Fresh off a spate of positive publicity for his conservation-oriented work under the banner Saving Yellowstone, billionaire Joe Ricketts has renewed his efforts to develop a luxury resort on ranchland that runs along the rural, remote Upper Hoback River.
In 2024, the TD Ameritrade founder and patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs halted an underway upscale resort after Sublette County commissioners declined to waive stipulations that prohibited construction from Nov. 15 to April 30 to protect wintering elk and moose. Ricketts contended the abridged building season would add $60 million in construction costs when he pulled the project.
Two years later, the 85-year-old financier is trying again. In July, his agents submitted a permit application to the Sublette County Planning and Zoning Department for a resort called The Confluence. The effort escaped media attention until Tuesday, when it was reported by the Cowboy State Daily.
The modified project proposal calls for a recreational lodge, restaurant and bar, a wellness/spa center and 20 guest suites. But that’s just the first phase. More phases are expected, according to the application, and will be pursued with future applications. Construction is anticipated to begin this fall and wrap up by 2031.
Ricketts has repeatedly espoused the idea that developing resorts and getting wealthy tourists to understand conservation are needed to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. He made that case to a Pinedale audience in 2023, pitching his own luxury resort as a form of conservation, and echoed those views in August at a conference he hosted at his ranch under his new nonprofit, Saving Yellowstone.
“We need to accommodate growth in a way that [protects] the places that you see,” Ricketts told conference attendees in his opening remarks.
Ricketts’ earlier attempt at a resort, which had been dubbed the Homestead, went over very poorly in the small Bondurant community. The ranchland being developed by the billionaire Nebraskan is crossed by the longest known mule deer migration route in the world, which connects the Red Desert to Hoback Basin and beyond. It also contains crucial winter ranges for elk and moose.
The first attempt in 2020 to rezone the ranchland from its former agricultural status failed, but he tried again the next fall and was given the OK by county commissioners in December 2021.
At public meetings about the resort plans, oftentimes the only person speaking in support of Ricketts was Morgan Fischer, his former agent, who Ricketts is now suing alleging he was defrauded.
In written responses to WyoFile’s questions on Wednesday, spokesperson Jessica Jaubert said that Ricketts is committed to being a good neighbor.
“[That] includes keeping people informed, answering questions directly, following County requirements and paying attention to how construction affects those who live and work nearby,” she said.
A resolution appended to the resort application shows that Ricketts has agreed to not build from Nov. 15 through April 30 this time around.
Jaubert highlighted other wildlife-friendly measures in the plans. He’s committing to wildlife-friendly fencing, bear-resistant trashcans and dark sky-friendly lighting, she said. Guests will be given “toolkits” with instructions on being a good ecosystem tourists.
“Mr. Ricketts is committed to these added measures to help wildlife move safely through the property, reduce conflicts between people and animals, and help guests understand their responsibility to care for the place they’ve come to enjoy,” Jaubert said.
Some neighbors aren’t buying it, like Upper Hoback Road residents Lisi Krall.
“I am more skeptical than I’ve ever been,” Krall said.
Krall, who’s a retired environmental economics professor, is especially critical of Ricketts’ theory that conservation and development are intertwined.
“He frames it like this is an eco lodge, where he’s going to teach people about the Hoback region, blah blah blah,” Krall said. “This is not conservation. Building eco lodges for the very wealthy that have huge footprints up small river valleys is not conservation, and it negates his good conservation work.”
In Krall’s judgement, the nonprofits Saving Yellowstone and Ricketts Conservation Foundation are little more than public relations tools — and effective ones.
“Based on the number of conservationists that he’s brought into his fold,” she said, “I’d say he’s doing a pretty good job of making conservationists believe this is the way to conservation.”
Jaubert disavowed any connection between Ricketts’ resort and environmental initiatives. The Confluence application and Saving Yellowstone conference happening within a month of each other was “entirely coincidental,” she said.
Fellow Upper Hoback Road resident Pat Burroughs attended the conference, and has tried to give Ricketts the benefit of the doubt. But she’s simultaneously skeptical.
“At the summit, Joe said that the thing that causes the most problems for the ecology of the ecosystem is Starlink,” she said. “Baloney. It’s commercialism.”
The on-again, off-again resort is “making me crazy,” Burroughs said. “I want to believe that our little valley is going to be safe,” she said.
In the two years since Ricketts halted construction, he’s stayed busy with land dealings in Sublette and Teton counties. He purchased a Bridger-Teton National Forest inholding up Granite Creek, northwest of Bondurant, and this summer construction crews have been working to renovate and expand a guest ranch he’s dubbed The Hawken.
Ricketts also bought the Rim Station, a small market and RV Park located along U.S. Highway 191 at the divide between the Hoback and Green rivers. It’s now registered to Rim Station LLC, an entity that was organized in June by Ricketts agent Steve Christensen.
And the billionaire also purchased the Timberline Ranch near Merna, formerly occupied by hunting influencers brought down for poaching. That property is now owned by Moose Lake Acquisition LLC, which was organized in March by Christensen.
Some debate remains on whether Ricketts is on sound legal footing to develop The Confluence resort without again having to rezone the property. Neighbors are pointing to Sublette County zoning regulations, which stipulate that property rezoned to accommodate resorts must see “substantial development” within two years or the zoning change “shall” revert.
Ricketts’ ranchland was rezoned nearly five years ago.
Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich declined to comment on the matter, citing the potential for litigation.
