WhistlerBlackcomb

Whistler Blackcomb Facing Foreclosure Auction

Next month's Winter Olympics have been anticipated for years in Whistler. But one resort is facing an unexpected snag, foreclosure. Whistler Blackcomb, which will be hosting part of next month's games may end up being auctioned off in the middle of the Olympics. The owner, private equity firm and hedge fund Fortress Investment Group, has failed to make payments on a $1.7 billion loan. The company bought resort operator Intrawest for $2.8 billion in 2006 back when everything was smooth sailing in the real estate world.

Flash forward to now and Fortress is trying to refinance the loan and lenders to Fortress have been publishing notices of foreclosure in places like the Wall Street Journal announcing a public auction of the assets of Intrawest which includes a bunch of winter resorts sprinkled across North America. The auction date of February 19 puts the sale of Whistler Blackcomb smack dab in the middle of the Olympics. Intrawest is said to be negotiating with the lenders but plans to continue with business as usual and the auction likely won't affect the running of the event. Intrawest properties also include the Whistler Sliding Centre, shown at right, which is the site of the Olympic bobsled and luge events.

The Globe and Mail reports that Intrawest ULC has sold its Panorama Mountain Village resort as part of its effort to stave off the auction. Panorama is located in eastern British Columbia and neither the buyer nor the price have been revealed. Intrawest already sold Copper Mountain in Colorado last November.

Tags: foreclosure, fortress, hotel foreclosure, HotelForeclosure, hotels in trouble, HotelsInTrouble, intrawest, OlympicGames, olympics, whistler, whistler blackcomb, WhistlerBlackcomb, winter olympics, WinterOlympics

Your Second, Winter Olympic Home is Ready

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments

Admit it, the biathlon has always fascinated you: skiing, spandex, and guns -- what's not to make a heart flutter? Vancouver, Canada isn't so bad either. With the Winter Olympics headed that way in sixty days you can add Granville Street and massive natural beauty to that fetching, dual-sport combination -- if only you had a place to stay...

Enter Evolution Whistler, a mountain home development just over a year old in the away-from-it-all Whistler Creekside. Evolution houses seventy residences from 590 sq. ft. up to 1,630 sq. ft., with 1 bed/ba units at the low end and 3 bed/ba units at the high. Some of them will be available during the Olympics, so when you're not slopeside at the ski jump or hoisting a nostalgic Jamaican flag at the bobsled, you can enjoy Evolution's own exercise facilities, outdoor sauna and hot tubs, or the eucalyptus steam room.

And if you decide you just can't get enough of Evolution or Vancouver, you can take a quarter ownership in one of Evolution's offerings -- there are 280 on offer -- with serious discounts from last year's The-Gods-Must-Be-Crazy prices. What better way could there be to remember the city where you jilted the biathlon and fell in love with the luge? (Don't worry, you will...)

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Tags: canada, evolution, olympic, vancouver, whistler, whistler blackcomb, WhistlerBlackcomb, winter olympics, WinterOlympics