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Talisker auction: no minimum bid set

Jay Hamburger THE PARK RECORD

The bidding for a patchwork of Talisker corporate family properties during an upcoming sheriff’s sale could start at a mere one dollar.

But nobody should expect to acquire a parcel of land in the sought-after Red Cloud neighborhood in Empire Pass for a couple bucks.

The sheriff’s sale is scheduled in mid-November and will likely be one of the most closely watched development-related events of the year given the widespread interest in the Talisker corporate family fortunes in Park City. The sheriff’s sale planned in Summit County is scheduled to involve a patchwork of properties, including parcels in Tuhaye, Red Cloud and elsewhere in Empire Pass. There is expected to be a sheriff’s sale in Wasatch County as well.

Wells Fargo in February filed a lawsuit on behalf of itself and another lender. The lenders later secured a $165.9 million judgment against the Talisker side.

Trevor Olson, a Summit County Sheriff’s Office sergeant, is the figure who will be assigned to serve as the auctioneer during the sheriff’s sale. A sheriff’s sale is a public event. The one in Summit County involving the Talisker corporate family parcels is scheduled at 10 a.m. on Nov. 17 at the 3rd District Court building at Silver Summit. Olson acknowledged it will be "way larger than the typical sale." He said he had received a few inquiries about the sheriff’s sale by mid-October. The people who contacted him were interested in details of the paperwork. Notice of the sheriff’s sale was recently posted, prompting media coverage and chatter about the upcoming bidding.

Olson said there will not be a minimum required bid. That means someone could put in a bid of one dollar as the bidding begins. If that happens, Olson said, it is unlikely the dollar figure will remain low as the bidding continues.

Olson said a representative for the Wells Fargo side could enter a bid during the sheriff’s sale, likely early in the bidding. It would effectively serve as a minimum bid since the bank would be setting the price. Other bidders would then need to decide if they want to push the dollar figure higher than the price set by Wells Fargo.

Someone must present identification if they plan to submit a bid. The person who wins the auction has until 5 p.m. that day to transfer the funds to the County Courthouse. The county government will then move the money to the lenders.

Sheriff’s sales are commonplace, but very few of them attract the attention that will be given to the one involving the Talisker corporate family land. They more typically involve far smaller properties that do not generate interest beyond those intending to place a bid.

"They’re really pretty basic and standard. They have a procedure," Olson said.

The land that will be involved in the sheriff’s sale was the collateral on loans made in the fall of 2010. The Wells Fargo lawsuit named a series of Talisker corporate family entities as defendants. Wells Fargo is administering the loans on behalf of itself and another lender. The Talisker side did not repay the money by a 2014 deadline.

The land involved in the sheriff’s sale does not include the acreage underlying Park City Mountain Resort. That land, held by a firm called Talisker Land Holdings, LLC, was central to a high-profile lawsuit with the former owners of PCMR that led to the sale of the resort to Colorado-based Vail Resorts.

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