Tamarack owner selects buyer
Bid must get approval from bankruptcy judge
EAGLE, Idaho – Tamarack Resort’s owner on Wednesday selected a preferred buyer, a move that may prompt additional bidding for the bankrupt development whose fortunes rose and plunged with the real-estate mania of the last decade.
Jean-Pierre Boespflug chose Eagle-based Green Valley Holdings’ $40 million offer. Green Valley includes Larry Givens, an Idaho construction company owner, and pension fund consultant Matthew Hutcheson.
Hutcheson told the Associated Press his group has the funding to complete the transaction and resurrect the resort.
Boespflug, the French-born developer who for a decade has been Tamarack’s public face, said that Green Valley made the strongest offer among three proposals he considered. He now plans to finalize details, then submit the bid as a so-called “stalking horse” motion to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers by Jan. 16.
If Myers approves, other potential buyers could submit additional bids for the property 90 miles north of Boise.
Boespflug hopes to complete a sale by April 30, regardless of who emerges as the final buyer.
Myers must sign off on any deal, which includes a $1.6 million loan from Green Valley to help Tamarack complete the transaction.
The bankruptcy judge also has yet to rule on whether to leave the resort in Chapter 11 reorganization or allow liquidation in federal or state court, as creditors including Credit Suisse Group have demanded.
Green Valley’s proposal is just a fraction of the more than $350 million owed creditors, including Credit Suisse, who were stiffed by Tamarack when the vacation real-estate market collapsed starting in 2007 and Boespflug couldn’t muster up additional cash.
Many, including contractors who built Tamarack in its heyday, will get a fraction of claims. Others will get nothing.