All Idaho Club parcels remain on auction block

SANDPOINT — All 18 golf holes and all of the undeveloped parcels at the Idaho Club remain in play as the tax auction date draws closer.

“We’re still having the auction on all 200 properties — as of today anyway,” Bonner County Treasurer Cheryl Piehl said on Monday.

Jim Berry of JV LLC notified the county earlier this month that he intends to pay unpaid taxes on as many as 120 of the parcels on the south side of Highway 200. The area, known locally as Moose Mountain, also encompasses seven holes of the Jack Nicklaus-signature golf course.

Piehl said Berry, the golf course’s original developer, does have a right of redemption.

“He does have a legally recorded mortgage, which gives him a right to redeem,” Piehl said.

However, it remains unclear if Berry is a priority lien holder. Piehl said a title company has to determine that issue.

There are a number of entities and individuals that claim a security interest in the development due to unpaid debts.

Berry hasn’t yet paid the taxes to have those southerly parcels removed from the auction block.

Berry said he’s still awaiting a definitive list from the county of the parcels that would be subject to his right of redemption.

“We haven’t gotten a price yet,” he added.

Berry contends the development’s former primary owner Pend Oreille Bonner Development, defaulted on a loan concerning the lots on the south side of the highway.

Berry intends to work with whoever becomes the owner of the other lots and golf holes to keep the development intact.

The entire development went to tax deed last month for years of unpaid property taxes, interest, late fees and costs.

The county took ownership of the development and set a July 9 auction date.

The auction will be divided into three phases. Pend Oreille Bonner had 176 lots, while GNP-IC LLC had 23 lots. Eagle Pointe Construction had one lot.

The minimum bid for Pend Oreille Bonner’s former lots is $1.7 million. The minimum bids for the former GNP-IC lots and the Eagle Pointe lots are $238,027 and $9,762, respectively.

The minimum bids in all three cases are expected to increase because costs of the tax sale continue to accrue until the sale closes.

The lots subject to the Berry redemption would be pulled from the auction if he pays the taxes prior to July 9.

New TIC LLC, a group of existing homeowners at the club, is maintaining the course at its own expense to keep it from turning fallow. It is not open for public play for the time being.

n Documents, agreements and a map related to the tax auction are posted to the treasurer’s office website (http://co.bonner.id.us/treasurer/index.html).