The lawsuit between bicycle racing champ Greg LeMond and the battling Blixseths has finally been reached. As I mentioned back in March, the Tour de France winner, his parents-in-law David and Sacia Morris, and Jorge Jasson, a family friend claimed Tim Blixseth tried to buy their shares at the Yellowstone Club for a total of $13 million, which they say was a fraction of their value. The parties had previously reached a $38 million settlement in the case. Blixseth paid the first installment on the suit but missed a payment in January. Now the suit has been settled for a $39.5 million settlement.

The news comes after Tim Blixseth and Edra Blixseth, who are working their way through a divorce that started off pleasant but has become contentious, have resolved the questions over ownership of the exclusive Yellowstone Club.Edra Blixseth is now the club's majority owner and chief executive, and will be footing LeMond's bill. Her spokesman Bill Keegan says she has ambitious plans for the Montana getaway which caters to the wealthy. Bill Gates and Dan Quayle are members and Greg LeMond has said he will keep his residence at the club.

Marnell Corrao Associates has announced the topping off the M Resort, Spa and Casino in Las Vegas. The $1 billion project is located on South Las Vegas Boulevard and St. Rose Parkway a bit of a ways from the Las Vegas Strip. The M Resort, Spa and Casino will have 390 guest rooms, nine restaurants, a destination wine cellar and tasting room, more than 60,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, a 23,000 square foot spa and fitness center and over 100,000 square foot pool and events piazza named Villaggio del Sole. Of course there will be a casino with over 92,000 square feet of gaming space including 1,846 slot machines, 64 table games and a state-of-the-art race and sports book. A March 2009 is planned.

The resort has also entered into a partnership with Taubman Center Inc. to create the first full-scale, department store anchored regional mall to be directly integrated into a casino resort. It will add one million square feet of in-line shopping to the resort and is expected to open in late 2011 or early 2012. Another feature of the resort will be a 63,000 square foot movie theater with 14 screens and 3,100 seat of all-stadium luxury seating with digital sound and premium concession selections,.

It's already happening in Massachusetts and New York, now the next state to turn a former mental health facility into quality real estate is Kentucky. The creepy Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville will become a 78-room boutique hotel with a spa, fitness center and meeting space for business groups. The historic landmark, which once housed tuberculosis patients is reputedly haunted and has been on a variety of televisions shows as one of the most haunted places in the U.S.

Charles Mattingly and his wife Tina, who bought the property in $225,000 for 2001 are planning to keep the ghostly theme of the building during the $18 million renovation. The couple have lived on the property for the last year and have videos that show steaks of light and glowing orbs. The Real Waverly Hills website has a file dedicated to paranormal photos. There is also a slideshow with recent photos that show a building in need of some serious work.. The Mattinglys are planning an eco-friendly hotel with a solar-powered electric system, geothermal heating, a parking structure with a rooftop garden and floors made of either cork or recycled rubber. While the couple are hoping that the ghostly allure will attract some customers they are also hoping that the hotel will attract those who may not be aware of its spooky reputation.

Tiger Woods may be taking some time off the PGA circuit but he's certainly not taking it easy, like other golfers before him such as Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus, he's working on his golf course empire. We've already profiled his Dubai plans but he is also hard at work on his first golf course in the United States. His course will be located at The Cliffs at High Carolina, which is part of The Cliffs' collection of eight private residential developments in the Carolina Preserve, each with their own golf course. The area features 14 state parks, three national forests and one national park and very scenic land with views out over the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Tiger's got some great land for his course, he is planning a walking golf course at elevations up to 4,000 feet which will have 50 miles of views. The Cliffs at High Carolina also offers easy access the the charming city of Asheville, North Carolina, a place which seems to consistently end up on lists of top places to live and retire in. The development features a village area that will be home to a spa, inn, fitness center, cafe and market. The course clubhouse will also include a restaurant. The Cliffs offers home sites from $300,000 to over $3,000,000 and custom homes from $700,000 to over $5,000,000. For The Cliffs at High Carolina homesites begin in the $500,000s and range to over $2 million. The sales office recently opened for The Cliffs at High Carolina and groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall. There will be 50 to 60 homesites in the first release. Membership is not included in the home price. There is an initiation fee of $150,000 plus $650 in monthly dues but this entitles you to a variety of features detailed after the jump.

The Matthews Hospitality Group has announced via press release that two model residences in its Point Breeze development are open for viewing. Half of the 29 private residences within walking distance of Nantucket's cobbled downtown are already under agreement. (Because Nantucket real estate, like the island's timeless preppy togs, simply defies market trends.) Each owner will receive complimentary membership to Point Breeze's "ultra-elite" club, which features world-class spa, fitness center, outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, five-star dining and concierge service. Nantucket property owners and frequent visitors can join in the fun by becoming members of the Club at Point Breeze.

