Real Estate Tidbit
Blixseth Building World’s Most Expensive Home in Montana
By Courtney Lowery, 1-26-07
Yellowstone Club owner and timber baron Tim Blixseth is shooting to build and sell the world’s most expensive home. And he wants Montana as the backdrop.
A Forbes.com story today details Blixseth’s plan for a $155 million, 53,000-square-foot “stone and wood mansion” at his members-only posh ski resort in Big Sky.
But who will buy the mansion?
Blixseth tells Forbes.com: “Some of (the world’s richest) just have to have the best. Price is not an issue.”
[End of article]I hope he has a big broom.
Comment By Pronghorn, 1-27-07Broom? He has "people" for that. What a sorry, sick, consumptive display of excessive wealth.
Comment By Feral Cat, 1-28-07This is being built in the state with 8 out of the poorest 10 counties in the U.S. Do you think the Founders had this kind of "freedom" in mind? I hope everybody reads Kunstler's "The Long Emergency" about the end of oil and how this "contsstuction" economy is a house of cards.
Comment By bearbait, 1-28-07We would hope that someday, an investigative news digger would go to Oregon and learn the early Timmy Blixeth lore. Roseburg would be a good place to start. All the stories of his showing up on the new widow's doorstep with flowers, a grieving facade, and, oh, his deal to buy the family woodlot that, sadly, must have died with hubby. Or the gyppo loggers not paid. Or the skipping of payments on about anything. The tax dodge timber partnerships that just quite did not perform. He might be a not beloved ex-resident of Douglas county, or beloved just because he is gone, hopefully forever. But that would be for the news hound to find out on his/her own. Ground truthing the Google stuff.
I always thought that someone should put an ad in the paper in Roseburg, and ask any who were owed money by the guy who is going to build the world's most expensive house to come forward and tell their story. And then donate the debt to a Bozeman charity. If the charity can collect, they get the money.
He isn't the Baby Ruth floating in the hot tub--he's the real deal, the big boy with money, and it is rumoured he will flail you with lawyers if you don't bow to his way. We all must wonder how lucky we are he is a Big Sky-Palm Springs kinda guy, and not in our backyard.
I hear that Dick Cheney has outgrown his place outside Jackson. Since he'll be out of a job (thank God) in a few years, maybe he'd be interested in Blixseth place. Sounds like the kind of wretched excess he believes in.
Comment By Lucia Stewart, 1-29-07After this article made the front page of the Bozeman Chronicle on Saturday, I almost felt sick with the question, "What is Montana becoming?"
It was quite a topic of conversation through out the weekend here. Some folks curious if the real estate market dip has influenced Blixseth to create this home as a media campaign and sensation to bring attention back to the Yellowstone Club.
Others wondering if Montana is going through an identity crisis with plans to build a $155 million home, of which $2 million is for the driveway alone, while in the same week the Bozeman City Commissioners designated it official Cowboy Heritage week.
I'm just wondering if the comments about the house and as well as the seeding of this story by New West and the Chronicle are concerns over the environment, land use, impact, consumerism (if that's a negative), etc, or just basic human jealousy. There may be a lot of points to condemn Mr. Blixseth on but is one of those really the size of a house?
Comment By Scott Bosse, 1-29-07Tim Blixeth may have an address in Montana, but he will never be accepted by Montanans as a fellow citizen. Flaunting one's wealth and wasting valuable natural resources are the most un-Montana like values I can think of. How many century old trees will be cut down to build Mr. Blixeth's shrine to the human ego? How many more gas wells will have to be drilled on the west's public lands to heat this monstrosity?
While more and more of the wealthiest people on earth (think Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Ted Turner) are learning that the best way to leave a lasting legacy is to donate their money to build schools, cure diseases and take on the issue of global warming, Mr. Blixeth's idea of a legacy is to build a $155 million playhouse so a fellow billionaire can move into his private neighborhood. How sad.
