Andre Agassi turns his hand to flogging property: to watch the video clip, click here

You wouldn’t normally get excited about meeting a property salesman: but it’s different when Andre Agassi wants to sell you a condo. Since retiring from tennis last year, Agassi, 37, a Wimbledon champion, has devoted his time to the property company he and his wife, the tennis superstar Stefanie Graf, 38, set up a few years ago. She retired in 1999 after winning Wimbledon seven times (six more than her husband).

The couple, who are estimated to have earned at least $50m in prize money, as well as endorsement cash galore, have dabbled in the booming property scene in Las Vegas, where they now live, briefly owning the Golden Nugget casino and building a bank.

But today I’m in Agassi’s office in the city’s Howard Hughes Parkway because he wants to tell me about a project far, far away. In remote western Idaho, in fact, an area of rushing rivers, wild mountains and woodland, 850 miles north of the neon-strafed desert gambling and entertainment megalopolis.

Agassi bounds in for our appointment in the suite of offices where a dozen or so minions are busy organising a gala event for the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which has taken over one of the city’s sink schools with gratifying results. No longer the professional sportsman, he’s still what the Americans call “buff”: all-over-the-head tan on his shaved cranium, piercing blue eyes and a well-muscled physique in white jeans and a shimmering metallic T-shirt.

Does he miss tennis? “No!” He’s quite firm on that point, but then he relents a bit. “But I do miss the people.” Tennis was, after all, his life from his earliest childhood. But now he’s happy to be settled with Stefanie and their children in his home town – her mother has moved there, too – and having a regular family life, doing the school run and playing with his kids.

In fact, when he starts to tell me about the new Idaho development, his eyes soften and what he talks about is an idealised family life. He seems almost painfully aware that his own childhood – his obsessively driven father started his tennis training before he could even walk – is not what he wants for Jaden Gil, 5, and Jaz Elle, 4. So, he and Graf “looked for a second home where we could enjoy memories with our children”. A strange turn of phrase, strongly suggestive of wistful gaps in his own memory banks. “I didn’t get to do much at all that wasn’t tennis,” he says.

Their quest took them to the shores of Lake Cascade, about two hours north of Boise, and a mountainside that, three years ago, was empty but for a few newly built log cabins. They spotted the potential and bought, for a sum Agassi is not prepared to reveal, one of the largest.

So, he was in at the beginning of Tamarack resort. Since then, it has acquired more houses, an award-winning golf course, ski lifts and a hotel. The creation of Tamarack was not universally welcomed, however: when, in 2000, Jean-Pierre Boespflug, a former executive with the computer giant Cisco, and Alfredo Miguel, a Mexican investor, bought land at the foot of West Mountain, bordering Lake Cascade, they had to mount a strenuous campaign to persuade the authorities to let them go ahead. Eventually, they were granted a government lease on the mountain, where they have installed ski lifts and pistes to serve the resort that is taking shape on their 1,500 acres.

It is still in its infancy: three years ago, cows grazed on what is now the golf course. The plan is to keep it small and exclusive, and avoid the sprawl of other upmarket American mountain resorts such as Vail, in Colorado.

Agassi, not content with owning the house in Idaho, is building a hotel – and selling it room by room. In the five-star Fairmont Tamarack, all 300 fully furnished suites and condos are for sale, with prices ranging from $700,000 (£345,000) for a 600 sq ft studio to $5m for a three-bedroom penthouse. One analyst reckons the project could bring in $600m for Agassi Graf Development and its partner, Bayview Financial.

The condo hotel will not be ready until 2011. Building hasn’t even started yet, but the first release of 125 units, earlier this year, sold out within a day. In December, more will come onto the market, to be secured with a 10%-15% deposit.

