Posted: Monday, March 2, 2009
COEUR D'ALENE, ID - The ritzy Tamarack Resort in central Idaho will
close its doors on Wednesday. Four years ago, the ski area and golf
course about two hours north of Boise became a popular investment
for people who wanted second homes. Now the resort is deep in
debt and turning off its chair lifts before the end of the ski season.
Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.
Tamarack’s days may be numbered, but you can still hear
a sales pitch for the resort on its website.
SOUND: “I know a place in Idaho, the kind of place you dreamt
about when all you had were dreams…”
Now the dreams of a year-round paradise in central
Idaho’s Payette River Mountains are floating away with the credit
crisis.
The company that opened the resort four years ago
couldn’t sell enough condos to make a profit. Last year it stopped
construction on an urban village that remains half-built. Now
Tamarack has defaulted on a quarter-of-a-billion dollar loan and the
lender is asking a judge for permission to foreclose.
Tamarack’s problems are compounded by people who
aren’t paying their mortgages. On its website, the resort lists more
than a hundred of its own property owners who are at least three
months past due on their payments.
Copyright 2009 Spokane Public Radio