Montage International and CrossHarbor Capital Partners LLC, a Boston-based private equity firm, are breaking ground today on a $400 million property that will be one of the few ultra-luxury resorts in Montana.
The hotel, in an area called Big Sky, will feature 150 rooms and 39 branded residences, offering ski-in, ski-out access to the second-largest ski resort in the U.S. The site also provides access to a golf course designed by Tom Weiskopf and lies roughly equidistant from the western entrance of Yellowstone National Park and Bozeman’s international airport, appealing to fly fisherman and golfers alike.
“We like luxury destinations that have a true sense of place, and a sense of discovery,” said Alan Fuerstman, chief executive officer of Montage, based in Orange County, California. “It’s a market our customer seeks out.”
Montage, which launched in 2002 with a resort in Laguna Beach, California, currently operates eight hotels and generated $400 million in revenue last year. In addition to the Montana project, to open in 2021, it has hotels under way in Manhattan and Sonoma County, California, among other locations. The company expects annual revenue to top $1.1 billion in 2022, Fuerstman said.
CrossHarbor has been betting on Big Sky for more than a decade, starting in 2006 when it purchased a development site. In 2009, the firm bought the Yellowstone Club, a private enclave whose members have included Wall Street and Silicon Valley billionaires. In addition to the ultra-luxury Montage, CrossHarbor is building a Residence Inn by Marriott in the Big Sky area and plans to announce another hotel project soon.
“We look at this market as akin to Jackson Hole 25 years ago,” said Sam Byrne, managing partner at CrossHarbor. “It’s a market that in general has been dramatically underserved by hotels.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
