I say Sam Byrne, CrossHarbor Capital Partners STOLE the Yellowstone Club, and the Creditors Pay the Price.

This Article has Sam Byrne Boasting about the Real Estate market still going to be good for him as people want to be in Nature.. well ya.. thing his he Paid $335 Million less for the Yellowstone Club in a Bankruptcy Proceeding then he offered not to long before and the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts did NOTHING about it.

I -Crystal L. Cox, Montana Real Estate Owner, Bankruptcy Corruption Blogger, Investigative Blogger and a 4th Generation Montanan... I say that Sam Byrne don't Know Jack Shit about where Real Estate in The West is Going..

I say Sam Byrne is a Thief, and that his Affiliations with the Edra Blixseth are very questionable.. I intend to Prove every dirty deal that Sam Byrne has ever been involved in... including any side deals, affiliations, conflicts of interest that affected the ridiculously low price he paid for the Yellowstone Club...

Got a Tip on Sam Byrne?

Crystal@CrystalCox.com

"Real Estate Market in the West: Where It’s Going, and How
The economic meltdown has caused a world of hurt for many people involved in real estate in the West, but it's also creating opportunities and attitude shifts. What does that mean for the future?

By Amy Linn, 10-14-09

Samuel Byrne speaking at the Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference. Photo by Anne Medley.

Less can be more. The end is not nigh. The real estate market—including second-home and resort markets—will recover … eventually.

Predictions and advice about opportunity, realism, smart growth, environmentalism—and a slow-paced recovery—were the hallmarks of NewWest.net’s fourth annual Real Estate Development in the Northern Rockies conference in Missoula. The two-day event, which ended yesterday at the Hilton Garden Inn, included more than 30 speakers who discussed wide-ranging topics about development, planning, land use and the future of the West.

The boom-and-bling era of speculation and eye-popping returns on real estate have obviously vanished, said the planners, architects, developers, policy makers, real estate agents, green builders and others who took the stage. But the current economic downturn could fuel a shift that benefits people and the planet, speakers said. When smart growth replaces sprawl, when developers are good neighbors, when downtowns are revitalized and landscapes are preserved, the region will be protected from ugly booms and busts.

“It’s really about going back to simplicity,” said Rebecca Zimmermann, an owner of the Denver-based Design Workshop. At the worst moments of the economic crisis, clients told her “every dream I ever had is on hold,” Zimmermann said. “Now, with the stock market back up, there is desire again to have a dream home,” she said—but the dream has changed.

“People want to live in places that connect people to nature and connect people to their families,” she said. “The days of the inter-west buyers who were refinancing their primary home and taking that money out to buy a condo at Copper Mountain—that almost doesn’t exist any more.”

Most speakers said it will be three-to-five years or more before there’s recovery and stability in the real estate market.

But property is still selling, even in the very high-end market. Samuel Byrne,
the new owner of the Yellowstone Club, said in an on-stage interview that the exclusive ski-and-golf resort has seen $50 million in sales since he closed on the property in July. Some of the sales were distressed properties and buyers cut deals directly with the banks.

“People swooped in very quickly on those and snapped them up,” said Byrne, the managing partner of CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a Boston-based investment firm. With Byrne’s leadership in place—and the Tim and Edra Blixseth saga over—the demand returned. “It’s truly a unique asset—one of the most unique properties in the world,” Byrne said.

But how is the rest of the West faring? What’s changed? Here are some answers and conference highlights:

-- “The second home market is not gone—people will make extraordinary buys coming out of this cycle,” said Byrne. “At certain price points there will be tremendous opportunities and recovery in the marketplace.”

-- Consumers have shifted away from seeing real estate as an investment. Many of today’s home-buyers want property that’s greener, smaller and more long-term. “It’s more about what people want for their family,” said Christopher Kelsey, of Steeplechase Development Advisors.

-- Eco-friendliness is a deal-clincher for increasing numbers of buyers. From the builder’s perspective, sustainable buildings can also qualify for money-saving tax credit programs and subsidies.

-- People come to Montana to enjoy small towns and wild landscapes, so protecting those assets with smart growth plans is critical, said Luther Propst, founder of the Sonoran Institute.

-- Well-heeled home buyers are looking for quality-of-life landscapes: places where they can see wildlife, go fishing and skiing, and play outdoors, said Roger Lang Jr., who transformed his 26,000-acre Sun Ranch in southwest Montana into an eco-lodge—and a home to everything from boreal toads and bald eagles to grizzly bears. “Wealthy, high-end home-buyers subsidize wildlife conservation,” said Lang.

