Financiers are expected to put Intrawest's Whistler Blackcomb resort on auction next month while the facility is hosting 2010 Winter Olympic Games events.

Intrawest's owner, Fortress Investment Group, lost control of the company after missing a large debt payment. Creditors who loaned $1.4 billion to Fortress have now seized control of the company and are attempting to sell off its assets.

A notice of public auction to be held Feb. 19 was published in multiple newspapers in Canada and the United States Wednesday.

Among the assets listed were "partnership interests in two resort properties located in Canada (Whistler and Blackcomb)."

Intrawest is a unit of the Fortress Group LLC, which paid $1.8 billion for the resort firm and its 10 North American mountain resorts two years ago.

As a vacation resort operator and developer of real estate at its resorts and at other locations across North America and in Europe, the company was widely seen as being vulnerable during the global financial downturn.