photo courtesy Jeff Rabidoux, Lifeonthe45th.com
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
There’s a new guy in town, and he’s definitely not from around here. All this month the local papers, TV stations, and gossip have focused on Eneliko Sean Smith, the enigmatic 39-year-old boxer turned businessman who recently moved to northern Michigan from Las Vegas with his stunning 19-year-old wife, and singer, Sarah Frances Johnston. By the end of April, “Liko” Smith intends to buy Sugar Loaf, the once popular ski resort, hotel and golf course located in the middle of Leelanau County, between Glen Arbor, Cedar and Leland. He hopes to renovate and open it by July 4.
Sugar Loaf closed in 2000 and hasn’t seen the light of day in a decade. Former owner Remo Polselli, who owned the resort from 1997 until 2000, was sentenced in 2003 to federal prison for tax evasion. Kate Wickstrom purchased Sugar Loaf from Polselli in 2005, but Polselli’s wife, Hanna Karcho, maintained a financial stake in the resort, and Wickstrom was unable to clear financial and legal hurdles to re-open Sugar Loaf. Some of those hurdles stemmed from Sugar Loaf not owning the wastewater treatment plant that serves the resort and nearby residential properties.
Smith intends to buy Sugar Loaf, including the hotel and ski hills, as well as the adjacent golf course, “Sugar Loaf The Old Course,” the wastewater treatment plant, and nearby properties — all to the tune of approximately $10 million, with the help of Florida-based TransCapital Bank.
And yet northern Michigan has collectively reacted to the potentially dynamite news with extreme caution. Why? As “Liko” Smith admits, “I Google terribly.”
Smith’s venture with the alternative, snowboarder-targeted The Block hotels in Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border, fell apart last year, and he was briefly held by local police for failing to pay taxes on one of the hotels. Former investors in The Block hotels have attacked Smith on Internet forums, and a deal with hotel heiress Nicky Hilton also imploded — though Hilton’s suit against Smith was dismissed for lack of evidence.
“On the Internet, nobody is accountable for the trash and the lies they put out there,” Smith told the Leelanau Enterprise last week. “My business record up to the point of The Block’s fall was impeccable … for six years, until it collapsed due to suffering hotel submarkets and an overextension of television and marketing along with a crippling economy. … My biggest mistake was partnering with a bunch of young, week-kneed investors that take shots online because it’s the most anonymous place in the world.”
In the age of the Internet, citizen reporting, and reality television, bad news has followed “Liko” Smith — fair or not — like a swarm of bees. To top it off, the fallout from his previous marriage became “public domain” earlier this year when his ex-wife appeared on the reality TV show “High School Reunion”.
And yet, his potential purchase of Sugar Loaf represents incredible hope for Leelanau County and the coming tourism season. Just imagine what the resort would do for the local economy, jobs, and the winter skiing and snowboarding season … if Sugar Loaf can beat the odds and re-open after a decade of growing cobwebs.
Not surprisingly, locals have voiced as much caution as they have shown excitement about the enigmatic, perhaps eccentric, outsider. My favorite online comment was “Can you see them at the Northport book club?” (Liko and Sarah are currently staying at the Cambria Suites in Traverse City, but plan to move soon to nearby Northport.) And local journalists — both professional and amateur — have scowered the Internet for clues about Liko Smith, his business acumen, and the extent of his ties to Remo Polselli.
In our interview earlier this week, we attempted instead to uncover a more personal side of Liko Smith. What did we learn from the Samoan boxer and son of a Green Beret?
In short: He’s excited about the local emotion surrounding Sugar Loaf. He thinks that only a businessman with a track record can take on this challenge. It’s too early for a master plan. He uses boxing metaphors to describe his business ventures. He watches Fox News on occasion, eats out a lot, and relaxes to his wife’s singing voice. He believes that folks in the utilitarian “meat and potatoes” Midwest need more substance (as opposed to gimmicks) to win them over than people on the West Coast do. He thinks the chances of opening Sugar Loaf by July 4 are 60-40 at this point. He and Sarah want the help of locals to gather historical memorabilia about the resort. He wants Sugar Loaf to reflect northern Michigan, and not Vegas or L.A. He admits to accepting occasional business advice from Remo Polselli, who, he says, local media have given a bad rap. He’s ready to invest heavily in snowmaking equipment and isn’t worried about global warming, which he calls “between Al Gore and God.” He uses his middle name “Sean” for business, and “Liko” for personal interaction. He thinks he’ll still be here in 10 years from now, and probably investing in ecological, sustainable developments.
photo courtesy Jeff Rabidoux, Lifeonthe45th.com
Please click here to read our interview with Liko Smith (and stay tuned for more Glen Arbor Sun coverage of Sugar Loaf resort. We’ll publish our first print edition on May 27.):
You’re welcome.
There will be no deal here-they have no money, there is no much difference between Polselli and Smith, especially when they have other common businesses, he is just Polselli front man. Two felons are better than one. Do we really need them here among us?????
Yes we do…If Liko Smith can get Sugarloaf reopened and create jobs and pump a little life into our miserable economy he’s a saint not a sinner in my book…everybody makes mistakes but maybe acceptence of atonement might be in order. Hummmm…let’s see…on one hand the property can set there for another decade and rot and rust or we can all give this guy a chance. Easy to hide behind a blog and make judgements..wonder just how squeaky clean your past is!
Jane,
No need to attack GlenArborSun.com. We’re more than just a blog — we’re the local newspaper — and it’s our job to ask questions. That said, this story links to an interview with Liko Smith, which lets the man talk, in his own words. Check it out.