-- Healthy downtowns and residential areas are walk-able, compact, sustainable environments with neighborhood centers, open spaces, mixed housing (including single-family and multi-family buildings), and increased connectivity, to reduce reliance on vehicles. Turning these visions into reality isn’t easy, but it’s possible. “Many small towns may have not had significant planning or investment since the Works Progress Administration, when they got their first paved roads in the 1940s,” said Stefan Pellegrini of Opticos Design in Berkeley, Calif. “Planning continues to be contentious in these places, but they’re small enough so you can achieve consensus.”

-- Businesses seeking to build can take advantage of a new tax credit program from the U.S. Treasury for new construction in distressed census tracts. The program (which has admittedly tight restrictions) helped the Garlington, Lohn & Robinson law firm construct a $14 million, six-story green office building in downtown Missoula, without having to put up the standard $4-plus million in cash that banks would typically want for such a project.

-- Green building today has evolved into an art form. Builders can insulate down to the slab to keep air and moisture out of buildings. They can use 95-percent-efficient gas-fired condensing boilers; Energy Star appliances; high-efficiency toilets that only use 1.28 gallons of water per flush; high-efficiency fans instead of air conditioners; and smart irrigation with built-in mini-weather stations, so the sprinklers don’t go on after it rains, said green-building expert Jeff Medanich, of the Colorado Chautauqua Association.

-- Green buildings can put green in your wallet. The Garlington building, which aims to be LEED gold certified, will have solar collectors on the roof to heat hot water, solar photovoltaic collectors to generate about 2 percent of the building’s energy use, natural lighting, recycling collection rooms, a high-efficiency radiant heating and cooling system, a reduced floor-to-floor height (to reduce building volume), and high performance solar-control glazing and sun shades, said the architect for the project, Marty Noyd of OZ Architects. The height reduction alone saved $465,000 in the building cost, he said.

In the end, even the wealthiest home and landowners want to take a breath, reassess and avoid any more tumult, as Sam Byrne of the Yellowstone Club put it. It’s time to achieve peace in the valley, he said. “The club’s goal now is to stabilize itself, stabilize its reputation, and not sell a lot in the next three years,” he said. He intends to offer more townhouses and condos in the future, put more land into conservation, and put eco-friendly measures in place.

“Less sprawl, more open space, with clustered developed that’s designed to be sustainable and environmentally friendly—that’s the goal that everyone’s been talking about today, and it’s not different at the high end of the marketplace,” said Byrne. With a few exceptions, he joked. Buyers might arrive in a private jet before they drive off in their Prius."

Source of Sam Byrne Post

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/real_estate_in_the_west_where_its_going_and_how/C559/L559/

Crystal L. Cox

Investigative Blogger

Montana Real Estate Broker Owner

Ten Lakes Realy
Crystal@CrystalCox.com

Is Credit Suisse the REAL Criminal in the Yellowstone Bankruptcy? I say Indict them, and I Demand Transparency and Accountability.

... Or was the Judge Corrupt? or Was Sam Byrne Conflicted somehow as a Buyer? What Really happened behind the Scenes of the Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy...

Did connections between Sam Byrne and Edra Blixseth Get Sam Byrne a $335 Million Dollar Price Reduction on a Montana Ski Resort?

What Really Happened? Crystal L. Cox, Investigative Blogger - Real Estate Industry Whistleblower Intends to find out... stay tuned to my Whistleblower Media Blogs as the Truth Continues to Roll out.. on the Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy.

News Article from New West -

"Greed, Bankruptcy, and the Super Rich
Shady deals put a ritzy Montana ski resort at risk. Then along came a common-sense judge.

By JONATHAN WEBER
A private ski resort created by a timber baron in the rugged mountains of Montana would hardly seem to be a global bellwether for anything, except perhaps the evolving preferences of the very rich.

Yet the dramatic bankruptcy of the Yellowstone Club, the events that precipitated it, and the way it has been resolved show with unusual clarity the good, bad, and ugly of our current economic predicament. And the club’s future will be a leading indicator of the economic zeitgeist in the age of Obama.

Let’s start with the bad. In 2005, investment bank Credit Suisse was aggressively peddling resort loans, offering developers the opportunity to line their own pockets with the proceeds and offering institutional investors high-yield loan products whose risks were vastly underestimated.

Tim Blixseth, founder and dominant shareholder of the Yellowstone Club, was among the many who found the money irresistible.

First he was going to take $150 million. Take a little more, urged the investment bank. Hell, take a lot more. And he did, finally closing on a $375 million loan, and, as explicitly permitted in the loan agreement, immediately transferring $209 million of it to his personal accounts.

When he and Jeff Barcy, the lead Credit Suisse Banker, couldn’t agree on the fee, they flipped a coin.

(Blixseth won, and Barcy got 2 percent instead of 3 percent.) Appraisals?

Cash-flow projections? The ability of the borrower to re-pay? Ah, not to worry, these small details didn’t require much attention, because Credit Suisse didn’t have any money at risk anyway.

