Blixseth Goes Worldwide

Scott McMillion, Staff Writer, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 25 August 2005

The Yellowstone Club is going worldwide, offering some of the priciest, most exclusive vacations on the globe for people who can afford it.

Club owner Tim Blixseth is offering to take those on the professional leisure circuit to an entirely new level of luxury with his new project, entitled "Yellowstone Club World."

For a fee of between $4 million and $10 million, 150 members of the club will have private access to yachts and jets, European castles, a Tuscan villa, exclusive Alaska fishing and the only private golfing in St. Andrews, Scotland, Blixseth said this week. There could even be a private island or two in the offing.

Memberships cost $4 million for the first 25 buyers, Blixseth said. The price goes up $1 million for the next 25 memberships, and another $1 million for the 25 memberships after that, until the project is sold out. The last 25 buyers will pay $10 million.

On top of the membership fees, buyers will have to pony up as much as $100,000 a year in annual dues, plus some operating costs for the jets and yachts.

He said he expects to raise $1 billion with membership sales and is buying properties around the world.

"We're buying the very best one-of-a-kinds you can think of," he said.

A number of companies offer exclusive, high-end vacations around the world, but Blixseth's new offering is several times more expensive than any of the competition.

"Yellowstone Club World marks the boldest bet yet on the upper end of the market," the Wall Street Journal said in a Wednesday story about "ultra exclusive properties."

Blixseth is no stranger to bold bets.

In 1992, he and some partners in Big Sky Lumber Co. purchased 165,000 acres of land in the Gallatin National Forest from Plum Creek Timber Co. for $26 million. That was just before Montana real estate values began to skyrocket, and Blixseth edged out The Nature Conservancy, which had been trying to buy the property.

The partners quickly sold a number of assets, including a sawmill in Belgrade, cutting their cash outlay to about $10 million.

BSL then negotiated a series of land swaps, which put 101,000 acres into public ownership, but allowed Blixseth to consolidate 13,400 acres around Pioneer Mountain, just south of Big Sky.

In 2000, Blixseth opened The Yellowstone Club there, the nation's first members-only ski and golf resort.

Building lots at the club, much of of which was clear-cut in the 1970s and 1980s by Plum Creek, now sell for $1 million an acre or more, according to the club's Web site. Owners have access to uncrowded ski slopes serviced by eight lifts, fine dining in restaurants and golf. They also enjoy 24-hour security and a wide variety of other amenities.

Membership, according to the club's Web site, is "by invitation only." Development is limited to 864 homesites, ensuring members won't ever have to deal with long lift lines or crowded fairways.

A big part of the club's allure is privacy and exclusivity, a concept he is carrying over into the worldwide club.

For example, Blixseth said he is planning to build a private golf course at St. Andrews, the only one of its kind at the birthplace of golf, where all six existing courses are open to the public, according to the St. Andrews Web site.

The concept is not unlike the more common practice of time shares, where people can buy a week's access at a resort. But in this case, members get a castle instead of a condo or a campsite.

Existing members of The Yellowstone Club will get a discount on the international club, Blixseth said.

He said he is selling properties at The Yellowstone Club at a measured pace. About 100 homes have been built or are under construction, as is a 110,000-square-foot ski lodge, a building about the size of the old Gibson's building on West Main Street in Bozeman.

Many of the homes in the resort are worth $10 million to $15 million and the resort employs about 400 people, Blixseth said.

There have been problems at times. Blixseth and the U.S. Forest Service were involved in a lawsuit over the ownership of the top of Lone Peak, a case the Forest Service won. In 2004, the EPA fined The Yellowstone Club $1.8 million - a record amount for the type of violation - for water pollution related to golf course and ski slope construction.

Blixseth admitted no guilt, but paid the fine anyway.

On the other hand, he also agreed to a plan that pumps treated sewage water from neighboring Big Sky to The Yellowstone Club, where it is to be used for irrigation. Original plans had called for dumping that water into the Gallatin River and caused outrage among environmental groups.

Blixseth said he's confident about the new venture, and has been crisscrossing the Atlantic in his private jet, ironing out details.

"There are lots of people waiting in line with checkbooks," he said.

The number of super-wealthy people in the country is growing. In 2004 alone, the Journal reported, the number of Americans worth at least $30 million grew by 10 percent.