Home Sales Go On Despite Spanish Peaks Bankruptcy

Spanish Peaks’ ongoing bankruptcy isn’t stopping the sale of luxury homes at the exclusive ski-and-golf community nestled among Montana’s mountains and bordering Yellowstone National Park.

Three homes in the Big Sky, Mont., community will go up for auction next month, according to Concierge Auctions LLC, as will a home in nearby Yellowstone Club.

Yellowstone Club, Bankruptcy Beat readers will recall, launched a Chapter 11 restructuring in November 2008 and was later taken out of bankruptcy by Boston private equity firm CrossHarbor Capital Partners. Last October, the owners of Spanish Peaks closed its doors, laid off its employees and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the club is currently looking for a buyer to restart operations.

Spanish Peaks’ bankruptcy is disclosed in the bidding materials provided to interested buyers, according to Laura Brady, Concierge’s vice president of marketing.

“Any who comes forward…will be aware,” Brady told Bankruptcy Beat Monday, adding that there is no published minimum bid for the properties.

Martha Johnson, the president of Rivers to Peaks, Spanish Peaks’ exclusive brokerage, acknowledged the bankruptcy and its inherent uncertainty for the fate of the 5,700-acre community’s amenities, which include a Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, 220 ski runs and clubhouse. The club-owned and operated ski runs and lifts are closed as a result of the bankruptcy, but Johnson said residents have access to another resort’s powder for a fee under a special agreement.

“The amenities are intact and existing,” Johnson said. “We don’t know what that’s going to look and feel like with a new owner.”

Although Spanish Peaks homeowners may survive without the golf course as long as temperatures remain chilly, what about the 400 inches of snow that a bankruptcy official warned can fall throughout the winter? Johnson said the club’s two homeowners’ associations, one of which all club residents contribute to and one of which is special for the homes up for sale, are still collecting dues and paying to keep security in place, to have roads plowed and to handle landscaping.

“The owners are all still together,” Johnson said. “We’re doing as much as we can to maintain property values and maintain that sense of community during a pretty tumultuous time.”

The three Spanish Peaks properties up for grabs at the March 2 auction are each called a Discovery Cabin, although at more than 3,400 square feet each, the term “cabin” is misleading.

Each property was built in 2007 and features five bedrooms, six full bathrooms and one half-bathroom. Discovery Cabin 14 (3,514 square feet) was originally listed at $2.775 million, Discovery Cabin 15 (also 3,514 square feet) at $2.499 million and Discovery Cabin 18 (3,423 square feet) at $2.48 million. The latter is furnished with a detached two-car garage, while cabins 14 and 15 have attached two-car garages.

At nearby Yellowstone Club, a four-bedroom, six-bathroom home in the Enclave at Miller Point originally listed at $4.995 million. Built in 2007, the 4,806-square-foot home sits above the club’s Warren Miller Lodge, which is named for the ski and snowboarding filmmaker and features shopping, dining, a day spa, fitness facility and day care.