Billionaire Ricketts Pulls Plug On Controversial Wyoming Mega-Resort

PINEDALE — Huge construction lights have been glaring through the night along the Upper Hoback River Road while by day, a huge mountain of dirt has been climbing up to the sky.

Not anymore.

Billionaire Joe Ricketts has pulled the plug on the posh 230,000-square-foot resort he’d proposed building in the Bondurant valley, a resort that was right in the midst of an important wildlife migration corridor.

Ricketts’ public relations team did not respond to Cowboy State Daily’s request for an interview about the decision.

But the TD Ameritrade founder and former Chicago Cubs owner told Sublette County commissioners that the shortened construction season the project was under would add between $60 million and $100 million in additional costs to the resort, in addition to stretching the construction timeline by three years for a total of six years.

The timeframe, which excluded Nov. 15 through April 30, was a condition of the project’s rezoning. It was imposed in 2022, at the request of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to protect a 150-mile-long mule deer migration corridor between the Red Desert and the Hoback River Basin.

Ricketts had asked Sublette County commissioners in June to lift the restrictions, proposing several mitigation strategies signed off on by Game and Fish.

But Sublette County Commissioners rejected the proposal on a 3-2 vote last month. That ultimately prompted Ricketts to pull the plug on the project July 8, according to a memo sent to commissioners.

The Homestead Resort, as Ricketts’ called the project, would have been a “premium resort experience with a mission-driven focus on protecting, preserving, and enjoying the natural beauty of the Hoback region,” according to a press release Ricketts sent to Cowboy State Daily earlier this year.

The 20-unit luxury resort included a 65,621-square-foot basement with a wellness center, underground parking and a 90-seat dining hall — a huge project for tiny Bondurant, which has a population of about 100 people, according to Sublette County’s Bondurant community page.

Humpty Dumpty Proposition

The posh project upset several Bondurant residents, but was particularly aggravating to its neighbors along Upper Hoback River Road.

They feared it would not only threaten wildlife moving through the migration corridor that cuts across Ricketts’ ranch, but that it would forever change the character of a special place.

Ricketts, too, talked often of changing Bondurant’s name to Little Jackson Hole, further exacerbating tension with his neighbors, many of whom told Cowboy State Daily they don’t want the same problems they feel over abundant tourism has brought to Jackson Hole.

On Tuesday, several Bondurant valley residents told Cowboy State Daily they don’t necessarily feel they are out of the woods yet, even though Ricketts has said he’s pulling the plug on the project.

There’s still a literal mountain of dirt piled up at the project site that’s part of what’s making them feel ill at ease.

“Ricketts asked for 3.2 acres on his conditional use permit to build a batch plant to supply them with the concrete to build this 230,000-square-foot space,” Pat Burroughs, a resident of the valley, told Cowboy State Daily. “And I would say they have cleared probably close to 50 acres.”

Driving by the location Tuesday, Burroughs waved a hand at the huge pile of dirt and shook her head.

“This used to be a beautiful meadow,” she said. “They’ve hauled mountains, literally, of dirt off the hillsides out to this meadow and now it’s just ugly. This is just such a huge mess.”

Putting all that back where it came from feels like a Humpty Dumpty proposition to Burroughs and other Bondurant valley residents.

“Ricketts’ operation told the county commissioners that they’re going to put the mountain back up there,” local resident Lisi Krall told Cowboy State Daily. “They’re going to stop the project and move the mountain (of dirt) back up on the hill.”

That’s something Dan Bailey told Cowboy State Daily he’ll only believe when he sees it happen.

He thinks Ricketts’ announcement is just a hardball negotiating tactic in what he characterized as a four-year siege on the valley.

“I don’t think they backed out at all,” he said.

Missed Economic Opportunity

Sublette County Commissioner Mack Bradley, who cast the deciding vote against Ricketts’ request to modify his construction timeframes, told Cowboy State Daily he sees the demise of the Homestead Resort as unfortunate for both Sublette County and the contractors who thought they had work lined up for the summer.

“I hate to see the exit come about the way it did,” he said. “And in my mind, this is going to be a missed opportunity for this county.”

