Credit Suisse.
More Real Estate
Saga of the Super-Rich
Yellowstone Club Returns to Bankruptcy Court, to Sink Further Into Debt
As Edra Blixseth and the Yellowstone Club return to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday, the central questions will not revolve around paying the club's debts -- but rather miring the club deeper in red ink.
The club's lawyers filed a motion on Monday to ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher to OK a second emergency loan to keep the club operating while in bankruptcy.
Two weeks ago, the club where only the best would do didn't have enough money for propane for heat, or the shuttle to move employees to and from nearby towns, much less enough cash to actually pay those employees, even for one more day.
That's when the club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Montana court. Chapter 11 allows a business to remain open while it makes a plan to pay its debts. The filing came in the wake of an ugly divorce between Edra Blixseth and ex-husband Tim, allegations of large-scale financial impropriety and the collapse of the high-end real estate market as well as the credit markets that funded it.
Montana Economy
Montana Loses Jobs as Construction and Support Services DeclineMontana's unemployment rate has inched upward to a still-healthy 4.8 percent, according to the most recent figures from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, as every sector but healthcare and hospitality services contracted.
"Overall, Montana has been weathering the economic situation pretty well," said state economist Aaron McNay. "I see Montana following a path similar to the rest of the nation."
Montana's economy, it seems, is slightly better -- or its downturn is delayed -- compared to the national economy. The national unemployment rate in October hit 6.5 percent, up 0.4 percent from the previous month. Montana's rate increased at half that rate, at 0.2 percent. Montana actually added 900 jobs, according to one set of statistics, from September to October.
In Hard Times, Art Becomes A Hard Sell
"We're closing at the end of the month, so that's how it's effecting us," said Carol Hoffnagle, who opened Studio 12 Art Gallery on Broadway and Pattee Street with her husband in downtown Missoula a little over a year ago.
"In September we felt we were just getting going," Hoffnagle added.
Over the past decade art galleries flourished and multiplied in the Mountain West, as flush tourists and new and moneyed residents in the region snatched up artwork to hang on the region's new wall space. Estimates by longtime gallery owners is that the number of galleries selling original artwork in towns like Missoula and Bozeman has roughly doubled or tripled since the late 1990s.
The abrupt collapse of the real estate industry and the national recession has brought hard times to the art galleries.
LeMond Continues Long Legal Fight With Yellowstone Club
The Tour de France might come to seem less grueling -- and certainly less murky -- than Greg LeMond's two-year legal fight against the Yellowstone Club, which he resumed this week when he asked a Montana judge to order club owner Edra Blixseth to pay him the final $13.5 million of a $21.5 million settlement, a Bloomberg story says.
The judge granted LeMond's request, but the cycling great, who won the world's top cycling race in 1986, 1989 and 1990, will have to get in line for his money. The Yellowstone Club, which Edra Blixseth only won control of in August after a long and bitter public divorce with former timber executive Tim, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 10.
In her filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte, Montana, Blixseth tallied the club's debts at about $350 million. The biggest liability is $307 million, not including interest, to Credit Suisse Group. The Zurich-based bank loaned the club $375 million in 2005.
Tales From Bankruptcy Court
Yellowstone Club Gets a (Brief) Lease on LifeA Montana bankruptcy judge reluctantly breathed three weeks of life into the Yellowstone Club in a Missoula courtroom Thursday when he OK'd a three-week loan to keep the club operating during the next stage of bankruptcy hearings.
"Why am I doing this?" asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Ralph B. Kirscher, who called it "troubling" and "overkill" that his order included the terms and conditions of a $4.4 million temporary bailout loan from lender Credit Suisse to the luxurious-but-broke private club.
"What happens if I don't sign this order?" Kirscher said. "If you would have asked me at one o'clock last night, I would have said, 'This isn't going to get signed. I'll let things fall where they may.'"
Poor Little Rich Club
Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy Exposes Brutal Financial Showdown
Once touted as the world's pre-eminent leisure community for the mega-rich, with billionaires from Bill Gates on down among its members, the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky, Montana, doesn’t have enough cash in the bank to buy propane, owner Edra Blixseth said in bankruptcy court in Missoula Wednesday.
The four companies that operate collectively as the Yellowstone Club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Montana on Monday, citing debts of about $360 million, most of it owed to a consortium of lenders led by international bank Credit Suisse. Chapter 11 allows a business to operate while it reorganizes its debt, and in this case the bankruptcy filing comes in the wake of an ugly divorce, allegations of large-scale financial impropriety, and a complete meltdown of the high-end real estate market and the credit markets that funded it.
The club doesn't have enough cash to make its $600,000 monthly payroll for its 521 employees or to buy food for its restaurants, or for the electricity needed to operate the chairlifts at its storied private ski area. Last week, the club's checking account had only about $40,000.
News Brief
Bitterroot Resort Gets Initial OK from Forest ServiceThe proposed Bitterroot Resort passed an early hurdle from the Bitterroot National Forest on Monday.
"We passed our first screening," said manager Jim Gill. "This is just one of many steps."
The Bitterroot Resort seeks to develop as part of its four-season resort 3,000 acres of Forest Service land (down from the 12,000 originally requested in 2005) for gladed skiing, Nordic skiing, and mountain biking, none of which would require ski lifts to access.
