Foreclosure filed on Thumper Pond
Action may lead to resort restructuring
Published Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Hard times have fallen upon one of Otter Tail County’s largest resort destinations.
Foreclosure proceedings have been filed against Thumper Pond — the golf course, hotel, conference center and water park located in the city of Ottertail.
Thumper Pond, Inc. owes its bank, Spire Financial Credit Union, St. Paul, more than $13 million. Thumper Pond refinanced its loans with Spire Financial in 2006.
According to legal documents filed in Otter Tail County Court, the original amount of the Thumper Pond mortgage was $11.8 million. The amount due as of the date of the Notice of Mortgage Foreclosure (June 23, 2008) is $13.4 million and includes taxes and other expenditures.
Thumper Pond owners are hopeful a financial settlement can be reached and that local ownership will continue, said Jim Ahlfs of Ottertail, president of Thumper Pond, Inc.
Tom Gedde, local attorney representing Thumper Pond, agreed.
“The official ‘Notice of Mortgage Foreclosure Sale’ is part of a process that will lead to necessary financial restructuring that will put Thumper Pond on sound financial footing,” Gedde said. “During this entire process, the facility will continue to operate normally with its excellent staff.”
But that might not be entirely true.
Thumper Pond’s hotel has been a Comfort Suites affilliate, but all Comfort Suite signage has been removed from the property. The hotel has also been removed from the Choice Hotels reservations Web site. Comfort Suites and Comfort Inns are owned by Choice Hotels.
Brainerd-based Madison Hospitality Group (MHG) manages Thumper Pond for Ahlfs and seven other stockholders. MHG also hopes it will be business-as-usual around Thumper Pond.
“We’re also confident something can be worked out between the ownership and Spire Financial,” said Bill Schultz of Alexandria, a representative of Madison Hospitality Group.
MHG, is a consultant and is not involved in the ownership of Thumper Pond. The company was brought in to assist both ownership and the lender with this current financial situation.
“We’ve seen significant signs of Thumper Pond turning things around,” Schultz said. “It’s
anticipated that MHG will continue to assist the owner and lender throughout the process. We (MHG) have experience and have previous success with similar situations.”
Also representing Thumper Pond is attorney Clint Cutler of Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis. Spire Financial Credit Union is represented by attorney Michael Oberle of Peterson, Fram & Bergman, St. Paul.
Oberle said the first of six published notices of the mortgage foreclosure sale will begin Thursday, July 3, and be published in each of the remaining five weeks in The Daily Journal.
In 1998 Jim Ahlfs and Verle Blaha decided to make a decade-old tree farm into a golf course. The course was named after a lake which the 500-plus-yard sixth hole winds around. The lake did not have a name, so Blaha decided to name the pond after his grandson, whose nickname is Thumper.
The golf course opened in 2001 and the hotel was dedicated in 2005.
"People will continue to enjoy the beautiful golf course and have business meetings, weddings and receptions,” Gedde said, “and enjoy the popular water park.”
In the meantime, Thumper Pond stockholders, Madison Hospitality Group and others look forward to a successful financial restructuring for the complex on the east side of Otter Tail Lake at Ottertail City.