Yellowstone Club World

The rags to riches story of Tim Blixseth is the invert of the development of his ultra-luxury destination club, Yellowstone Club World. Yellowstone Club World looked to expand on the centralized concept of Yellowstone Club that Blixseth had create and evolve it to a boundless portfolio of luxury vacation properties around the world.

Blixseth, the model of a self made man, not once, but twice, went bankrupt and worked to regain his fortune. His entrepreneurial spirit began around 13 when he bought three donkeys for $75. A week later, he was selling the donkeys as "pack mules" for $75 each.

Blixseth went on to work in the timber trade and married Edra Crocker. Continuing to have success in logging, Blixseth had the misfortune of signing government contracts guaranteeing to cut and sell timber regardless of their price. Timber prices soon dropped 90% and the young family was forced to file for bankruptcy, claiming $15.4 million in debt and only $4,400 in assets.

As the case was resolved, Blixseth continued to make shrewd business deals and was again a multimillionaire and retired by 40. Living in Lake Tahoe and bored, on a whim Blixseth relented to a real estate broker to tour land in southwestern Montana. Land that would eventually help him acquire the Yellowstone Club.

Blixseth and two other partners invested about $10 million for 140,000 acres of land. Due to his experience in the timber industry, Blixseth originally had planned to log the area, but the outcry from environmentalists and potential lawsuits forced Blixseth to reevaluate his plans. Working with Phil Lader, President Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff, Blixseth engaged in a series of land swaps with the government that effectively traded the land Blixseth had just invested in for the land that Yellowstone Club would soon occupy.

The 13,600 acre community, just 20 miles to the north of Yellowstone National Park, was originally planned to be a vacation property for the Blixseth family, but as well-heeled friends wanted in, Blixseth created the "neighborhood of millionaires." Featuring its own private golf course and 75 ski runs, the Yellowstone Club launched in 1997. Members paid a minimum of $250,000 to join and purchased homes between $5 million and $35 million to join the exclusive club. Limited to 864 properties, the exclusivity soon drew attention from a laundry list of prospective members. Vice President Dan Quayle, Congressman Jack Kemp, Bill Gates, Annika Sorenstam, and a dance card of Fortune 100 CEOs all joined the intimate community.

In 2005, Blixseth obtained a bank loan from Credit Suisse of $375 million, using the club's assets as collateral. Much of the loan went to create Yellowstone Club World, an ultra-luxury destination club that would maintain the exclusive appeal of Yellowstone Club, but include a global portfolio of world-class properties rather than one centralized location. The club purchased a $28 million 14th century chateau, the $40 million Mexican resort El Tamarindo, a private island in the Caribbean for $28 million, and a 265 acre lot in St. Andrews, Scotland for $40 million.

Between those four properties, the club's portfolio averaged nearly $35 million each, over five times more expensive than their next closest competitor, Solstice Collection whose $6.5 million average was often out of reach to most destination club prospects.

Complicating matters, Tim and Edra were caught in a very public divorce and subsequent legal dispute over the ownership of Yellowstone Club and Yellowstone Club World. In December of 2007, the club ceased new sales and by September of 2008, the destination club had ceased operations.

By January of 2009, Yellowstone Club World was forced into involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy and only counted a handful of members. Three members, Angus MacNaughton, Edgar Rainin, and Yoav Rubinstein, all sought their $1.5 million membership deposit returned and the assets of Yellowstone Club World and Yellowstone Club were blurred during subsequent bankruptcy filings that continue to be explored today.

To learn more about Yellowstone Club World, please visit any of the club's quick links found to the right or request a free copy of our Destination Club Guide.

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