LOGE to Shutter Historic Izaak Walton Inn, Other Properties Amid Bankruptcy

Three years after a Washington-based hospitality company purchased the historic Izaak Walton Inn at Essex and invested heavily in renovating the three-story hotel, bar and restaurant, its board of directors discovered a real estate portfolio “in significant distress,” according to internal emails to investors. Facing a lack of cashflow and “the inability to continue paying required operating costs,” the board is winding down operations across all its properties, including the Izaak Walton Inn.

On Friday, Feb. 13, staff at the Izaak Walton Inn, rebranded LOGE – Glacier, received a notice from the company informing them that “the site will be closing its operations in the near future. As a result, your employment with LOGE Glacier … is expected to conclude on or about March 6, 2026.”

The layoffs come less than one month after the PistenBully the company was leasing to groom its cross-country skiing trails was repossessed, according to two people with firsthand knowledge of the forfeiture.

Listed for sale four years ago with an asking price of $17.95 million, the Izaak Walton Inn sold for $13.5 million in December 2022.

Details were limited on Friday as staff received their layoff notices, while current and former employees declined to speak on the record due to the limited amount of information they’d received.

Representatives of LOGE (pronounced “lodge”) had not responded to the Beacon’s requests for comment as of publication time. News reports began trickling out this week about closures at other properties, including the Entrada Hotel in Bend, Ore. and a hotel in Missoula

The scope of LOGE’s financial insolvency came into focus through a series of emails to LOGE investors on behalf of LOGE Holdings, the Radify Fund, LOGE Preferred Equity “and each of the special purpose entities that have received outside investment.” The Beacon has confirmed the authenticity of those emails, as well as the identity of the sources who shared them; however, the sources asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions.

According to the emails, the board of directors of LOGE Holdings learned in November that the company’s CEO, Cale Genenbacher, had used funds to re-purchase a hotel property from the lender who had foreclosed on the property earlier in the year, even though the Board “had been told by the CEO that property had been successfully refinanced and remained in the portfolio.”

“Following this discovery, the board learned that there were other instances where the representations that had been made by the CEO were not accurate,” one email states. “In short, the real estate portfolio controlled by the entities above was in significant distress.”

As a result of these discoveries, the board accepted Genenbacher’s resignation in late November 2025.

On Dec. 28, 2025, the board determined “that it was in the best interest of all creditors, investors, employees and vendors to retain the services of a Chief Restructuring Officer and Insolvency Counsel.”

On Jan. 8, 2026, LOGE Holdings retained Eric Camm with Turning Pointe, LLC as Chief Restructuring Officer. On Jan. 12, 2026, it retained Bush Kornfield as counsel.

“Together, we have partnered with the LOGE CFO, Brett Stewart (who started in November 2025), to continue working through the many issues that have come to light,” the email states.

In a follow-up email, the board explains its decision to “start winding down operations at those properties that are still active.”

“The board did not make this decision lightly, but this was required due to a lack of cashflow at the property level and the inability to continue paying required operating costs,” the email states. “The company is doing everything in its power to look for ways to continue maximizing value in these properties but cannot risk additional liability that would come from missing payroll obligations or other obligations to critical vendors. Right now the dates of the winddowns vary by property, and there is a chance on a few of the properties that a winddown can be avoided, but for now this is a necessary course of action to further limit liability.”

Built in 1939 and located 30 miles east of West Glacier, the Izaak Walton Inn remains one of the few hotels open year-round near Glacier National Park, making it a popular destination in the winter as well as during the summer months. Named for Sir Izaak Walton, a 17th-century sportsman who authored a number of books on fly fishing, the Inn is the final flag-stop station for Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train as it skirts the remote southern border of Glacier. But it was Great Northern Railway owner James J. Hill whose decision to punch the iconic rail line over Marias Pass and along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River that prompted a need for lodging accommodations in Essex.

Because of its rich history, Essex locals (there are about six dozen year-round residents) were skeptical three years ago when rumors began swirling about new ownership. But when the company shared its plans for renovating the Inn’s interior, including its guest rooms, restaurant and bar, and pledged to retain its historic character and charm, the local consensus shifted in favor of the new owners, only the fourth in the property’s history.

However, the company hit a financial stumbling block in 2023 when interest rates surged in the wake of California-based Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, jeopardizing financing. Those unanticipated delays meant that the Izaak Walton Inn didn’t open until the winter of 2024-2025, when it unveiled its new gigs to substantial fanfare.

For longtime Essex resident Larry Epstein, who grew up in Cut Bank but spent his childhood summers and winters visiting his grandparents at the cabin they built in Essex in 1929, the improvements were a welcome development at a lodge originally build out of pressboard.

“It was built for railroaders, and prior to [former owner] Sid Goodrich buying it the place was a wreck,” Epstein told the Beacon in December 2023. “The pipes were bad, there was a bullet hole in the ceiling. I’m impressed with how much work the new owners have accomplished in just the past couple months. They’re on it.”

This story will be updated as more information and details become available.

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