Once a hot new resort, Idaho's Tamarack shuts down

By John Miller | The Associated Press • Published March 04, 2009

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BOISE, Idaho – Tamarack Resort in central Idaho billed itself as the first new destination ski resort in a quarter century when its first customers climbed aboard lifts in December 2004.

Four years later, the resort operation, including lodging, is shutting down today, leaving owners of resort real estate once worth millions fearing the worst.

Factors dooming Tamarack, at least for now, include a spending spree by French owner Jean-Pierre Boespflug that drained a $250 million construction loan, tight credit markets, collapsing resort real estate demand, foreclosure litigation and $20 million in unpaid construction bills.

Financiers at Credit Suisse Group are pulling the plug after a $2.8 million operating loss since Oct. 20 — "greater than the receiver (or anyone else) anticipated," according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Mom-and-pop ski areas come and go, the victims of fickle weather and fickle finances. Where there were once more than 800 such U.S. resorts, there are now about 475.

Still, to find a failed Western resort approaching Tamarack's size and aspirations, Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, can recall only the 1974 demise of Stagecoach Ski Area, about 20 minutes from Colorado's Steamboat Springs.

"It hasn't happened in recent history," said Berry, who is following Tamarack's fortunes from his Denver offices. "It will be interesting to see if a rescuer comes along."

Tamarack, on the shores of Lake Cascade reservoir, has seven lifts. Of 2,100 planned chalets, condos and town homes, only 250 are completed, near a Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed golf course.

The Tamarack Municipal Association, the homeowners association that maintains roads within the resort, said it plans to keep the area open for owners but it's also cutting back staff.

In August 2005, Idaho's then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne feted President George Bush at Tamarack, offering the president a chance to fish and do some mountain biking. Kempthorne was later named Bush's U.S. Interior secretary.

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