The loan would be packaged and sold as part of so-called collateralized loan obligations, putting possible future problems on the shoulders of institutional investors like hedge funds and pension funds.

Credit Suisse did more than half-a-dozen resort deals like this, totaling close to $3 billion. How many other loans of this nature were made between 2002 and 2006, by most of the biggest names in banking? (Answer: a lot.)

Now we get to the ugly: The club had minority shareholders, including cycling great Greg LeMond, who thought they should get a share of the windfall. They sued the club and Blixseth, who finally settled for $38 million (though the judgment was never fully paid).

Blixseth, always looking for ways to expand his reach, hatched a new plan to lure the über-rich.Yellowstone Club World would offer elaborate vacation timeshares at exotic overseas properties, including castles and private islands bought with the Credit Suisse loan proceeds.

But that plan quickly disintegrated, leaving Blixweth with a pile of expensive (and soon all but unsellable) assets.

By 2007, the club was facing serious cash flow problems, stemming from the heavy debt service on the Credit Suisse loan, profligate spending, and erratic management. Blixseth decided to sell the property, but the deal fell through.

Tim and Edra Blixseth, meanwhile, were getting a divorce. They fought it out in court even as they continued to spend lavishly—seemingly oblivious to that fact that their empire was on the brink of collapse. Edra got the club in the divorce, and with it the huge debt load.

When the real estate meltdown hit, bankruptcy was only a matter of time, and a Chapter 11 filing came last November.

Credit Suisse, still the agent for the outstanding $310 million on the loan, responded by calling the lawyers. The Yellowstone Club Bankruptcy was an evil conspiracy, argued the men from Skadden Arps, a plot by Edra Blixseth and Sam Byrne (the private equity investor who had tried to buy the club in early 2008). And besides, they argued, we’re the first-lien holder! We have our rights! Don’t stand in our way or we will lawyer you to the death!

But then, surprisingly, came the good, mainly in the form of an unassuming Montana Bankruptcy judge named Ralph Kirscher.

When Credit Suisse floated an interim funding plan that would involve “mothballing” the club—and thus throwing hundreds out of work and diminishing the chances of the tradesmen getting paid—Kirscher rejected it.

When the club’s Unsecured Creditors Committee sued Credit Suisse for “fraudulent transfer” on the loan—a move most lawyers viewed as risky bordering on reckless—the judge all but dared the parties to take it to trial.

Credit Suisse and Skadden took him up on it, and Tim Blixseth, an unnamed defendant in the original lawsuit, filed his own legal action against the creditors and the club.

The trial was quite a spectacle. Under Kirscher’s firm hand, the bankruptcy process compressed into weeks complex litigation that would normally take years.

Kirscher, feeling pressure to make a decision and clear the way for an auction of the club, issued a partial ruling that minced no words about Credit Suisse’s behavior, blasting the bank for acting out of “naked greed” and making a “predatory” loan with total disregard for the consequences.

He stripped Credit Suisse of its first lien position, a rare act in bankruptcy court.

Cleverly, though, Kirscher stopped short of voiding the loan entirely, and so Credit Suisseretained the right to use the outstanding debt as part of a bid for the club at auction.

Sam Byrne and his firm, CrossHarbor Capital, already owned a lot of property at the club and had provided interim financing for the bankruptcy; they were the only other bidder.

Finally, Credit Suisse agreed to settle (for an $80 million note and some other considerations), and Byrne will buy the Yellowstone Club for $115 million.

The settlement calls for Kirscher to take back all those mean things he said about the bank’s behavior.

But the unsecured creditors will get their money. The big guys with the secured position lose almost almost everything, and the little guys get paid in full. How often does that happen in bankruptcy court?

Note to bankruptcy judges around the country: There can be rough justice in this tidal-wave of toxic asset workouts, even if you have to stretch the precedents a little.

The question now, though, for both the big guys (Sam Byrne and CrossHarbor Capital, and their operating partner Discovery Land Co.) and the little guys (the vendors and contractors and waitresses and lift operators of Big Sky) is whether there is a future in the ultra-high-end resort economy.

The rich will always be with us, for sure, but in what quantities? To what extent will the contraction of the financial services industry, and the more progressive tax policies of the Obama Administration, diminish the pool of people who are able or willing to spend $5 million on a ski house at the Yellowstone Club?

In short, does the financial crisis represent a mere steeper-than-usual turn of the business cycle or a more fundamental structural reset?

The answer to that question will soon be clearly visible in spectacular mountains of Southwest Montana."

Source of Post

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/greed-bankruptcy-and-the-super-rich/7471/

Got a Tip on any of this?

Crystal@CrystalCox.com

Marc S. Kirschner - Marc Kirschner

Marc S. Kirschner - Marc Kirschner