A one-bedroom condo in the historically-inspired development starts at $1.5 million. The company has also broken ground on a similar project on Palm Beach Island, meaning your summers and winters are now covered.

In 2002, the self-described eccentric Lord of Warleigh advertised for a lady of the manor, and he received over 2000 replies. Now suffering from late-stage prostate cancer, Lord David Piper has now put his manor and title in addition to a "gentleman's residence" with English Channel views and a 42-foot sitting room, a 140-piece contemporary art collection and a pair of Bentleys up for sale on eBay.

Mr. Piper will be moving to London for treatment and apparently needs an influx of cash, claiming he is "impoverished" and "owes a lot of money." Bids are up to almost 10 million pounds sterling (just shy of $20 million), though the property is valued between 5 and 6 million pounds. Best of luck to the Lord of Warleigh regarding his estate and his health.

A rare piece of real estate is up for sale. The Mondsee or Moon Lake is one of the last privately-owned lakes in Austria and enjoys a secluded location in the mountains of the Salzkammergut region near Salzburg,. The small lake is a little less than a mile wide and close to seven miles long. The owner Nicolette Waechter is ready to sell the property which has belonged to her family since the 18th century. She receives rental income from those who rent out each piece of land, bankside or pier. She grew tired of the amount of work required to manage the land and called the Austrian Federal Forestry Service, which owns many lakes in the country. They made an offer to manage the lake for her for free for two years and before making an offer to buy. She has refused that offer but has many others to consider. Rumors put the potential price of the lake at about 16 million euros.

[Thanks, Lana]

Around two years ago I first brought you the story of The Shire, a Hobbit-themed development in Bend, Oregon. But two years ago there was no real estate crisis and now The Shire is facing foreclosure. The Bend Bulletin reports that the notice of default was recorded last week in the Deschutes County Clerk's Office on the 31-lot development. The original developr Ron Meyers sold his share in the development to Dr. Lynn B. McDonald and his wife Jan. They had taken full ownership in May but Dr. McDonald died July 7 and Jan McDonald is trying to sell off the 14 developed lots before the public auction of the six-acre property on December 2. The default notice says the family owes Umpqua Bank $3.4 million on the project.

The project includes stonework, artificial thatched roofs, and a network of gardens and streams with a pathway leading to a central courtyard. It as gotten plenty of media attention but just one home has sold for $650,000 since the project broke ground in fall 2006. Another, the Butterfly Cottage shown above, is listed at $899,000. It overlooks an amphitheater and has modern touches including bamboo flooring, a Japanese soaking tub and granite countertops. There is also a "hobbit hole" in the backyard for storing garden supplies.

The project seems to have gotten plenty of people stopping by to look but not many people buying. It's unclear what will happen to the Tolkeinesque theme of the development when new investors take over.

[via Gawker]

If the current real estate trend keeps going, I just might have to start doing a real estate auction of the day. For now though let me just direct you to today's auction of the Palazzo Condominiums in Panama City Beach, Florida. The seven-month-old condos are located on Front Beach Road facing the Gulf of Mexico. There are 129 units in the building and 67 units will be up for sale today with 27 that will be sold absolute.

The building has a fitness center, tropical pool, conference room and covered gulf side parking. The units include crown molding, and granite kitchen countertops, new appliances, garden tub and separate showers in all units and ceiling fans in living areas and master bedroom suites. To bid on a one-bedroom unit a check for $15,000 is required, two bedrooms require a $25,000 check and three bedrooms, a $35,000 initial investment. Those not in the area can also bid online this morning.

[via WJHG]

Last week , I mentioned a condo auction in Anaheim, California now here comes another Southern California auction. On August 24 at the Hilton Long Beach, 39 condos at West Ocean Two ill be auctioned by Citi Property Investors as part of the tower's grand opening. The condos on Ocean Boulevard in downtown Long Beach are located in a high-rise that includes a large lobby, concierge service, exercise studio, swimming pool, media/club room, wine storage room, game room, guest suite, outdoor entertaining area and more. The starting bid for nine one-bedroom residences will be $275,000, the 25 two-bedrooms will have a $350,000 starting bid, and five three-bedrooms will start at $795,000. As Curbed LA reveals, condo documentation for the auction says that the one bedrooms were previously listed at $534,000 which seem fairly inflated.

[via Long Beach Press-Telegram]

Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs will open a boutique for his signature collection at the lavish Elysian Hotel development in Chicago (right) early in 2009. Jacobs' quirky, so-hip-it-hurts clothing is revered by celebs like Victoria Beckham, who starred in his ad campaign.

Jacobs has inked a ten-year lease on the 2,700-sq.-ft. space, which will be located in the development's Beaux Arts-style retail courtyard. The designer already has a boutique for his bridge line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, in the Windy City.

