Olympics stoke Whistler rental market

WHISTLER, B.C. -- Talk about timing, and a captive audience.

If you are going to schedule a foreclosure sale, you might as well do it when the world is coming to your door.

Three weeks before the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, a two-hour drive south of this gorgeous setting via the Sea to Sky Highway, lenders announced that they had seized the assets of Vancouver-based Intrawest ULC, which operates this mountain ski resort that will host a majority of the key alpine events.

New York-based Davidson Kempner Capital Management, which heads the lender group, said it plans to hold a public auction on Feb. 19, smack in the middle of the international winter sports festival. Ironically, part of the package also includes the resort at Squaw Valley, Calif., site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, plus Colorado's Steamboat and Winter Park, and Mont Tremblant in Quebec.

Olympic Games' organizers said that all events will go on as scheduled.

Vancouver-based Intrawest reportedly has missed payments on a $1.4 billion loan on the resort group. The company is owned by Fortress Investment Group LLC, a private equity firm that purchased Intrawest for $2.8 billion in cash and debt in 2006.

"Fortress Investment Group continues to own and control Intrawest and all of its properties," a company release stated. "Serious discussions with Intrawest's lenders are ongoing regarding refinancing, and the company continues to operate 'business as usual' at all of its resort properties," according to the Fortress release.

Public notices have appeared in Pacific Northwest newspapers stating "each qualified bidder must be a financial institution or other entity that has the financial wherewithal to purchase the membership interests in immediately available funds on the closing date."

While the Whistler Village and ski mountain may have hit difficult financial times, don't tell the individual property owners in the area who are gratefully accepting $2,500 a night for their slopeside condos and single-family chalets during the Games.

Many U.S. residents invested in second homes here years ago in anticipation of the Olympics. The potential of year-round income generated by the world-famous resort was also a lure. Skiers have access to the mountain-top glacier even in late summer, and the region is a popular playground for mountain bikers, kayakers, fishermen, hikers, rock climbers and golfers. ...CONTINUED

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