baseline - Charles Bethea

BASELINE
A sketch of the ill-fated Fairmont Tamarack
NEWS
LAST RESORT
ANDRE AGASSI’S
FAILED HOTEL
VENTURE
O
n Sept. 6, 2006, just
three days after losing
to Benjamin Becker in
the third round of the
U.S. Open and ending his
tennis career, Andre Agassi made his first
big post-retirement foray into business.
Agassi Graf Development LLC, a company
created in 2005 to “develop luxury real
estate and lifestyle offerings under the
direction and vision of Andre Agassi and
Stefanie Graf,” finalized an agreement
with Tamarack Resort to construct a
luxury mountain hotel near the couple’s
second home in Donnelly, Idaho. The
Fairmont Tamarack would be the Gem
State’s first five-star hotel, with doors set
to open in 2010.
A year later, in December 2007, Agassi
was all smiles as he surveyed a snowcovered construction site in Idaho’s
Payette River Mountains. Tamarack,
which opened in 2004, was America’s first
new all-season resort in two decades, and
his hotel would be its crown. Skiing, golf,
tennis, a 20,000-square-foot spa, an indoor
kayaking simulator, a movie theater and
a bowling alley would all complement the
Fairmont, which architect Eduardo Illanes
imagined as “a sort of shimmering castle
similar to the great resorts in Chamonix
and Switzerland.” Agassi and Graf were
consumed by its details, their Donnelly
living room covered in cloth swatches,
paint samples and design books.
“You go out there and you entertain
them. You give them a break from their
lives,” said Agassi of his tennis career.
“But this [resort] is a chance to give
somebody a platform for a life. So the
results of this labor far exceed the results
of winning something on the tennis
court.” The other potential result of this
labor, which amounted to a $350 million
investment split between Agassi Graf
Development and Echo Partners LLC,
would be some $600 million generated
from hotel, condo, penthouse and private
home sales. Things were proceeding
according to plan, with minor celebrities
like Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane among
those who bought the first 125 available
units in just seven hours.
But in February 2008, the French
bank Société Générale withdrew a $118
million loan crucial to the resort, citing
market conditions. By March, Credit
Suisse had sued the owners of the resort
for defaulting on a $250 million loan. In
June, Agassi Graf Development voided
its agreement with the resort to build
the hotel. For now, Agassi and Graf will
merely be residents of Donnelly, not
architects of its renaissance.
Tamarack has soldiered on through
bankruptcy, remaining open this winter
despite an unknown future.
Agassi’s legacy, both on the court
and off, will endure. And there are other
investments to tend, not to mention his
charitable foundation and preparatory
school for at-risk kids in Las Vegas. His
dream of a kingdom with a castle will
have to wait.—CHARLES BETHEA
For now, Agassi and
Graf will merely be
residents of Donnelly,
not architects of its
renaissance.
RAN KI NG S
WHO’S UP, WHO’S DOWN
WN
N
C
COMING
BACK
Proving she’s still got game, former world No. 4 Jelena
P
a
Dokic started last season unranked and finished
D
it at No. 177. This year, after falling 10 spots with a
first-round loss at Brisbane, she rebounded at the
Australian Open, where she
89 Petra Cetkovska
8
reached the quarterfinals and
nd
9
90 J. Gajdosova
pushed finalist Dinara Safina
a
to three sets before bowing
9
91 Jelena Dokic
out. Her ranking improved 96
6
9
92 Kristina Barrois
places, to No. 91, her first time
me
9
93 S. Cohen-Aloro
in the Top 100 in five years.
GETT Y IMAGES
LOOKING RUSTY
Marat Safin says he’s retiring at the end of 2009. Will
Lleyton Hewitt be the next to pack it in? Last year,
the former No. 1 player, who turned 28 in February,
didn’t win a title and finished outside the Top 25 for
the first time since his rookie
106 Kevin Anderson
season, 1998. At this year’s
107 Luis Horna
Australian Open, he lost
108 Lleyton Hewitt a five-setter to Fernando
109 Vincent Spadea Gonzalez in the first round,
sending his ranking tumbling
110 Go Soeda
38 places, to No. 108.
● For complete ATP and WTA tour rankings, go to TENNIS.com/prorankings.
14
TENNIS.COM APRIL 2009
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