Real Estate in the News - March 2021

Real Estate In The News March 2021

ASPEN

Down, lower than the $36.2 million generated in December 2019. Restaurants brought December retail sales in Aspen in $10.7 million, down 33% from $15.9 plummeted by 37.3% to cap off a year million in December 2019. The entire that saw an overall decrease of 6.9% 2020 wasn’t nearly as bad as December, because of pandemic restrictions with $766.2 million in sales compared enacted to stem the spread of COVID-19 with $819.8 million in 2019.

December Retail Sales Following Pandemic Year

cases, the Aspen Times reported. The city Finance Department’s monthly tax consumption report also showed December accounted for $94.7 million in taxable sales. December 2019 saw $118.6 million in sales, according to older tax reports.

Overall accommodations, which also included short-term rentals at condos and private residences, amounted to $20.6 million in December, which was 43.7%

City Names New Wheeler Opera House Director After nine months without a dedicated leader, the Wheeler Opera House announced Lisa Rigsby Peterson as executive director of the iconic 132-year-old performance venue, the Aspen Daily News reported. Rigsby Peterson will join the Wheeler team after serving most recently as the

ASPEN

founding executive director of Lone Tree Arts Center, located in the Denver suburb of the same name, for 11 years.

She was among more than 140 candidates vying for the position; her starting salary is $138,000. As part of her role, Rigsby Peterson will be responsible for the Wheeler’s reopening, refining programming to meet the needs of the community and overseeing capital improvements to the historic building.

Gondola Maintenance Summer Opening

to

Delay

Postseason maintenance on the Silver Queen Gondola at Aspen Mountain will push the gondola’s summer opening date to early July, the Aspen Times

CONTINUED

reported. Skico is replacing the haul rope (the cable that carries gondola cabs to the top of the mountain). The gondola project will likely begin with a few days of teardown shortly after Aspen Mountain’s April 18 closing date, “Machine maintenance” on the towers and sheave trains that keep the cable on track could begin April 20 or 2.

Normally, the gondola opens for the summer on Memorial Day weekend and continues weekend operations throughout the month of June. The haul rope replacement will begin around June 6 or 7 when the new haul rope arrives in two parts. Hikers can expect more traffic on the mountain and no access to top-of-mountain facilities

ASPEN

CONTINUED

at the Sundeck during the closure. in Napa Valley, Davila held leadership There will be no public uploading or positions with Alden Hotels in Houston, downloading on the gondola until July. Patina Group in Los Angeles, Postrio in San Francisco and Restaurant Daniel and Hotel Jerome Names New General Café Boulud in New York.

Manager Patrick Davila is the new general manager of the historic Hotel Jerome, the Aspen Daily News reported. Davila most recently served as director of operations and interim general manager at Meadowood, a luxury resort in Napa Valley, Calif. He replaces longtime general manager Tony DeLucia, who retired from the helm of the hotel last June after more than three decades at the helm.

He is an inspired patron of the arts, having previously been involved with the production of three Broadway shows and the Napa Valley Film Festival, where he served as chairman. Prior to his time

Limelight Hotel Aspen to Close for SixMonth Renovation The Limelight Aspen will close for renovations this spring, the Aspen Times reported. The flagship Limelight property (there are two others in Snowmass Village and Ketchum, Idaho) will undergo “top to bottom” renovations to all of the hotel’s public spaces as well as all 126 guestrooms and suites. A complete closure of the hotel begins April 11 with a goal to reopen around Thanksgiving. The hotel already closed online reservations for the Aspen location, so there are no guests to rebook.

ASPEN 131 Popcorn Lane Aspen, CO 81611 4 beds 6 baths 4,955 sqft $8,995,000

Visit ToryThomas.net for details!

SNOWMASS

Transit Center in the Works The town of Snowmass Village is aiming to have its new transit center at the Snowmass Mall completed in time for ski season 2024, the Aspen Daily News reported. The facility’s initial cost is estimated to be around $12 million.

The center would be used for both the Snowmass Village Shuttle as well as buses from the Roaring Fork Transit Authority (RFTA) and be located near the site of the current Lot 6.

The town will work in collaboration with Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., an architectural, planning and engineering firm, and approximately $950,000 will be spent on design in 2021. Town staff will choose a contractor this year for the project, and that will allow for a more detailed construction management plan and budget to be created. Construction could commence after the end of the 2022 ski season, and the current plans call for the project to take approximately 617 days. The target for completion is the beginning of the 2024 ski season.

SNOWMASS

CONTINUED

Thursday Night Concerts Cancelled Hill for the weekly series. Given the high cost of the stage setup and still Again much uncertainty about how COVID-19 A longstanding Snowmass Village restrictions on gatherings and tradition of free summer concerts on event capacities will impact summer Fanny Hill has been canceled for the happenings, the town decided to take second year in a row due to COVID-19 a much mellower approach to live concerns, the Aspen Times reported. music this summer, and is considering offering summer live music on both The “Thursday Free Concerts” series the Snowmass Mall and in Base Village typically draws large crowds to Fanny through smaller performances.

BASALT

New Middle Eastern Restaurant ornamental piping — a tribute to Jaffa Opens in El Jebel Port along the Mediterranean Sea in Lior Lilah, along with his wife Angie Israel. Originally from Israel, Lilah also Torres and business partners Doina lived in France where he worked for Musteata and Alexei Rotaru, recently years at a creperie in Paris. The menu opened their own Middle Eastern includes shawarma, falafel, skewers restaurant — Jaffa Kitchen — at 400 and Middle Eastern salads.

