The Wednesday settlement resolves a two-year legal dispute in which LeMond, his in-laws and an associate accused Blixseth of trying to buy out their minority stake in the club for less than its true value.
Meanwhile, the simultaneous rise of Edra Blixseth to Yellowstone Club majority owner and chief executive caps a bitter struggle with her husband for control of the enterprise.
Although that divorce is not yet final, the two sides already have traded assets related to the settlement, said Edra Blixseth spokesman Bill Keegan.
"She in fact has a new management team in place and lots of ambitious plans," Keegan said Friday. "It's a new chapter in her life and she's anxious to put her stamp on the club."
A Minneapolis-based attorney for LeMond said the cycling star will maintain his residence at the club.
"None of my clients ever wished anyone ill," said the attorney, Bruce Manning. "They have merely wanted to be paid what they were owed, and for the club to be on the financial footing it is now on."
Tim and Edra Blixseth opened the millionaires-only club in 1999 on 13,400 acres in southwest Montana's Gallatin Mountains - land Tim Blixseth had acquired through a trade with the U.S. Forest Service.
Building lots within the gated community have sold for millions of dollars, with homes selling for as much as $20 million. Bill Gates and former Vice President Dan Quayle are among its members.
But the tony club ran into financial trouble in recent years when the real estate market turned south. Its problems grew after Tim Blixseth diverted tens of millions of dollars to a separate venture that attempted to take the club concept global - Yellowstone Club World.
In a recent e-mail to club members, Tim Blixseth said he had sold his stake in the Montana club to "stop the distractions" caused by the couple's high-profile divorce proceedings.
"I went to Edra with a simple plan to settle this for all of us. That was either I buy her out, or she buy me out, and she got to pick. She chose to buy me out," he wrote in the e-mail.
Tim Blixseth said Friday he is moving on to a new venture intended to build on his experience turning marginal forest lands into high-value real estate assets. He said the newly-initiated Blixseth Opportunity Fund will raise $2 billion "to buy distressed assets in the real estate field as well as in the timber business."
"The fund was just set up and will be looking for assets all over the U.S.," he wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)