Tamarack lifts, snowplow stay put for now

BOISE — An Idaho judge on Thursday refused to let Bank of America Corp. repossess two ski lifts from Tamarack Resort, providing at least a brief reprieve for owners trying to keep the failed central Idaho vacation getaway intact for a possible buyer.

Fourth District Court Judge Michael McLaughlin in Boise said letting the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's leasing unit dismantle lifts and seize a snowplow and other equipment could conflict with a separate Idaho lawsuit. In that case, Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group aims to recoup $300 million from a construction loan Tamarack also failed to repay.

McLaughlin will wait until after a July 16 hearing in Boise on possibly combining the two cases before weighing in on Bank of America Leasing & Capital LLC's demand for the lifts. He also wants to see how talks unfold with new investors — and if Credit Suisse, as is expected, soon ends payments to a court-appointed receiver that's run Tamarack since 2008.

"If the receivership has come to an end, I'm fully prepared to allow Bank of America to proceed forward," McLaughlin said.

The fight over lifts is the latest chapter in Tamarack's declining fortunes.

It opened in 2004 about 90 miles north of Boise to much hype, but since early 2008 has been mired in deepening financial misery. The construction loan ran out before buildings were done, lenders balked at new funding and the vacation real-estate market collapsed. Tamarack mothballed operations in March after millions in losses and after Credit Suisse squeezed funding for the receiver.

The ski lift battle is another reminder of failed resort expansion across the West.

Losers have been those who bought real estate, dozens of unpaid construction contractors and insurance companies and hedge funds that snapped up more than $2.5 billion in syndicated loans arranged by Credit Suisse for places like Tamarack, Montana's Yellowstone Club and Nevada's sprawling Lake Las Vegas development that soured.

The biggest winners? Lawyers who are earning hundreds of thousands in fees sorting out the ensuing mess. One of them, Richard Boardman, an attorney for the court-appointed receiver, San Diego-based Douglas Wilson Co., told McLaughlin Thursday that letting Bank of America tear out lifts now could scare off investors being wooed for a financial rescue.

"I can give you plenty of examples of what could happen if this court were ever to order the possession of these ski lifts that are so integral to the operation of Tamarack Resort — what would happen if those lifts were suddenly allowed to be sold and were gone," Boardman said, adding bankers should be patient for a possible sale.