The Most Expensive Home For Sale?

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Thursday, July 24th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Yellowstone Park has long been known for its natural beauty and wonder. Whatever outdoor activity one could imagine, you can find it there regardless of the time of year. Hiking in the summer, skiing in the winter, and everything in between. Vacationers from all over the world have made Yellowstone a travel destination, for singles and families alike.

However, Yellowstone may get a new distinction very soon, as what could quite possibly be the world’s most expensive home is planned for the park.

Yellowstone Club, as it is called, is a private ski resort within the park. A new complex, called the Pinnacle, is being planned by logging magnate Beau Blixseth. The 53,000 square foot complex that he plans will come complete with parking for 20 SUVs, a heliport and ice skating rink. Completion of the complex is scheduled for another 18 to 24 months.

The Yellowstone Club is the only place of its kind, a private ski and golf resort where people have come from around the world to build vacation homes. Its motto is “Private Powder,” and it consists of 13,600 mountainous acres in the Madison Range north of Yellowstone Park.

There are 60 ski runs totaling more than 35 miles and 3,000 feet of vertical drop, and each home is built within a short distance of a run. The slopes are meticulously groomed or covered with untouched powder, and, with just 85 homes built so far, the chair lifts are often nearly empty, even in the heart of winter.

The club is very exclusive and private of course, with security led by an ex-Secret Service agent, and an imposing stone gatehouse to keep out those who are not members.

There will be 864 “front doors” — condos and houses — if the club is completely built. To date the club has 300 members and in addition to the 85 completed, another 85 homes are under construction. Land prices start at $2.25 million to $9.6 million for 1 to 2.2 acres. Custom homes start at about $4 million and condominiums at $3.2 million. There are ranches as well, but none are for sale now. Members pay a refundable $300,000 initial fee and $16,000 in annual dues.

Much like co-ops in New York City that have a tendency to weed out those that apply to join, the Yellowstone Club is the same. Prospective members must apply and pass a type of screening before they’re allowed membership. While members own their land and homes, all sales go through the Yellowstone Club brokerage and an owner cannot convey title without the club’s approval.

Bill Gates and Dan Quayle are members, and Jack Kemp is on the board, just to give you an idea of how elite it actually is.

There are four restaurants owned by the club, a sommelier and a concierge service, so members coming for Christmas can arrange for catering and staff for a party.

Why the hefty price?

With its own heliport and ice skating rink, it might be no surprise as to why The Pinnacle is prices at $155 million. But what about the other homes in the Club? What do they offer that keeps rich and famous – and fabulously wealthy – coming back for more?

One home, the River Runs Through It, has a $16 million price tag. The 10,000 complex is under construction, and what connects the guesthouse and the main house is a room with a glass ceiling, glass walls and glass bridge, with an enclosed and heated $80,000 “river” flowing beneath it. The home also has six fireplaces, a home theater with nine sleeper chairs, and a two-sided Jacuzzi. One fireplace is outdoors, complete with a waterfall.

“Homes here have to have the grand feeling,” said Greg Dukette of Bitterroot Builders, which is building the house.

Take another home for sale, the Fandango. It is about 7,000 square feet, and features a kitchen counter that’s made from 3” thick board, and footrests which are made from a section of a rusted rail from a railroad. Even the chandelier in the living room screams “old west,” as its made from a tangled cluster of elk antlers. It’s price? $5.95 million.

Then there is the Bear Paw, a light-filled 8,000-square-foot home with a 3,000-foot deck set on a 17-acre lot, valued at $17 million. Several giant old-growth logs serve as the beams. It has stained concrete counter tops, heated stone floors, a boot drier and an indoor and outdoor fireplace. A twisted pine banister was made by a local artisan.

The dark wood floors are sawn from railroad trestles that had been partly underwater near the Great Salt Lake and have been sliced into dark reddish-brown flooring. “Everybody’s looking for a little piece of history,” he said.

What about the club itself?

So the homes offered at this resort are pricey, and rightly so. Numerous fireplaces, outdoor waterfalls, recycles pieces of history do not come cheap.

But at a ski resort, people are looking for more than just a beautiful home. After all, you don’t typically own a piece of property in one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world to simply sit indoors and sip cocoa by the fireplace.

Many residents say how much they appreciate the privacy of the resort, comparing it to actually owning your own, but without the overhead. Additionally, the activities themselves are second to none. The club offers groomed, untracked, or tree-lined terrain for whatever level of skiing you might be at.

And of course there are activities year-round, not just winter. Golfing, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, all of these activities are included in your membership to the club.

So the Pinnacle at Yellowstone Club may very well be the most expensive home on the market today, or will be when it’s completed, but it’s obviously well worth the cost. With unparalleled beauty offered by the park, and amenities and luxuries second to none, the Yellowstone Club is one that anyone would desire to be a member of.

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