Twelve years ago, Martin Belz, a Memphis-based real estate developer and CEO of Peabody Hotel Group, went on a vacation in Big Sky, Montana, with his son. They stayed in what Belz described as a “small cabin,” and fell in love with the area’s rural charm. The next year, Belz said, he brought his wife and their two daughters, who were also enchanted.
“It’s rustic and just so gorgeous,” he said on a phone call. “We kept going out every winter, and finally I started to look for a property for us.”
The result: a $1.1 million, four-acre lot in the community of Moonlight Basin that he bought it in 2008 and subsequently built a 16,100 square-foot home.
Belz put the house on the market in 2013, listing it initially for $27 million, according to Zillow, about eight months before filing for individual Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, the price has been cut almost 45 percent to $15 million.
Prospective buyers will find themselves in possession of a six-bedroom, six-bath and four-half-bath house spread across three main levels—a far cry from Belz's original “rustic” vacation cabin. It was designed by Black Diamond Partners, a Telluride, CO-based architecture firm, and is positioned on the mountain so that visitors can ski out of the house directly onto the slopes. (There’s even a “ski bridge” that goes over the driveway, so that residents can ski directly into the house’s dedicated ski room at the end of the day.)
The main level of the house, entered via a grand entry court, has a living room, dining room, and breakfast area, along with a “great room,” which Belz loves for its spacious, high vaulted ceiling. The ground floor also has two bedrooms, each with an en-suite jacuzzi and separate steam shower.
The lower level, Belz said, is primarily devoted to recreation. There’s a full gym, sauna, steam shower, a pool table, home theater, hot tub, and the aforementioned ski locker room.
“When you start your day off, you can ski right out of the house,” he said. “It’s just terrific.”
The upper floor is mostly bedrooms, including a master bedroom with an en-suite bath. Another one of the house’s bedrooms is in fact a bunk-bed room over the garage, which “comfortably sleeps seven people,” Belz said. “So there’s five regular bedrooms, and then that large room.”
All of the floors are reached via two, sweeping spiral staircases at either end of the house, though there's also an elevator that goes to each floor, too.