‘Little Jackson Hole’ resort receives Sublette County building permit

PINEDALE (WNE) — Billionaire Joe Ricketts’ proposed luxury resort in the rural Hoback Basin near Bondurant is moving forward with the necessary building permit from Sublette County and plans to break ground later this spring or summer.

The permit authorizes the construction and development of the Homestead 20-unit resort with an attached underground day spa and a 90-seat fine dining restaurant.

Upon completion, the day spa and restaurant will be open to the public. Guests of the Homestead Resort will be encouraged to use the recreational offerings of local operators, guides and other businesses, according to a March 15 release.

“The design of the Homestead Resort should complement the beauty of its surroundings. I believe the architect’s renderings demonstrate just that,” Ricketts said in the release. “This project will create additional jobs and opportunity (sic) in our community, and I’m excited to get started.”

In 2021, Ricketts’ 56 acres of hillside agricultural property was rezoned into a recreational services district allowing a hotel and related development — The Homestead Resort — following approval by the Sublette County Commissioners.

At a meeting in Pinedale in May 2023, Ricketts explained referring to his address as “Little Jackson Hole” instead of “Bondurant” is a more “charming” way to advertise and market the Jackson Fork Ranch, the Homestead Resort and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“If I was going to advertise ‘Bondurant’ to people from Los Angeles or New York, no one would know where it is. But if I advertise ‘Little Jackson Hole,’ everyone knows where it is,” he said.

Hoback Basin landowners, Ricketts’ neighbors and area residents who dread an expansion from Jackson south into Sublette County have been critical of Ricketts and his developments, even as the billionaire made large donations to local entities like the Sublette County Health Foundation.

This story was published on March 21, 2024.