A group of Tamarack homeowners are awaiting a decision from Idaho District Court Judge Patrick Owen if they will be allowed to step into the midst of the resort's foreclosure proceedings and possibly save the ski area from remaining shut.
According to a report from The Associated Press, Owen heard arguments on Monday from both the homeowners and a lender group led by Switzerland-based bank Credit Suisse.
Tamarack's creditors are already owed around $300 million after the resort closed in March due to financial difficulties, having gone bankrupt the previous year.
The homeowners, who have formed a group called West Mountain Preservation Management Association, have arranged for a $7.9 million loan from a Mexican company Inmobiliaria Las Fuentes, which would allow the resort to reopen this winter and protect unfinished buildings for 11 months.
However, the deal is conditioned on the loan being repaid before other existing creditors, a condition Credit Suisse is fighting.
The homeowners believe that if the deal is not approved, then the lifts and other equipment from the resort, located 90 miles north of Boise, will be sold off, greatly depreciating the value of property there.
"If this doesn't get approved, Tamarack will be sold as salvage instead of as a resort," Tamarack homeowner Leonard De Los Prados told the AP.
In 2008, two primary owners of Tamarack filed for bankruptcy protection when creditor Credit Suisse filed to foreclose on the resort after it defaulted on a $260 million loan. Months later, tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf pulled out of a plan to back a highly touted luxury hotel project at the resort.
While opponents to the deal said that the homeowners shouldn't have a say in the fate of the resort's foreclosure, Owen was a bit more understanding of the property owners' situation.
"I'm not unsympathetic to the plight of these homeowners whose property values have been undoubtedly affected, not only by the general downturn in the entire economy of the country, but more specifically by the environment of the failed resort," Owen said. "There's just very little a court can do about those two overwhelming circumstances."
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
