Blixseth, Redford helped shoulder state into new economy

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

Robert Redford and Tim Blixseth don’t have much in common, aside from their big impact on Montana’s landscape.

ERIK PETERSEN/CHRONICLE Yellowstone Club owner Tim Blixseth stands in front of the 120,000-square-foot Warren Miller Lodge at the club. "That's your basic $100 million lodge," Blixseth said. One is a Hollywood actor, movie producer and liberal environmental activist. The other is a jet-setting billionaire who wheels and deals in luxury real estate.

But they both changed Montana. Between them, they’ve helped shoulder the state into a new economy, one increasingly based on real estate, construction and recreation. It’s what economists call an “amenity” economy, one that relies on scenic views, pleasing lifestyles and portable money.

Redford, with his beautifully produced and photographed 1992 movie “A River Runs Through It,” made a movie star of both Brad Pitt and Montana’s scenery. The film generated tons of glowing publicity about the state, ignited a new craze for fly fishing and started a population influx and demographic shift that the Montana Department of Commerce has dubbed “A River Runs Through It Syndrome.”

Also in 1992, Blixseth landed in Montana, purchasing 140,000 acres of land, then proceeding with a series of land deals that eventually resulted in The Yellowstone Club, a gated community where only millionaires are allowed.

The club symbolizes wretched excess for some people and King Solomon’s mines for others. But love it or hate it, the club stands as the keystone property in the booming Big Sky resort area, a generator of intense publicity, and a major driver of the region’s economy.

Redford’s movie put Southwestern Montana on the map.

And while he didn’t do it alone, Blixseth put it on the market.

Now, 15 years later, this part of the state is a very different place.

New waves of homesteaders have arrived and they aren’t like the honyockers of the early 20th century, the people lured west by hucksters who promised that rain would follow the plow. The first wave of homesteaders came here for free land and a chance to make a living. Most of them went broke.

The new homesteaders are a different sort. Few of them come here looking to expand their wealth. Instead, they bring their own money. Economically, they make their own rain, and a lot of people are hoisting buckets, trying to catch some.

Gallatin County alone has 828 licensed real estate agents - almost a quarter of the state’s total. Bozeman offers a variety of sushi restaurants, plus Persian rug dealers, cosmetic surgery centers and art galleries of all stripes.

On one block of the sunny side of Bozeman’s Main Street, you can find $2,000 espresso machines, $10,000 sofas and $60,000 home theater systems. Million-dollar McMansions pepper the landscape, designer clothing surrounds the tables in tony restaurants, and just try to count all those Audis and Expeditions and Escalades.

And then there’s the cash money. Federal bank regulators say that Gallatin County banks hold $1.6 billion in cash deposits. That’s $20,000 for every man, woman and child in the county. It’s 30 percent above the state average and the total grew by $1 billion between 2000 and 2007.

And the truly wealthy n Forbes Magazines’s list of the 400 richest Americans names at least 10 people with homes in Montana n tend to do their banking somewhere else. They might have a $10 million property in Montana, but home, and the major bank account, remains elsewhere.

“Lots of people with wealth, whether they’re part-timers or not, don’t necessarily do their banking here,” said Larry Swanson, an economist at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at University of Montana.

Measuring the impact of the new wealth in Montana, Swanson said, is like looking at an iceberg: Most of the bulk is underwater and unseen, but that’s what packs the wallop.

At Blixseth’s Yellowstone Club alone, 340 millionaires have already bought land. And Blixseth says he’s confident he can bring in about 500 more.

Some people, particularly those with marketable skills, benefit from the influx of wealth.

“It means an electrician can drive a $40,000 vehicle and live in a $400,000 house,” said Clark Wheeler, a veteran land appraiser in Bozeman. “Twenty years ago, they were living pretty sparse.”

And while a lot of people are putting a lot of money in the bank, the averages don’t tell the whole story. Some people stash a lot of green. Others can’t find much at all.

Poverty remains high in the Gallatin Valley, though it’s largely out of sight.

In one Bozeman school, 44 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. At the Gallatin County Food Bank, the number of households needing help has remained steady: About 7 percent of the population walks through the door every year, asking for something to eat. That proportion didn’t decline much over the past seven years, while Gallatin County residents tucked an extra $1 billion into local banks.

“It’s stayed pretty steady,” said Heather Grenier, the food bank’s program director.

Almost everybody who comes in for food has a job or two, she said. But for the working poor, too often, the ends don’t meet, especially when prices just keep rising and rising.

Around the region, many families are just a broken car, an unexpected illness or a missed paycheck away from being homeless.

Starting today, the Chronicle takes an in-depth look at Southwest Montana’s new economy. We look at who’s benefited from it and who hasn’t. We look at how our new neighbors contribute to the local community, or how they choose not to.

Economists, political scientists and local government officials all say the new economy is here to stay. Ranchers are bailing out, heading for flatter ground that’s less expensive and less contentious. Subdivisions and strip malls and trophy homes continue to sprout. So do gravel pits and power lines.

You can blame it on Robert Redford and Tim Blixseth. Or you can thank them for it. Your choice likely depends on whether the wave of new wealth gave you a thrilling ride or just left you fighting ever harder to keep your head above water.

A rising tide might not float all boats. But it rocks them.