The 60-story edifice designed by architect Lucien Lagrange, is being billed as "a throwback to the grand hotels of the 1920's with the modern conveniences of today." It features 188 guest suites starting at $600,000, 51 private residences which start at $3 million, and a restaurant by famed chef Charlie Trotter.

Another week, another condo auction. This weekend, buyers lined up in Anaheim, California for a chance to bid on 58 deeply discounted Stadium Lofts condos. Potentials buyers could save between 24 percent and 29 percent on the condos which are located near the Angels Stadium. The OC Register reports that by Saturday afternoon, developer Windstar Communities LLC had received $5,000 deposits from each person for 48 condos.

The condo project has 390 units total but the developers had some trouble selling them so they decided to put the 58 units that had attracted the least attention from buyers up for auction. A 1,082-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath condo went for about $350,000 which is approximately 25 percent off or a savings of $114,300 off the original listing price.

In Kuwait's plans for Silk City (Madinat Al Hareer), no one will ever be more than three blocks from water or gardens. A vast National Wildlife Refuge is in the works. And medical treatment along with fresh, healthy food will be accessible on foot for 80% of residents. The centerpiece of the hugely ambitious project will be the tallest building in the world, the Mubarak al Kabir Tower, at 200 stories and comprised of seven distinct "vertical neighborhoods." (Fun fact: the tower will reach to 1,001 meters, an imposing physical reference to the Arabian Nights tale.) Add to that the four main quadrants of the city: Finance City, Leisure City (I'm totally moving there), Culture City and Ecologic City, and what is ostensibly an architectural feat becomes an experiment in crafting entire ways of life. With government investment of $132 billion, London-based design firm CivicArts/Eric R. Kuhne are ready to break ground ... and continue its labors until the estimated date of completion for Silk City, 2023.

Investors in the project state that their hopes to renew Kuwait's cultural influence are highly motivational, and the idea is based on the crucial links established over a thousand years ago when Kuwait was a center on the silk trade routes. Now planning to link itself with cities like Damascus and Baghdad, stretching ultimately all the way to China, Kuwait intends to reestablish its connectivity in more than just symbolic measure.

Clearly imitative of nearby architectural playgrounds like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Silk City and all its outrageous goals does come off feeling a bit more commercial than its underlying motives might imply. They're tossing around terms like the "Arabian Riviera" and plan to incorporate such enclaves as "Film City" and multiple "pleasure facilities." Maybe it's that the intentions aren't just outrageous but highly-regimented. The planners are busy designing 28 different "lifestyle zones" specifically branded by interest (sports, film, media, etc.). While all the bells and whistles sound pretty awesome (in the true sense of the word) the overly manufactured quality of every detail -- especially the neighborhoods, oops "lifestyle zones," which force homogeneity not diversity -- make this huge community appear rather disconnected after all.

I guess we'll have to reevaluate in 2023. But judging from a fairly recent visit to Dubai, a model of speedy construction and ambitious contemporary architecture, I'd be willing to bet Silk City is operational much before then. Those oil prices don't hurt the timeline, either.

Versace has another high profile design job in New York City. The luxury brand which furnished apartments in the Plaza last year will also will design the interior renovation of New York's Clock Tower building on Madison Avenue. The New York landmark was bought by Lev Leviev's Africa Israel company for $200 million last year and has said they will spend two years and around $110 million renovating the complex. The end result will be 55 units including a large penthouse, a spa and an exclusive club. Previous Versace designs have been rendered in black and white with lavish gold details but their recent furniture show in April, shown in the gallery below, revealed a softer side.

All of Los Angeles is buzzing over the news of Candy Spelling's big real estate move. The 62-year-old wife of the late Aaron Spelling is planning to move out of her mansion, a 123-room, 56,500-square-foot mansion on six acres in the Holmby Hills area, and into a condo. But don't feel too sorry for Candy, while her new home will be less than a third the size of the old one, it is still a whopping 16,500 square feet and sits atop The Century building which is being built next door to the Century Plaza Hotel on Avenue of the Stars. The condo will have 360-degree views of the city all the way to the ocean.

Spellings new condo went for $2,848 per square foot which works out to an astounding $47 million, a record for a Los Angeles condo. The LA Times has a few details of Candy's new two-story pad. The lower floor will include a living room with two working fireplaces, a dining room for 25 guests, and staff quarters while the top floor will be home to the bedrooms, a massage room, exercise room, conservatory with rose garden, swimming pool and a deck. The master suite alone is 4,000 square feet. She will move in next year which means that the Spelling mansion may soon be on the market. Rumors of offers have been swirling for a while but we could even see a listing now unless it sells quickly and privately to someone willing to spend around $150 million for a home with a bowling alley and a gift wrapping room among its many luxuries.