— the Editors
[…] winter, though he might not ink the deal by the end of this week as originally planned. (In a previous interview with the Glen Arbor Sun, Smith had inadvertently named April 31 as the targeted date — a fictitious date, though that […]
Jane
I can understand that you want a hero to rescue your community, but does it not matter to you that he has been convicted of fraud in two civil cases (and yes, he knows about both of them), and will be using another person’s money to do it? As a former investor, I would not want my money back if I knew he stole it from the communities that depend on Sugarloaf.
He has never apologized to the investors. He refused to step down as managing partner unless everyone agreed not to hold him accountable for what we found. His partner ages ranged from 20s to 70s. That’s right, Sean squandered money away from grandparents. He never said that did he?
Just as easy as it is to hide behind this blog, Sean can hide behind his middle name and lies and propaganda that he puts out. If you do a search on old block hotel press, you can see how he did the same sort of hype back then. And to put MFM’s name in the dirt is just wrong. Sean talks about lessons learned, yet, all he does is place the blame everywhere else.
He is good at this game.
Here’s a chance to ask Liko “Sean” Smith your questions:
Thursday 4/29 7:45 to 8:30AM LIVE in our Traverse City studio with Mary in the Morning. Phone lines open at 866-594-1067.
Hey everybody! Great to see you on these boards, all opinions, good or bad, everyones getting involved. If you want to express your opinions in person to Liko Smith, come to the event Friday night as he is unveiling his final plans for the mountain which he will own before the end of this month. There will be no further discussions as he has to order the equipment in May –
Go to: http://www.likosmith.com/images/quad%20fund%20invite.jpg . RSVP is best.
Regards,
Sarah
“Be one of the 100!”
WOW! What a email to wake up to! Being one of the investors that LIKO (i dont know this sean guy is…i know LIKO). My husband and I lost a lot of money doing business with this guy!! But like any crook he wined and dined us and said all the right things, and true we thought we were making a good business decision partnering with him….what a mistake! He never paid us the money he owed us, he just disappeared!! What kind of man steals from his own wife? What kind of man takes from his best friend…yet alone his best friends mother?? Who does that? Liko “sean” Smith…thats who. I was never one of the people talkin gtrash about him online cause i believe in what goes around comes around, all i want from him is to make things right with me & my husband!
I feel sorry for his new wife, because i dont think she has a clueeee who she’s married to! Its just sad! Liko is a sad sad man!
And i would advise anyone who is thinking of doing business with him to do their research on his past dealings…and if you need to talk to folks who have been ripped off him him please contact me, I have a whole list of people you can talk to!
LIKO I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!….have a heart!
Liko is promising to lift Sugar Loaf up, back to prominence. Of course people are excited to hear that. I see two problems with this story:
1) Lack of integrity and ability. He won’t be successful. Regardless of his act, he doesn’t care about the community or the people. If he could make money pimping you out in any and every fashion, he would. Heck, that’s the good news! Even if he does the deal, he will be gone in a couple of years. He didn’t live in Tahoe or Big Bear more than in a transient nature – so he won’t be staying there either.
2) He is a known crook. Everything he has, including the experience he says he brings, comes off of the life savings he stole from other people. Do you really want a savior that steals from other people to pay you? If he was selling drugs to someone else’s kids, would you still like him as long as he promises not to sell drugs to your kids? I hope not. Don’t sell your soul.
You can’t stop him, it’s a private purchase, but don’t start thinking he is any different than a small time version of Remo. Protect yourself!
I remember a guy named arthur curry, who came to town, actually closed on the then distressed Park Place Hotel, bilked some locals out of $50,000.00 a pop, had a limited partnership security salesman everyone referred to as Shakin-Baker, who after the deal fell apart was at DJ Kellys with about $20,000 worth of American Express travelers checks (investor’s money) in his wallet and their run at a client of mine ‘a wealthy family owning nearby property’ who agreed with me vigourously when we said, “Arthur Curry was someone we should never do business with.” That was a very important someone. Arthur called him anyway, proposed some crazy JV and the sophisticated investor hung up the phone on him.
I was so concerned about that man, I said to my father, “This guy is Bad News”.
Within a few months, arthur curry had made the bad-news for kidnapping one of his illinois investors and trying to hold him ransom for 1,000,000 in Gold Bullion. (while still the owner of the Park Place Hotel)
After time, and bankruptcy, I believe it was a local charity that stepped in with millions to save the property that nearly sank traverse city’s center by a bad-owner of a monument hotel.
I remember the words Arthur Curry said to me when talking about his well-publicised difficulties of the Park Place hotel, while still claiming to be interested in a neighboring property owned by a prominent family I then worked for. I demanded to know what was going on before any conversation would be entertained for the purchase as there were complaints of his limited partners, ‘Eff the Limited Partners’ Arthur Curry Said to me. I said, “We do not want to do business with you and hung up the phone”. He called the client directly and received the same.
Again, a few months later, he was arrested for kidnapping an investor.
I share this story now, as the public memory might be short and a lot of good honest local people lost millions of unrecoverable dollars to Arthur Curry. I do not want to see such a thing ever happen to the honest and trusting people of my community.
I love my home-town and the trusting people in it, it is a truly special place in that regard. The people here have Honest-Open-Character and that is a property that can’t be bought.
Fabulous report,Maybe I might sign up to your rss.
[…] “extreme sport” entrepreneur Eneliko Sean “Liko” Smith’s personality made a splash in the local media. Liko Smith claimed he’d open by July 4 and have the lifts running this winter, but his lack […]
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