East Valley Road in El Jebel near City Market, the Aspen Daily News reported.

Open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week, Jaffa Kitchen’s interior includes decorative hookahs, ornate drums and

Pan and Fork Construction to Begin Basalt River Park has been a long time coming, but it’s moving ahead with hopes to finalize plans this spring and

BASALT

begin construction, the Aspen Times reported. The town acquired land along the river in 2011 when the owner of the Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park sold the property. The development received final approval in February 2020 for 24 residences, 11,500 square feet of commercial space, the 3,000-square-foot restaurant space and a 6,500-square-foot space that had been touted as the future home of a to-be-named nonprofit.

CONTINUED

The first phase will feature a lot of important but relatively dull work — grading the site and putting in utilities and infrastructure. The public won’t be able to use the site in 2021 due to safety concerns. Work will be shelved during winter 2021-22 and resume next spring. That’s when amenities such as a band shell, the “great lawn,” bathrooms and amenities such as water misters will be installed.

CARBONDALE

Ascendigo Submits Plans for Camp Ascendigo Autism Services has submitted plans to develop 126 acres in eastern Missouri Heights near El Jebel for a summer camp and year-round activities center for autistic children, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported.

Ascendigo secured the property Oct. 1 from residential developers Janckila Construction, which was preparing to pull building permits for 15 homes to be built on the site. The site combines the White Cloud and Harmony Heights parcels, which had been platted for

a total of 26 homes, but which sat undeveloped for 20 years.

Included in the development plan is a 6,800-square-foot base camp headquarters for reception, meals, education and training; an 8,500-square-foot lodge that can sleep as many as 24 campers and two staff; a staff lodge of 8,500 square feet for as many as 48 staff members; a 14,000-square-foot activity barn and therapy center; a caretaker home and accessory unit; a guest cabin; and, an equestrian center for Ascendigo’s equine therapy services.

ASPEN 332 W Main Street 101A, Aspen $2,800,000

Visit ToryThomas.net for details!

GLENWOOD SPRINGS

Hanging Lake to Reopen to Visitors able to do so beginning April 1. Tickets Post-Fire to hike Hanging Lake cost $12. The Less than a year after the Grizzly Creek Hanging Lake shuttle, which previously Fire scorched over 32,000 acres in transported visitors to Hanging Lake Glenwood Canyon, Hanging Lake will from the Hanging Lake Welcome Center reopen to visitors beginning May 1, the in Glenwood Springs, will not run, at Aspen Daily News reported. The National least for the time being. Visitors with a Natural Landmark in Glenwood Canyon confirmed reservation will be allowed to was largely spared during last summer’s park at the Hanging Lake exit and walk to fire, which also shut down Interstate 70 the trailhead. It will be opening at limited capacity due to COVID-19 and visitors for nearly two weeks.

Visitors to Hanging Lake will still need to must comply with social distancing and book their reservations ahead of time, other safety requirements. online, at visitglenwood.com and will be

GLENWOOD

CONTINUED

Garfield County Pushing Making installer for the program.

Solar Options Easier Garfield County is launching a campaign, Garfield Clean Energy, CLEER and Solarize Garfield County, to boost local partner utilities and businesses have solar energy participation, the Aspen helped county residents, businesses, Daily News reported. The program schools and local governments install contracts with a single solar company over 20 megawatts of solar to date, with and gathers a pool of as many potential Garfield County currently leading the customers as possible during a limited state in solar capacity on publicly owned period, easing the burden of entry to facilities. This new program creates an going solar while allowing the installer additional step forward in accelerating to achieve greater economies of scale. the growth of home-grown solar energy, CLEER, the nonprofit that runs Garfield while reducing the upfront cost and Clean Energy’s programs, has selected stimulating the economic development Active Energies Solar as the exclusive benefits of solar.

PITKIN COUNTY

Pandora’s Expansion Conversations Oct. 2003. The vote followed a 90-minute Continue presentation led by David Corbin, In a repudiation of the county staff’s SkiCo’s senior vice president of planning recommendation to deny a SkiCo and development with support from rezoning request for the Pandora’s ski President and CEO Mike Kaplan and area expansion project in favor of looking attorney Tom Todd, the latter whose at the area comprehensively, the Pitkin discussion about the history of Pitkin County Planning & Zoning instead voted County’s Rural & Remote designation unanimously to allow a public hearing was deemed “persuasive” by at least on a partial or full amendment to the two planning commissioners. Corbin East Aspen Master Plan, the Aspen Daily suggested that SkiCo would forgo News reported. If passed it would rezone other uses in the ski recreation district, acreage from its current Rural & Remote such as new residential and hospitality and Agriculture Residential designations development, should Pandora’s be allowed to move forward with an to Ski-Recreation.

The East Aspen Master Plan, which amendment instead of a full master includes Pandora’s, was first adopted in plan review.

PITKIN COUNTY

CONTINUED

RFTA Looking to Add Bike Solutions The study would include an in-depth look at the most efficient ways to connect to Transportation riders in the short distances between Integrating more electric-powered bikes RFTA buses and their final destinations into the regional transportation network through a “First and Last Mile Mobility is a concept gaining traction with the Development Plan and Implementation Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, Plan.” The multi-pronged study is aimed the Aspen Daily News reported. The at enhancing the local connectivity to entity’s board of directors supported the buses through eco-friendly means. bus agency resuming its planning of a Alternative transportation modes — as regional bike-share study that could run well as locales — would be studied, with in the $200,000 to $250,000 range. bike-share among those ideas.