{"id":1312685,"date":"2019-07-22T12:58:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T18:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=984547"},"modified":"2019-07-22T12:58:46","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T18:58:46","slug":"aspen-mountains-base-development-plan-blows-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/aspen-mountains-base-development-plan-blows-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Mountain\u2019s base development plan blows up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"lift<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A top city of Aspen official said it felt like a \u201cpunch to the gut\u201d when a key developer walked away<\/a> from the voter-approved Lift One corridor project at the base of Aspen Mountain last week.<\/p>\n

Lift One Lodge developers Aaron and Michael Brown informed the city Wednesday that they are bailing because they no longer have confidence in the Gorsuch Haus group.<\/p>\n

Jessica Garrow, the city\u2019s Community Development director and one of three officials who received a letter from the Browns on July 17, said it\u2019s difficult to accept that years of work, partnerships and public buy-in have gone to waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see all the work, effort, time and a public vote be for naught,\u201d she said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council will meet in executive session Monday night to discuss the ramifications of last week\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

In March, Aspen voters narrowly approved<\/a> more than 320,000 square feet of commercial space, including the timeshare project that is Lift One Lodge and the Gorsuch Haus, an 81-room luxury hotel at the western base of Aspen Mountain.<\/p>\n

Along with those properties came a new chairlift to Dean Street, a ski museum, a bar and restaurant, an underground parking garage and open space that would serve as a return skiway in the winter and gardens in the summer.<\/p>\n

Most of that is gone now, including the chairlift coming down the hill 500 feet farther than it is currently, as well as a $4.36 million city contribution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Browns are relying on their 2011-approved project<\/a>, which includes roughly 100,000 square feet with 22 timeshare units and five residential condos.<\/p>\n

Those entitlements expire in November 2021.<\/p>\n

Lift One Lodge also will have to relocate the Skiers Chalet Steakhouse for dorm-style employee housing units, as well as move and refurbish the Skiers Chalet Lodge to make way for a ski museum.<\/p>\n

Relying on the 2011 approval, Lift One Lodge is required to provide housing<\/a> for 35 employees, which is 100 percent mitigation.<\/p>\n

Under the voter-approved plan, both lodges received breaks on affordable housing by relying on incentives in the land use code.<\/p>\n

Between the two projects, a total of 67 employees would have been housed.<\/p>\n

What happens to the Gorsuch Haus remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Led by partners Jeff Gorsuch and Bryan Peterson and Lowes developer Jim DeFrancia, the original proposal for a smaller hotel was tabled in the spring of 2017.<\/p>\n

It was put on hold so Lift One Lodge and Gorsuch developers could work with Aspen Skiing Co. and the city to bring a new chairlift to Dean Street.<\/p>\n

City Council will meet Monday night to discuss what last week\u2019s announcement will mean going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to analyze the impacts and what this means,\u201d said City Attorney Jim on Friday. \u201cIt has significant ramifications, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Lift One Lodge\u2019s departure from the overall corridor plan, it could make the two ordinances that voters approved null and void.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are analyzing all of it,\u201d True said.<\/p>\n

Garrow, True and Jennifer Phelan, the city\u2019s community development deputy director, received the Browns\u2019 letter through their attorney on Wednesday, a day before key players were to gather for a planning meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client has not been able to get a sufficient level of comfort that the Gorsuch Haus project will move forward on a timely basis to ensure construction of the new lift,\u201d wrote attorney Bart Johnson on behalf of the Browns. \u201cThe Lift One Lodge team is extremely concerned about proceeding with their revised plan if there is no assurance the new lift will get built as intended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were assured by the Gorsuch Haus representatives that they would address this concern,\u201d Johnson continued. \u201cBut now that the Gorsuch Haus project is being marketed for sale, we have no way of knowing who the buyer will be, when or whether a sale will close, or whether the new owner will share Lift One Lodge\u2019s level of commitment to the project. Thus, because of my client\u2019s assessment of the elapsed time, unkept promises, inevitable interdiction of financial third parties, and the approaching deadlines required under the voter-approved plan, as well the economic risks, my client does not see any alternative other than to stop work on the new project and focus on the old. The Lift One Lodge team is truly sorry for themselves, the city and its guests and residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gorsuch\u2019s team shot back the next day with a letter from their attorney to the city, contending that Lift One Lodge representatives are lying, or are ill-informed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gorsuch Haus ownership and project team stand ready, willing and able to follow through and complete the new Lift 1 base area entitlements in accordance with the Gorsuch Haus ordinance approved by the voters,\u201d wrote attorney Tom Todd. \u201cWe wish to dispel any notion that efforts by Gorsuch Haus ownership to recapitalize the Gorsuch Haus project may slow down or cast uncertainty over the ability of the project to be developed as approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrrespective of this activity, the current Gorsuch Haus ownership has ample capital resources to perform all its purchase agreement commitments with Aspen Skiing Company, to finalize the entitlements, and to construct the project,\u201d Todd continued. \u201cThere are no \u2018unkept promises\u2019 or \u2018interdictions of financial third parties\u2019 that are impeding the Gorsuch Haus project team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrow said she\u2019s hopeful two parties can work out their differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is disappointing and we really hope the two private developers can work together, like they have in the past,\u201d she said, adding the city\u2019s role is fairly limited. \u201cAt this point, there is not much of a role for the city but the city is ready and willing to help if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

A top city of Aspen official said it felt like a \u201cpunch to the gut\u201d when a key developer walked away from the voter-approved Lift One corridor project at the base of Aspen Mountain last week. Lift One Lodge developers Aaron and Michael Brown informed the city Wednesday that they are bailing because they no longer have confidence in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 03:38:58","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":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}