Len Barrie Incurrs Penalties At Bear Mountain Resort

In debt to the tune of more than $300 million, Barrie's Bear Mountain Master Partnership was placed Thursday under provisions of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act at the request of the largest lender -- HSBC Bank Canada -- and Barrie removed as CEO.

Despite these actions, it will continue to be business as usual at Bear Mountain with all pending activities, such as conferences, weddings, banquets and the world renowned Telus Skins Game with Mike Weir and friends scheduled for June, going ahead as planned.

In court documents filed in BC Supreme Court, HSBC claims Bear Mountain has been defaulting on a number of payments since 2008 and the bank no longer has confidence that the partnership can make good on its outstanding debts. Other lenders have also painted a bleak picture of a development in substantial financial trouble.

The 500-hectare development, located in Langford and the Highlands, consists of two Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses, a hotel, restaurants, other businesses, condominium buildings, and single-family houses. According to Barrie the entire development, which is expected to include more than 3,500 homes when it's fully built out in 20 years, could be worth $2.5 billion.

Barrie, who recently was forced to sell his share of ownership in the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning to new owner Jeff Vinik, said in a statement the partnership agreed not to oppose an application to place the resort under creditor protection by HSBC, one of the world's largest banks, whose support is required to allow operations to continue.

"Since January 2009, Bear Mountain Resort has experienced more than $110 million in real estate transactions, yet in spite of this success in operations and sales, we were unable to reach agreement with HSBC to continue operations outside of a formal process," he said.

"We remain optimistic that our present negotiations will allow us to reach satisfactory arrangements with HSBC and move forward with the remainder of the development at Bear Mountain."

Barrie says he'll continue pursuing opportunities to restructure the resort's debt and other strategic alternatives.

The resort lists several former and current NHL players among its investors, including Mike Vernon, Joe Nieuwendyk, Rob Niedermayer, Ray Whitney and Ryan Smyth.

Earlier this month Barrie, Bear Mountain Jet Corp. and Robert Johnson were named in a lawsuit filed by GE Canada Equipment Financing G.P. of Montreal for what it claims is a default on a four million-dollar loan to buy a private jet, a 2001 Cessna Citation Bravo. With interest adding up at $262.83 per day, a GE statement is claiming $3.5 million from Barrie, $3.4 million plus interest from BM Jet, and $575,000 from Johnson, a Bear Mountain director.

There is one shred of good news for Barrie which ironically relates to his first love, the game of hockey. None of Barrie's financial woes will have any effect on the Victoria Grizzlies' play at Bear Mountain Arena when the B.C. Hockey League resumes regular-season games in the fall. Barrie owns 51 per cent of the Grizzlies,

"The Grizzlies hockey club is separate from and has nothing to do with the Bear Mountain Resort," said Reza Binab, business manager of the Grizzlies, and a minority owner of the team along with Mark and Dorothy Wagstaff and former Colwood mayor Jody Twa.

"Len remains [majority] owner of the Grizzlies and it's business as usual for us."