Local Economy Blamed in Failed Resort Purchase Deal

Nicholas D. / Flickr

Valley County's Tamarack Resort, viewed from above.

According to this article in The Idaho Statesman today, a potential buyer of Tamarack Resort is backtracking on an announced $40 million offer.  The would-be buyer, Matthew Hutcheson of GV Capital Holdings Inc., reportedly said in a letter to state officials that the local economy needs jobs and infrastructure first, and a resort second.  Here’s the key excerpt.

“We cannot in good faith pursue the acquisition of the resort believing, knowing, that without an increase in 1,500 well-paying jobs first, the resort is doomed to continued failure and destruction of the local economy,” Hutcheson wrote to Gov. Butch Otter and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in a Sept. 19 letter obtained by the Idaho Statesman. “We must bring in jobs that are sustainable and independent of Tamarack first.” – The Idaho Statesman

Job creation in rural Valley County, Idaho, where Tamarack is located, is no easy thing.  In August, the county’s unemployment rate was 16.6 percent.  Most of the jobs the county does have are in government or tourism and leisure.

Asked what he thinks about the prospects for creating 1,500 jobs in a county where the workforce now totals just over 4,400, Department of Labor Regional Economist Andrew Townsend didn’t mince words.  “I’d love to see 1,500 jobs in Valley County,” he said.  “I think everyone would.  It’s just how to get from point A to point C on that one.  What’s the step B?  I don’t think I know.”

Entrepreneur Hutcheson has long been regarded as an unlikely buyer for Tamarack.  And this is, of course, only the latest development in the resort’s troubled history.