The Yellowstone Club is a private residential club, ski resort, and golf resort located in Madison County, just west of Big Sky, Montana. It is rated among the top 10 lifestyle estates in the world.
History
Real estate developer Tim Blixseth purchased approximately 100,000 acres (400 sq km) of timberland, partly in purchases from Plum Creek Timber and engaged in swaps of land with the U.S. Forest Service and the Federal Government ("Gallatin Land Exchanges"). This land swap process was enabled by two specialized acts of Congress in the 1990s. Blixseth ultimately ended up with a large amount of developable land adjacent to the Big Sky Resort in Montana. The Yellowstone Club private ski and golf community was developed by Blixseth and used as collateral for a $375 million syndicated loan where the proceeds were used for other purposes, including an effort to build an exclusive luxury vacation club based on acquiring resort properties around the world. This venture failed, Mr. Blixseth and his wife divorced and the Yellowstone Club entered bankruptcy in November 2008.
During its peak season, almost 650 people are employed at the club.
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. Ms. Blixseth eventually agreed to pay Mr. LeMond and others a $21.5 million settlement; she paid only $8 million of that amount and Mr. LeMond and others joined the group of her creditors in her personal bankruptcy.
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 former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Jim Davidson, a founder of Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm in Menlo Park, California; 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, hotelier and CEO of Starwood Capital Group; and Gary Riesche], 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 Yellowstone Club is one of several developments that has been the subject of litigation between investors and Credit Suisse. The investors have accused Credit Suisse of fraudulently inflating the value of the developments in order to generate higher fees for itself.
2008-2009 bankruptcy protection
On November 10, 2008, in the midst of the Great Recession, the Yellowstone Club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It emerged from protection under new ownership on July 19, 2009. When filing, the Club's prior owners owed US$343 million to creditors.
In June 2009 Edra Blixseth spoke to a reporter for The New York Times about her and her ex-husband's business affairs from Porcupine Creek, her estate in Rancho Mirage, California. She said she had hoped to retain the Club and her various estates and make Porcupine Creek income-producing with its private golf course. However, Porcupine Creek was sold to Larry Ellison in 2011 for $42.9 million by creditors who also sold the Blixseth's Chateau de Farcheville in France and other assets.