Donnelly, ID – The roller coaster that is the potential for skiing and snowboarding at Idaho’s bankrupt Tamarack Resort is once again running downhill, as the State of Idaho Land Board on Tuesday approved a plan that will provide limited operations four days a week this winter. The decision cleared another hurdle for those seeking to reopen Tamarack this season.nTamarack, which first opened in 2004 as the newest four-season ski resort in the U.S., was in the midst of a building boom in late 2008 when the resort real estate market collapsed along with much of the economy. It has been shuttered since March 2009 as the ski resort two hours north of Boise struggles to pay back creditors led by Credit Suisse, who fronted a $300 million construction loan.
As that gets sorted out in a federal bankruptcy court in Boise and Tamarack’s village sits empty and half finished, the Tamarack Municipal Association, a group of 389 resort homeowners seeking to protect the value of their investment, has proposed a plan to offer skiing and riding Thursdays through Sundays this winter via the lifts not subject to foreclosure proceedings by a leasing unit of Bank of America.
Such a plan, however, has faced numerous roadblocks. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Terry Myers last month rejected a $2 million loan funded by Credit Suisse to spruce up the dormant resort and make it more attractive for sale, saying that the prospects for default were large and would further complicate efforts by creditors to regain their funds if the sale of Tamarack failed to materialize. A portion of those funds were earmarked to make a $250,000 payment to the Idaho Land Board for the lease of 2,100 acres of state land for skiing operations.
The Land Board on Tuesday, however, agreed to extend the lease until at least June, a decision that has the backing of Idaho governor C.L. “Butch” Otter. Under the agreement reached Tuesday, Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $290,000 in back lease payments and $45,000 toward this winter’s lease, while the Tamarack Municipal Association will kick in $80,000 for this year’s operational lease. The group has agreed to dip into its dues to pay its share of next winter’s lease payment as well.
The federal bankruptcy court, though, still has to approve both the lease payments and the use of lifts, groomers and other equipment to facilitate skiing at Tamarack this winter, as such equipment is collateral for the loan at issue in the bankruptcy proceedings. A possible date for that decision is not yet known, but Municipal Association representatives have expressed their optimism that lifts will indeed turn at Tamarack this season beginning Dec. 20.