{"id":1381917,"date":"2018-12-11T13:02:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T20:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/city-of-aspen-to-give-4-3m-for-public-private-aspen-mountain-base-redevelopment\/"},"modified":"2018-12-11T13:02:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T20:02:43","slug":"city-of-aspen-to-give-4-3m-for-public-private-aspen-mountain-base-redevelopment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/city-of-aspen-to-give-4-3m-for-public-private-aspen-mountain-base-redevelopment\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Aspen to give $4.3M for public-private Aspen Mountain base redevelopment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carolyn Sackariason<\/a><\/span> The majority of Aspen City Council late Monday night agreed to put in over $4.3 million as part of a public-private partnership with developers who are proposing to redevelop the western portal at the base of Aspen Mountain.
\nThe 3-2 decision came at around midnight, with councilman Adam Frisch making the swing vote in favor of taxpayer money going to pay for a new ski museum and improvements to Dean Street.
\nFrisch last week \u2014 and up until Monday’s vote \u2014 had taken the position that developers stand to make a sizable profit so why should any public subsidy be needed?
\n\u201cI don’t see the value of contributing millions of dollars,\u201d he said Monday night, adding it’s a bad use of public money. \u201cI don’t believe there’s not added value\u201d for Lift One Lodge owners who relocated their buildings to accommodate a new chairlift to come down to Dean Street and also gained additional square footage.
\nAcknowledging that the project could be in jeopardy and to end Monday’s seven-hour meeting, Frisch acquiesced and agreed to a straight payment of $4.36 million, delivered to the developers after the new chairlift is in operation.
\nThe project includes new lodges, the Lift One Lodge and Gorsuch Haus, along with a new Telemix chairlift that’s accessed at Dean Street, a relocated and refurbished Skier’s Chalet Lodge that will provide 11,000 square feet to house a ski museum, ticketing services and ski patrol and new public parks, to name a few amenities.
\nCombined, the properties would provide 185 new lodge keys, including 104 in the Lift One Lodge timeshare project and 81 in Gorsuch Haus as a traditional hotel.
\nFrisch also argued that Lift One Lodge developers Michael and Aaron Brown had previously committed to paying for the build-out of a ski museum in the old Skier’s Chalet Lodge.
\nWhen they bought the Lift One Lodge timeshare project and its entitlements from another development group in 2015, that commitment was attached to the approval.
\nThe approval has since been amended and now the Browns are seeking approval of a new land-use application to accommodate council’s desire for a chairlift to come farther down the hill.
\n\u201cYou bought the obligation, honor that,\u201d Frisch told Michael Brown at Monday’s meeting.
\nBrown intimated that if there wasn’t city buy-in to pay for the ski museum, the project and the Skier’s Chalet Lodge could disappear.
\nThere is no historical designation on the building and therefore could be demolished, he pointed out.
\n\u201cThat aspect of the project will change dramatically,\u201d Brown said. \u201cMaybe we don’t come back, I don’t know.\u201d
\nCouncilman Ward Hauenstein, who was in favor of a public-private partnership, said he felt like he was in a game of poker.
\n\u201cI feel like we’re calling someone’s bluff,\u201d he said, joking that he was in for $360,000 to keep the conversation going.
\nHauenstein said there appears to be community support for the entire corridor project and it’s headed for a March 5 vote so why not take a leap of faith?
\n\u201cI think it’s short-sighted of council to not make this work,\u201d he said.
\nCouncilwoman Ann Mullins …read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The majority of Aspen City Council late Monday night agreed to put in over $4.3 million as part of a public-private partnership with developers who are proposing to redevelop the western portal at the base of Aspen Mountain.
\nThe 3-2 decision came at around midnight, with councilman Adam Frisch making the swing vote in favor of taxpayer money going to pay for a new ski museum and improvements to Dean Street.
\nFrisch last week \u2014 and up until Monday’s vote \u2014 had taken the position that developers stand to make a sizable profit so why should any public subsidy be needed?
\n\u201cI don’t see the value of contributing millions of dollars,\u201d he said Monday night, adding it’s a bad use of public money. \u201cI don’t believe there’s not added value\u201d for Lift One Lodge owners who relocated their buildings to accommodate a new chairlift to come down to Dean Street and also gained additional square footage.
\nAcknowledging that the project could be in jeopardy and to end Monday’s seven-hour meeting, Frisch acquiesced and agreed to a straight payment of $4.36 million, delivered to the developers after the new chairlift is in operation.
\nThe project includes new lodges, the Lift One Lodge and Gorsuch Haus, along with a new Telemix chairlift that’s accessed at Dean Street, a relocated and refurbished Skier’s Chalet Lodge that will provide 11,000 square feet to house a ski museum, ticketing services and ski patrol and new public parks, to name a few amenities.
\nCombined, the properties would provide 185 new lodge keys, including 104 in the Lift One Lodge timeshare project and 81 in Gorsuch Haus as a traditional hotel.
\nFrisch also argued that Lift One Lodge developers Michael and Aaron Brown had previously committed to paying for the build-out of a ski museum in the old Skier’s Chalet Lodge.
\nWhen they bought the Lift One Lodge timeshare project and its entitlements from another development group in 2015, that commitment was attached to the approval.
\nThe approval has since been amended and now the Browns are seeking approval of a new land-use application to accommodate council’s desire for a chairlift to come farther down the hill.
\n\u201cYou bought the obligation, honor that,\u201d Frisch told Michael Brown at Monday’s meeting.
\nBrown intimated that if there wasn’t city buy-in to pay for the ski museum, the project and the Skier’s Chalet Lodge could disappear.
\nThere is no historical designation on the building and therefore could be demolished, he pointed out.
\n\u201cThat aspect of the project will change dramatically,\u201d Brown said. \u201cMaybe we don’t come back, I don’t know.\u201d
\nCouncilman Ward Hauenstein, who was in favor of a public-private partnership, said he felt like he was in a game of poker.
\n\u201cI feel like we’re calling someone’s bluff,\u201d he said, joking that he was in for $360,000 to keep the conversation going.
\nHauenstein said there appears to be community support for the entire corridor project and it’s headed for a March 5 vote so why not take a leap of faith?
\n\u201cI think it’s short-sighted of council to not make this work,\u201d he said.
\nCouncilwoman Ann Mullins …read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1381917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 08:25:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}