Places like Big Piney, where the school has been losing enrollment and Main Street losing businesses, need a boost, Bradley has told Cowboy State Daily.

But he also has questions about what he’s been told by Ricketts’ team.

“They say that it’s going to cost them too much money to operate on a shorter work season, but I don’t know that I agree with that,” he said. “To operate in the wintertime is very costly too. I don’t feel they understand that real well. But, for sure, it’s going to be a let-down for several contractors here.”

As far as how great the economic loss to Sublette County will be, Bradley said he doesn’t know if anyone has put a number to that.

“In my mind, it’s going to be huge,” he said. “But I don’t know what the specific number would be. And, as I understand it, to put the mountainside back to as close to natural as it was, it’s going to cost them a lot to walk away from this.”

Bradley doesn’t believe the idea that this is all some kind of negotiation tactic.

“To come in and tell these contractors that … I haven’t talked to (Ricketts) any, but I’ve talked to several of the contractors that have been turned loose,” he said. “You know, if that’s truly the case, that’s a shame.

“But I have my doubts that’s the case.”

Breaking The Boom-Bust Cycle

Hughes Enterprises was one of the contractors for the project. It had the gravel crushing contract.

Keith Hughes, the company’s owner, said the project was putting 25 to 30 people to work out of Big Piney, and would have kept those people closer to home for a change.

“We travel a lot for work,” he said. “Obviously, that’s part of Wyoming, right? And with oil and gas bills down, it was really nice to have a local project and finally see a little local growth.”

Hughes said he’s already lined up other work, so he personally won’t have to do any layoffs now that Ricketts is stopping the project.

“It resulted in some losses because I’ve turned other work away,” he said. “I really had to scramble to put something together to replace that revenue. So, we’re moving on, and we are traveling 150 miles away to do it.”

Hughes has lived in Big Piney since 1968 and has seen all the booms and busts over the years. What he wants to see instead is diversification for the economy to help break that cycle.

“It was exciting to see something different happening here,” he said, adding that he’s president of the airport board in Big Piney and Marbleton. “Just to see a little more vibrance in the community, something different, besides oil and gas. So that’s disheartening.”

Not Saving Anything

A memo to the Sublette County Commission from Ricketts’ team estimates that 100 to 150 jobs would be lost as a result of the project’s cancellation.

Krall isn’t impressed with that.

“They’re presenting it as, ‘Oh, Sublette County is a loser,’” she said. “‘You’re going to lose all these jobs that were going to come in,’”

But the long-term jobs would have been maids, cleaners and cooks, she said. And the skilled labor jobs to build the resort were mostly being filled by workers from Utah.

“Sublette County doesn’t have the labor force to provide that,” she said. “So, Layton Construction wanted to bring in their own workers.”

These out-of-town workers would have sent most of their paychecks back home to their families, Krall contended.

She also doesn’t believe the project would do anything for the environment as Ricketts has contended.

“Just take a look and see if he’s saving the environment,” she said. “The comparison is what it was like before versus what it will be like when it gets done.

“If you want to ignore all that’s going on right now, which is an industrial site, there’s no question that the impact on the area is going to be a 250,000-square-foot resort up there, with the visitor center, underground parking, etc., etc. That’s the comparison.”

Preserving A Legacy

Real conservation, Krall said, would have been taking the money spent on the resort and using it to set up a conservation easement instead.

D.J. Kominski recalls when Ricketts first came to Bondurant, that is exactly what he told residents his plan for the valley was.

“He hasn’t done anything he said he was going to do,” she said.

For Kominski, though, who is 91, the fight over the resort been about more than the environment. It’s about preserving a legacy for future generations, including her grandchildren.

“I told the commissioners at one of the meetings, I said, ‘If you ever agree to this there will be a day when you will regret it,’” she said. “Because there’s no amount of money that you can have or get that is going to pay for what you’re giving up and once you give it up. It’s gone.

“This is not a place that should be given up. It’s one of the few places in Wyoming where it is pristine.”

That’s brought people together of disparate politics, different religious beliefs and completely different walks of life over the years, Kominski added. People who have already fought for the valley, and who will do so again.

“That’s the one thing we all have in common is our desire to keep this place the way it is,” she said. “We love this place, and we want to preserve it.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.