Real Estate In The News
August 2020
ASPEN
City Sales Tax Drops 16% First Five Consumption laws for smoking lounges Months of 2020 in the state of Colorado are to be Aspen’s overall retail sales through the presided over by local municipalities, first five months of the year were $280.59 but Aspen City Council recently decided million, a 16% decrease compared with the that talking about indoor smoking January-to-May period of 2019, the Aspen lounges in the midst of a pandemic — Daily News reported. The accommodations particularly as COVID-19 is known as a category, which is primarily made up of respiratory disease that spreads within lodging revenue, garnered $87.47 million, enclosed spaces — is not a priority for a decrease of 24.1% compared with the them, the Aspen Daily News reported. same period last year. Council agreed that the many priorities Also, through May, Aspen restaurants staff are pursuing to support public and bars collectively suffered a 20.8% health or Aspen’s hard-hit economy drop in revenue, pulling in $45.07 million. were worth addressing ahead of Collectively, the accommodations and adopting an ordinance legalizing restaurant-bar sectors made up 45.5% of all retail sales in the city from January to consumption lounges. May 2020. Marijuana Lounges Tabled by Council
ASPEN
Hundreds Apply for 10 Housing Units
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are assigned Category 3, meaning an individual cannot earn more than $100,600 and a couple may not have combined income of over $114,950. The monthly rent is $1,576.
The Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority has not added new rentals to its holdings in about 20 years, and the demand shows it, the Aspen Daily News reported. Almost 170 residents applied for 10 one-bedroom newly constructed Building Permits Still on Fast-Track units at 802 W. Main St. at the West End’s The city’s effort to fast-track building permits in order to boost the local S-curves. economy due to the impacts of Five of the units are reserved for COVID-19 has allowed more projects to residents who qualify under Category get approved quicker, which is a trend 2 income restrictions, meaning a elected officials want to continue, the single person cannot earn more than Aspen Times reported. Aspen City Council $65,750 annually and a couple may not agreed that continuing to improve have combined earnings over $75,150. processes and creating more innovation Those apartments rent for $1,112 for all the agencies that sign off on a month. The remaining four units building permits is the right direction,
ASPEN
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acknowledging that construction is a construction permits in April, employees significant contributor to the economy. reprioritized their work, but it was at the expense of other community However, expediting permits at the rate and departmental needs. There are the staff has for the past three months vacancies in the planning division, and is not sustainable past the summer, the in the building department, a part-time community development director said. field inspector position will be open in When council directed staff to fast-track the coming months.
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SNOWMASS
New Medical Clinic Finally Opens When the Base Village development was originally approved in 2004, a new medical clinic was included in the plans, which called for opening the facility within two years. Sixteen years later, the new Snowmass Medical Clinic ďŹ nally opened its doors on July 1, the Aspen Daily News reported. The
medical facility was delayed because of the 2008 recession and stalled after development plans changed. The state-of-the-art, walk-in clinic features seven fully private patient rooms, a triage room, general X-ray services and more, plus an expanded gym and new rehabilitative technologies for physical therapy patients. It encompasses 6,300 square feet.
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BASALT
Romero Group Purchases Lakota Fossil Trace. Lakota Ranch first Canyon opened for play in May 2004. Based The Lakota Canyon Golf Club and a in Basalt, The Romero Group owns a significant amount of developable majority of the Snowmass Village Mall land in New Castle were acquired — which it bought in June 2018 from recently by Basalt-based The Romero Related Colorado for $28.5 million — Group for $1.5 million, the Aspen Daily and handles property management News reported. Principal Dwayne contracts including Aspen Highlands.
Romero confirmed acquiring the golf club and 122 acres of developable Tree Farm Receives Final Approval land from bankruptcy court. After 27 years of development backand-forth, Ace Lane received final Romero announced the purchase of approval for his Tree Farm, the Aspen the 18-hole championship course that Times reported. The final plat approval was designed by Jim Engh, who also requires Lane to provide a $7 million oversaw the redo of the Snowmass letter of credit to guarantee the Club’s course and designed Redlands landscaping and road improvements Mesa in Grand Junction and Golden’s will be completed. Lane can proceed
BASALT
with preparations of phase two of the project, which features some of the main components of his plan — a four-story, 122-room hotel and a 77-residence independent living facility for people age 55 and older. Lane’s property is across Highway 82 from Whole Foods, the site of his existing Kodiak Lake. The hotel is contemplated at the northeast intersection of Highway 82 and Willits Lane. The independent living complex would be up valley of the hotel. Phase 2 also features 196 apartment units, with capped rents on 40 of them. The Tree Farm site is nearly 43 acres, of which 22 acres will be open space. Phase 1 features a mix of residential and commercial space.