Pronghorn and Feral Cat both express my feelings about this "castle" and the associated waste of natural resources and energy. How anyone could build these type of trophy homes given our understanding of the forthcoming peak in oil production, the consequences of human induced climate change, and the continuing loss of wildlife habitat, etc. Back in the old west (as recently as the 70's) Montana people didn't flaunt their wealth like this. But the new west is changing Montana. We are becoming a less equitable, and less sustainable society. Montana cities and counties should limit the size of homes being built. The State should promptly enact a carbon tax, and reinstate the "public need" criteria in the subdivision law, and take effective measures to prevent the continuing loss of agricultural lands as is occurring in the Gallatin valley.
Comment By Dean Williamson, 1-30-07Now, now. I'm sure some people NEED all that. I mean, shovelling a driveway is HARD WORK, so it only makes sense to heat it. Getting to the ski area is REALLY HARD, so it's only logical to put a ski lift in the house.
One really can't trust the people in a public pool--and who wants to get splashed? So, just save all that hassle and make an indoor pool--and since you're already making a pool, and since August can get to 80 degrees--well, it would be stupid NOT to extend the pool outside.
Occasionally, I'm sure some of us like to have house guests as well . . . can you imagine the SHAME of having to ask them to sleep on a couch, or--shudder--in a hotel?! Ten bedrooms, well, really, that's just an expression of gratitude that they have been so blessed with so many friends.
In fact, the whole thing is really a great blessing. I'm sure if the rest of us could live a life like these fine folks, and learn to embrace the jealous child in each of us, why, we, too, would receive manna from heaven. And, maybe throw in a servant to wear my ski boots for an hour before I go out--just to warm them up.
"And, maybe throw in a servant to wear my ski boots for an hour before I go out--just to warm them up."
No, no, Dean, you've got it all wrong. The whole point is to consume. An electric boot heater is required. That way, one is consuming power, and that just might be the tipping point requiring another coal-fired power plant and all the infrastructure required there, the consumption of MORE land and MORE resources ....now do you get it? Consumption without Conscience is the name of this game.
Blixeth did not get where he is by having a conscience. His path to wealth is paved with bad deals, bankruptcies, lawsuits against partners. He is just not tough enough to be an Arab Emirate in and of himself, but he is trying. He is judged, and he judges, people and institutions by how much they consume at what price. That is their raison d'etre. The common value system. It works better for them than a timed 40 yard dash, a bench press, SAT's, penis length. Forbes keeps score for them.
There are people out there who will buy that house. And there is a reason there is armed security guarding the Yellowstone Club. You have to know that house will make all the others in that subdivision, and that is all it is, more valuable. Bill Gates' place will appreciate in value as will Warren Miller's. Gallatin county has to be giddy with the thought of collecting a couple of million more a year in property taxes. The insurance broker who insures it will love his lot in life. A whole lot of tradesmen will have work, and suppliers will have business. We would hope they would all get paid what they earned or for what they sold. Good luck. There will be some throats cut. Always are when the big boys are involved. They have lawyers on retainer, and you don't, and bluffing little guys out of their money is a game for the big boys. No, there is no conscience in Timmy's carpetbag. Ask the human wreckage he left behind in Roseburg, Oregon, years ago.
If you really want to see excess in buildings, places built without regard to monetary restraint, go look at a new US Courthouse. Portland's and Eugene's are probably the most expensive buildings, per square foot, ever built in the West. And all for a handful of judges. Private parking garages with secure access. A Federal Yellowstone Club. All designed to intimidate and keep the masses at arms length. And like the Yellowstone Club, all built with money from the masses.
I've seen nicer Ninja castles in Japan and at least they were designed to be defended.
Comment By Duane Lapinski, 4-29-07Enough with all of your hand ringing and leftwing eco-babble. You guys can't see something good even if it kicked you in the face. This monster home only means one thing. Blixseth is finished. Why don't you read you bible, read of the tower of of babel. All this is, Blixseth own tower of babel. Or in a more modern sense, "The curse of the skyscraper". Look it up, giant building are built just as economy faulter, usualy turning out to be white elephants.
