Sale of Telemark Resort postponed: Back into limbo...

Tue, Apr  5, 2011 - By Tom Held

From the Milwaukee Wisconson Journal Sentinel:

A deal to secure the future of the Telemark Resort in Cable has stalled once again, creating uncertainty for organizers of the American Birkebeiner ski race and residents counting on jobs and income from Telemark.

The closing scheduled for Friday was postponed indefinitely, and the parties are back to negotiating, according to sources involved in the deal.

“I am hoping that great minds will prevail over the next two or three or four days and the closing scheduled for Friday was just an April Fool, and we will close in the next four or five days as planned,” said Dick Short.

Short, a developer from Missouri, controls the property via the mortgage he holds on the lodge and roughly 1,000 acres that surrounds it.

The current owners, the Telemark Interval Owners Association, closed the lodge in the fall and voted to surrender the property to Short via a friendly foreclosure.

Meanwhile, the Telemark Partners LLC, has been negotiating to buy Telemark and renovate it into an Olympic-level training center.

That’s the deal that stumbled on Friday, creating another twist in the 64-year history of the iconic lodge, home of the country's largest cross-country ski race.

Mike Kocon, the president of the TIOA Board of Directors, said the purchase agreement presented to his group wasn’t acceptable.

“We need to have that purchase agreement rewritten, and it’s just taken some time,” Kocon said. “I’m optimistic that we’re going to get this done."

Read the rest of the article at http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/lifestyle/119193354.html