Apparently the latest victim of the Wall Street meltdown, the Inn at Blueberry Hill in Chilmark will not open this summer, the Gazette has learned.

Situated on 50 acres off bucolic North Road in Chilmark, the inn had recently changed hands and was planned for conversion to a largely private, upscale destination club with an emphasis on outdoor activities from flyfishing to golf. The owners are a group called Everlands, designed as an invitation-only members club with annual memberships starting at $475,000. The group owns properties around the world, from a partridge hunting camp in Spain to the old Rockefeller estate on Saranac Lake, N.Y. The group bought the Inn at Blueberry Hill three years ago. At the time the Chilmark zoning board of appeals approved conversion to a private club, on condition that Theo’s restaurant at the inn remain open to the public and that 25 per cent of inn guests be from the general public.

At the time one Chilmark selectman criticized the zoning board for its decision. J.B. Riggs Parker said the change amounted to conversion to a time-share resort, which is distinct from a not-for-profit club and not a legally permitted use under zoning in Chilmark.

Now the economic downturn has changed everything. The inn owners are reportedly in talks with Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment house that filed for bankruptcy in September of 2008 and was their primary lender. Lehman was also a primary lender at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, whose owner (separate from and not related to the Inn at Blueberry Hill), decided late last year to put an expansion project on hold while all the financial affairs were sorted out. The Harbor View had already completed a substantial renovation and remains open for business.

The Inn at Blueberry Hill was targeted for renovation work that had not begun before the crisis hit on Wall Street late last year.

Spokesmen for Everlands said yesterday that they could not comment on the situation, but expected to be able to comment in a few weeks.