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Car Wash Eyes Vacant Land The Basalt Town Council gave the first of two approvals needed for an automated car wash at 115 Southside Dr., which is currently vacant land at the intersection with Cody Lane on the east or up valley side of Big O Tires, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported. If approved, east-bound or up valley traffic on Highway 82 will see a storage business, Big O Tires, the proposed car wash and a RFTA bus station when they first encounter east Basalt. The applicant, the van Rooyen Group LLC, has a contract to purchase the land from Aspen Skiing Co. for $1.3 million.
CARBONDALE
Corby Anderson Names KDNK Lucas Turner who will continue as a part-time reporter; and Raleigh Executive Director Longtime Roaring Fork Valley Burleigh will take over public affairs resident and radio voice Corby duties. Anderson has been selected to take the helm of community radio station KDNK in Carbondale and is the first station chief with the title of executive director, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported. Other changes for the local public radio station and NPR affiliate include naming Amy Hadden Marsh as news director, stepping in for
Coffman Ranch Preservation
Closer
to
Major headway was made in the effort to conserve the Coffman Ranch when Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) awarded a $2.5 million grant to Aspen Valley Land Trust (AVLT) to help purchase and conserve the 141-acre property, the
CARBONDALE
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the GOCO grant is official right now. Pitkin County has pledged to donate $2 million to put land in a conservation easement, but the donation still has to go through an appropriations process. Discussions with Garfield County and Carbondale about financial contributions are currently in the works. The Coman Ranch property lies between Catherine Store Road and AVLT has raised about $4.5 million the Roaring Fork River, and is only two for the project so far, though only miles from downtown Carbondale. Sopris Sun reported. The project needs a total of $8.5 million to conserve and steward the land. The purchase price of $6.5 million is a discounted amount, as Rex and Jo Coffman donated over $1 million in land value to AVLT. The additional $2 million is needed to take care of the property and manage a portion of soon-to-be community accessible land, a project that is still in the works.
GLENWOOD SPRINGS
More Mountain Bike Trails Being Built north of Rifle, the Glenwood Springs Mountain bikers will soon have Post Independent reported. The more options for single-track fun in first phase of the 18-mile project is western Garfield County as the city expected to cost just over $90,000, of Rifle and the Rifle Area Mountain which organizers hope to start the Bike Organization start moving beginning of September, and will forward on carving a new trail system include nearly 7 miles of single-track through the pinyon and juniper trees trails.
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PITKIN COUNTY
Draft Distillery Proposal Receives the region — but water rights and Pushback usage remained the undercurrent Pitkin County commissioners are of trepidation. delaying the first reading of the proposal for the agriculturalcentric spirits distillery in the midvalley until late August, the Aspen Daily News reported. They made the decision during a contentious meeting that saw a range of concerns surrounding the proposal — from light and noise pollution to upticks in truck traffic relating to inventory deliveries to future implications of rezoning the currently lone unzoned parcel in
The applicant is looking to pull water rights from the Kester Ditch as part of a proposed farm-todistillery operation near Hoaglund Ranch. Commissioners said they did not have enough information in the initial reading — including what would be grown and distilled — to make any sort of informed decision.
PITKIN COUNTY
CORE Act Passes House The U.S. House passed the CORE Act, which aims to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of Colorado public lands and waters, as a rider to a national defense bill, the Aspen Daily News reported. The Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, which includes protections for the Thompson Divide area west of Aspen, passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The act also would designate Camp Hale, where the 10th Mountain Division soldiers trained during World War II, as the nation’s first National Historic Landscape. It
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now moves on to the Senate. RFTA Goes Cashless Cash is no longer accepted on RFTA buses starting Aug. 1, in the valley’s continuing continuous response to COVID-19, the Aspen Daily News reported. There will be no more free rides on regional routes in the Roaring Fork Valley and west to Rifle, where fees were suspended during COVID. Buses in the city of Aspen and town of Snowmass Village remain free. And the Ride Glenwood route is an exception to the new cashless policy.
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