Difficult destination resort project finally under way in central Idaho

The first destination ski resort in the country was built in the 1930s at Idaho’s Sun Valley. Now, about 120 miles across the Salmon River Mountains, a former French dot-com executive is building the first such project in more than 20 years.

The Associated Press

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=5220

Jean-Pierre Boespflug has charged ahead with Tamarack Resort on the shores of Cascade Reservoir despite a poor economy, lukewarm support for skiing nationwide and some residents who want the valley to remain undiscovered.

"This is the first four-season resort in this country," said Carl Wilgus, administrator of the Idaho Tourism Development Division. "Initially, the resorts started as ski areas and evolved from there. This is the first time that the A-to-Z planning process for four seasons has gone into effect."

Boespflug, 49, said Tamarack’s initial sale in January of 104 lots and custom homes close to the ski runs for $46 million means he can pay off "hard money lenders" who charge high interest rates and shift to more traditional bankers for working capital.

Trucks are rolling and carpenters are hammering on the $52 million in additions this year at the $1.5 billion attraction that has been on the drawing board in one form or another for two decades.

During the 1930s, railroad magnate Averell Harriman was so impressed by European skiing resorts that he commissioned Austrian Count Felix Schaffgotsch to find a suitable western site for an American ski resort with the same amenities.

Schaffgotsch hiked around the Idaho mountains and concluded the Wood River Valley was the perfect spot. Sun Valley featured the world’s first chairlift and attracted the likes of Gary Cooper and author Ernest Hemingway.

But the national economy over the past 25 years has not been ideal for launching a destination resort. The last one to pull it off was Utah’s Deer Valley in 1981, even though a vibrant ski industry had gone flat.

Two things happened since, said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association in Colorado.

"Over the last three years, we’ve had a definite uptick in ski tickets," he said. "We have a lot of kids entering the sport. Snowboard sales help that."

More importantly for Tamarack, the baby boomers have some disposable cash and they are buying second-home real estate at a rapid clip, Berry said.

"You layer them all together and it’s a reason to believe that Tamarack has a real chance to be viable and be the first major mountain resort in some time."

That follows years of uncertainty over whether any kind of development would take place. After 12 years of working to get the project off the ground, the project initially known as Valbois filed for bankruptcy in 1995. But Mexican industrialist and major investor Alfredo Miguel revived the project and in 2000 asked Boespflug, who had been a passive investor, to take it over as managing director.

Boespflug was a ski racer in France and taught skiing at Squaw Valley when he attended Stanford University. Later he was the European sales manager for Cisco Systems.

As the point man for Tamarack, one of his biggest jobs was selling the Idaho Land Board on leasing about 2,100 acres of state land next to the private ground, mostly for the ski runs. The project was called WestRock by that time.

The board of the state’s elected officials put off a decision for more than a year as some local residents criticized the project. Many still do.

Judy Anderson of the Citizens for Valley County said land prices throughout the county are on the rise because of Tamarack and open space is being bought up. Businesses are losing employees to the resort.

She also questioned whether the area will have enough affordable housing for construction and resort workers, a problem which has plagued Sun Valley for decades.

The Land Board eventually granted the long-term lease in 2002 and the Legislature ratified the deal the next winter.

It hasn’t even opened, and already Tamarack has been named one of the "travel hot spots" for 2004, said Michael Journee, spokesman for Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who heads the Land Board. "They have nearly $60 million in infrastructure going in. How can you argue with that?" Journee said.

To put that infrastructure in, Boespflug had to sell real estate.

Buyers in January chose from properties with prices ranging from $231,000 for a chalet lot to $803,000 for a high-end resort-built chalet. Estate home sites were priced from $319,000 to $599,500. More than 300 people were involved in what became a lottery for the right to buy lots.

"They’re not looking for another Aspen or another Vail," said Idaho economist John Church. "They want something more pristine, and this fits the bill."

Boespflug has $28 million of his own money in the project, and he expects a nice return. Idaho is one of the last places offering such imposing scenery and open ground, he said, and he sees Tamarack as a boon to an area that has suffered economically as the timber industry declined.

"It’s the art of starting a new community" he said.