So, here comes his sales pitch: “It’s not time-share, it’s full ownership, with all the amenities of a five-star hotel – 24-hour room service, maid service. Vacations used to be for families to get away from each other. Our lives are so different now. We use vacations to get reconnected with each other and ourselves. The best way is to provide something effortless: you don’t want to work hard to relax.” Absolutely, Andre – if you can afford it. On top of the purchase price there’s a condo service charge of $1.85 per sq ft per month – that’s about $14,000 a year for the smallest unit. “Fairmont Tamarack,” Agassi says smoothly, “allows the opportunity to be away from your second home while it’s being taken care of. And you can put it in the hotel’s rental pool.”

Here, he stops. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates companies listed on the stock exchange, forbids the popular European sales flim-flamabout thriving condo occupancy rates and earnings. Instead, he will have to sell the resort on its other features, such as the year-round activities, from golf and water-sports to skiing and snowboarding. You may even meet Agassi on the slopes – after years in which he wasn’t allowed near skis, he has taken up snowboarding. But there is to be no Agassi-Graf tennis school. “Tennis is a difficult animal at that altitude,” he says.

The couple are involved in all areas of the hotel’s design. “We’re not engineers,” Agassi says, “but we recognise quality and we’re full on with design and development from the ground up – that means down to the closet dimensions. To take this beautiful land and put a building there, a lot of decisions start to form. It’s a place you try hard not to screw up.” The condo furniture is designed by Agassi and Graf – including a woven-leather couch and cool retro fabrics – from the range they did for the interiors specialist Kreiss.

The masterplan is for a “boutique” resort: Tamarack will ultimately have just 2,043 “units”. That includes the Fairmont condos, or you could buy one in the existing Lodge hotel, where prices start at $500,000. There will be 129 flats above the shops and restaurants in the village (all sold), with apartments and detached houses dotted discreetly among the trees. The grandest of these go for about $4.5m, or you can buy a plot for $500,000 and build your own. Resale prices on the first homes built at the resort start at $700,000 for a two-bedroom chalet – a cool $200,000 up on what they cost in 2004.

Step away from the rarefied confines of the resort, and property becomes substantially cheaper: a few miles away, a 1,000 sq ft detached house on two acres is valued, according to its owner, who works at Tamarack, at just $350,000.

So, with such an apparent mark-up – and with the broader American property market in crisis – why pay Tamarack prices? Lawrence Yun, a senior economist with America’s National Association of Realtors, says the market for such upmarket developments is booming.

“We saw a modest increase in vacation-home sales in 2006, a slumping year generally,” he says. “We’re still tallying the 2007 figures, but the demographic of baby-boomers nearing retirement and buying resort homes indicates a strong year. Resort-community locations, facilities and security have a big impact on prices.”

The market appears to justify Agassi’s confidence. Though he might end up sharing his family getaway – and the half-pipe – with the oldies.

Fairmont: 00 1 208 325 1500, www.fairmonttamarack.com

Tamarack Resort Realty: 00 1 208 325 1001, www.tamarackresortrealty.com

Call of the wilds

Colorado:This five-bedroom property in Vail Village has eight bathrooms, a guest suite, two studies and an indoor swimming pool with a hot tub. For sale for £10.3m, through Joni White Taylor (Sonnenalp Real Estate); 00 1 970 477 5300, www.vailrealestate.com

Colorado:One of 18 new-build homes in Aspen, at the foot of Red Mountain, this five-bedroom, 4,815 sq ft property will be ready to move into later this month. For sale for £3.4m, through Craig Morris (Morris & Fyrwald); 00 1 970 379 9795, foxcrossingaspen.com

Idaho:Set in 1,100 acres in Sun Valley, this lodge-style house has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a large kitchen with wine cellar, an indoor swimming pool and a barbecue area. For sale for £5.8m, through Sherry Daech; 00 1 208 726 3317, www.sherrydaech.com

Nevada:Set in landscaped grounds in Glenbrook, near Lake Tahoe, this secluded estate consists of a 5,000 sq ft villa with a pool and a home cinema, as well as a separate one-bedroom cottage. For sale for £3.34m, through Dickson Realty; 00 1 800 368 7252, www.dicksonrealty.com

Click here to find properties for sale in America on propertyfinder.com

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