BIG SKY – Morning chatter filled the Lakeside Lobby, building up energy in the unusually full stone-and-wood-lined breakfast area.
Yellowstone Club members were gearing up for a day of skiing during the week after Presidents Day, but much of the buzz came from a smaller group clustered at the south end of the lobby.
They were ski-school professionals visiting from high-end ski resorts around the country, as well as two folks from a South American resort. The group was at the millionaires-only Yellowstone Club for a multi-day Professional Ski Instructors of America conference.
Until the conference, many of its participants might have known about the club’s bankruptcy or heard rumors that the club was closing, that it had opened for the public or was only functioning as a feeder hill for Big Sky Resort.
The Yellowstone Club, after all, has had an identity crisis, one clouded by this perception of mysterious secrecy. Many people have had no idea what’s happening behind the gates of the private resort.
But Sam Byrne, managing partner of real estate investment company CrossHarbor Capital Partners, bought the Yellowstone Club for $115 million during its bankruptcy in 2009. The company also bought the Black Bull Run subdivision west of Bozeman in 2011.
Now, the Yellowstone Club’s management wants to change the resort’s public perception.
The club has created a more fun, open atmosphere for members and employees. It has become more involved in the community. And it also has created a foundation to help nonprofits in Gallatin County.
“The project has turned a corner in a big way,” said Bill Collins, vice president and director of sales at the club. “There’s great positive energy after years of uncertain energy.”
The club has about 350 members and 160 employees year-round, with a winter peak of about 620 employees and a summer peak of about 325.
The Yellowstone Club’s ownership group of CrossHarbor and Discovery Land Co. has shifted philosophies since taking over in 2009. It’s a twofold shift directed at creating a more communal atmosphere among members and employees and becoming more active in Big Sky.
“There’s basically one rule here: Don’t be a jerk,” Collins said. “Just be cool.”
To be sure, the Yellowstone Club is a real estate development project. Management looked at the operations and reorganized the way things are done to create a welcoming atmosphere that will drive real estate sales.
“It’s such a unique real estate project that when they come here and have the ski experience or the summer experience, or even the interaction with other members, that’s what attracts them to do something here,” Collins said. “Then they just figure out what’s the best situation for them in the real estate realm.”
Real estate sales have grown lately, primarily due to the economy beginning to pick up. Last year the club had $135 million in real estate sales, and Collins expects that number to grow in 2012, noting that two homes recently built were sold in the last 60 days. About 28 more homes are slated to go through architectural review in the next three months.
One neighborhood area is scheduled to have between seven and nine homes built this summer. And the club has plans to build 153 housing units, such as townhomes and duplexes, around the main base area, beginning with the construction of 12 units in the near future.
Plans are also in the works to build a village south of the main skiing area with an expanded ski and rental shop — which will double as a fly shop in the summer months, a bar and three levels of underground parking, Collins said.
The homes will be relatively small for the Yellowstone Club, he said. On average the new homes scheduled for construction are 5,000 square feet, at a cost of about $500 per square foot.
“I think it’s a different era right now, where people are looking for more quality than size and quantity,” Collins said.
The different approach CrossHarbor and Discovery Land is taking to the ultra-high-end resort extends beyond the club’s borders, tearing down the invisible borders that many saw separating the club’s membership from the Big Sky community.
The effort grew from the membership’s reaction to the club’s bankruptcy, when it helped form an emergency relief fund for laid off employees called Big Sky LIFT, which stands for Lifting Individuals and families with Financial Troubles.
Member interest and emotional investment in the community grew from there and led to the formation of the nonprofit Yellowstone Club Community Foundation. It’s not formally tied to the club, but it is funded primarily by club members and receives in-kind support from the club, like computers and office space, said Casey Schwartz, executive director.
“People are impassioned by things that impact the Big Sky community, the Bozeman community,” Schwartz said. “I think (the members) feel a sense of camaraderie with the community. We went through hard times together.”
In the first two or so years of its existence, the YCCF has given about $920,000 to more than 50 nonprofits and school groups in southwest Montana. Groups can apply for a grant from the foundation twice a year, at the beginning of May and November, Schwartz said.
One of the nonprofits the YCCF worked with was Bozeman-based Eagle Mount, which helps disabled people enjoy outdoor sports. It was awarded a grant to put on a Wounded Warrior ski camp at the club, said Chad Biggerstaff, Eagle Mount’s Big Sky director.
The club took care of lodging and food, while Eagle Mount staff worked with the eight disabled veterans on the slopes, Biggerstaff said. It all went smoothly, and he hopes to continue the program.
Biggerstaff worked in Yellowstone Club as a construction project manager before joining Eagle Mount and was familiar with the “drama” associated with the previous ownership.
“I’ve definitely seen a change,” Biggerstaff said. “Even with Eagle Mount, outside of that (Wounded Warriors) program, they take such good care of us. They really work to make sure we’ve got everything we need, as far as doing lessons over here.”
Outside of those working with the club and organizations affiliated with it, the club is still viewed as a financially troubled, walled-off playground for the ultra-rich.
“Every person I talk to about it. when we were planning this latest trip out here, they were like, ‘Yellowstone Club? I thought that went under years ago.’ That’s the industry perception,” said Noah Sheedy, a ski school director at Telluride who attended the conference. “The other perception is it’s this super high-end, snobby guest that’s really needy.”
Sheedy had visited the club in the last few years, so he knew what to expect in coming back to Big Sky this past week. But the contrast between that industry perception and Sheedy’s own experience on the slopes stood out to him.
“You go out and you’re on the hill and you interact with some of these guests and it’s actually the exact opposite,” Sheedy said.
That’s what the conference was intended to achieve, as well as sharing best practices among ski school directors at similar ski areas. People trust the ski instructor, said Dan Lakatos, director of outdoor pursuits.
At some of these similar resorts represented at the conference, there’s bound to be one or two families served that are potential club members. And since the club doesn’t do overt marketing campaigns, correcting the word around the industry, especially among trusted professionals, could help the club continue to grow and succeed.
This community-building project — which Collins describes as the most challenging and interesting of his career — is ongoing.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Collins said.