"The filling we are doing here is so that Credit Suisse has no temptation to exercise on the pledge of their shares in Tamarack Resort", -Jean-Pierre Boespflug, Tamarack CEO
The majority owners of Tamarack Resort west of Donnelly filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boise on Friday. The filings say that more than $300 million is owed to lenders and international banks.
Tamarack Resort CEO Jean Pierre Boespflug said Wednesday that the filings will have no effect on the resort's day-to-day operations and were made as a precaution to prevent creditors from seizing the project.
Boespflug said in a statement released on Wednesday the resort is currently seeking alternate financing to finish the resort's Tamarack Village now under construction. He is confident financing can be found, noting that 90 percent of the properties in the village complex have been pre-sold.
The two companies named in the bankruptcy filings are VPG Investments, Inc. and Cross Atlantic Real Estate, LLC, which own 27 percent and 48 percent of Tamarack Resort shares respectively. Boespflug owns Cross Atlantic Real Estate, and VPG is owned by Mexican businessman and resort co-founder Alfredo Miguel Afif.
Filing does not affect resort
Tamarack Resort itself has not filed for bankruptcy and has no plans to do so, Boespflug said in a statement released Wednesday. Boespflug said the resort had been counting on a $118 million dollar loan from the French bank Societe Generale to complete the resort village, but the financing fell through. Societe Generale is reeling from the loss of some $7 billion in a trading scandal.
Because Tamarack did not receive the money by Friday - the day the bankruptcies were filed - the companies sought bankruptcy protection to avoid foreclosure by creditor Credit Suisse Cayman Islands, which is owed $262 million.
Credit Suisse could have ended up with 75 percent ownership of the resort, and been "able to sell the company to whoever it wants," Boespflug told the business Web site New West in a story posted on Tuesday.
"The filing we are doing here is so that Credit Suisse has no temptation to exercise on the
pledge of their shares in Tamarack Resort," he said in the New West report.
Credit Suisse Cayman Islands has a lien on 24 percent of Tamarack Resort LLC. In addition, $4.1 million is owed to a company called Rotorwing of Houston, Texas; $3.2 million to Hopkins Loan Services of Meridian; and $2 million to a Mexican lender, the filing documents said.
When it opened in 2004 Tamarack Resort billed itself as the first new ski resort to be built in the United States in more than two decades. In 2006 Tamarack announced it had secured a $250 million line of credit from Credit Suisse.
The resort has held eight releases of properties since 2004 that have raised more than $500 million.
"While construction is suffering until a replacement loan is found, resort operations is experiencing its most successful season to date," Boespflug said.
"The resort's fourth winter season has seen a record number of skiers and guests, coupled with extraordinary snowfall and high guest satisfaction ratings, leading to revenues exceeding projections," he said.