Comment By Shawn Montee, 11-17-07Every person writting a negetive comment ; ought too work alot harder ; maybe you can build a bigger castle than him!!!! I will !!!!
Comment By eric, 2-14-08there is no pictures
Comment By Lonna Noland, 4-22-08Might you be reminded that here in Palm Springs his wife is head of and finances a shelter for women and children. Maybe this is not known by any of you.....but he was her other half and suported this cause as well. This is a huge relief to many women and children in need and the services that go along with that are great and demanding.... We all have debts either monitarily or to society and old bones in our closests.....let's hope that I will not be judged and disregarded for them by others as so many are quick to do.....this world would be a better place if we did. As it is human nature to point out others faults, no matter the degree, public or private.....I bet you vote in the elections....and which one of those people are as perfect as you....Let's clean up our own thoughts and actions before we are so quick to judge.....
Comment By bear bait, 4-22-08Lonna...Blixeth's track record is stiffing any bill or person he thinks he cannot or does not want to pay. As to Palm Springs, the poor people there are the seasonal house help and commercial help. The rich don't pay any more than they have to. Blixeth is no different.
He was a financial train wreck for all who trusted him in Oregon and Washington long before he came to Montana. He hit the timber deal just right, with a leveraged buyout of timberland and the founding of a now bankrupt and gone company that he got out of with millions long before the pre-ordained fall. I have a buddy who got stiffed, never paid. In the meantime, Blixeth became a billionaire. I have wanted my buddy to give me that debt so I could donate it to a charity in Timmy's backyard, just so they could sell it to someone who thought they could collect it. And if not, they had bought a bad debt that they could write off, and we could laugh about it.
I guess now, if there is anything left after the divorce battles, Edra can still finance the children's center. If not, maybe some now rich lawyer's wife might. A better idea would be the good folks of Palm Springs paying their help more so they could support themselves and not be dependent upon someone who is abusing them. And, put the abusers away for a long, long time, in a prison full of inmates who were abused when they were kids. You know, let the marketplace sort things out. Just like it has the fortunes of Timmy. His market crashed. The money is drying up. The divorce is mangling the image. It is going south for him. It was always going to, and was just a matter of when. And he will take some down with him. It works that way.
I cannot argue with you, I do not think it is right to not pay people that work for you or that you have purchased things or have had a hand shake over......
I have just had someone rake me over the coles and make promise after promise, all the while, I passed up job opportunity based on his word....and actual handshake.... now, he has not paid me, but still thinks he would like me to work for him......."get into doors" as he says.....but any way you look at this type of person........it is about greed I would say. I don't have a problem with someone making millions or billions.......having integrity, giving others the opportunity to learn from you or because of you, helping this world become a better place one person at a time...I think this is what we don't see with Mr Blixeth...maybe because the other things are too big. I don't know his private affairs, nor the details of his business adventures......hope it all works out. I wish you well.
Well, well. It seems now that an arrest warrant has been issued by a Federal judge in Colorado for both Edra Blixseth and her son Matthew Crocker in a case of fraud to the tune of $13 million...Where's Edra and Matthew? Who knows! Their attorney even claims he doesn't know where they are...
Meanwhile, Credit Suisse and Yellowstone Club members are fighting it out in court over the destiny of the Yellowstone club...It seems old Timmy boy used the Yellowstone club as collateral on a $358 million loan; when in reality (legally) much of that property used as collateral for the Credit Suisse loan actually belonged to Yellowstone club members...Where's the 358 mil? Who knows! Where's old Timmy boy?
Rumors floating around the bars in Big Sky are that he's hiding out in Thailand...
The Bozeman area will be a lot better off w/ out these scumbags and the rest of the outside developers who have beat feet since the housing market has taken a dump around here.