The Timeshare Beat: Lodge gets ‘shot in the arm’

Lodge gets ‘shot in the arm’

By Janet Urquhart
Aspen Times Staff Writer

While Aspen watches its old ski lodges – once the mainstay of its resort accommodations – disappear one by one, at least one lodge owner is determined to expand, not fold his operation.

Longtime Boomerang Lodge owner Charlie Paterson won a hard-fought victory Monday with the Aspen City Council’s approval of his controversial plan to expand his lodge onto a vacant parcel at the base of Shadow Mountain.

The expansion, including five three-bedroom chalets, two one-bedroom lodge units, two affordable housing units, underground parking and a bathhouse for guest use will be built across West Hopkins Avenue from the existing Boomerang Lodge. In all, the proposal will add 17 bedrooms to the complex.

“This is one of the first big lodge expansions submitted under the city’s lodge preservation program,” said city planner Nick Lelack.

Aspen adopted its lodge preservation legislation last year to protect the viability of existing lodges and ease the way for lodges to make upgrades.

Paterson probably found the way anything but easy. His plan to develop the open land next to Shadow Mountain sparked opposition from some neighbors, including the one who sold him the property.

And his tentative plan to sell fractional ownership in the chalets further riled opponents, who claim the units will be pricey and hardly what is intended by a zoning aimed at protecting small lodges.

“The reality is, this is a de facto townhome development,” charged attorney John Beatty at Monday’s public hearing before the City Council. Beatty represents Mary Hugh Scott, who sold the parcel to Paterson for $2.5 million and now, apparently, regrets the move.

Several of her representatives claimed an expansion of the lodge was not in the cards when she sold the land to Paterson.

Paterson, who noted he’s following the city’s recommendations in its planning guidelines for the Shadow Mountain neighborhood – which call for small, chalet-like buildings – said he was stung by the criticism.

“I get slammed for proposing small, low-profile chalets,” he said.

While fractional ownership is an option Paterson is simply contemplating as a means of financing the expansion, the concept had as many supporters as detractors at the hearing.

With the loss of 18 percent of Aspen’s “pillows” in the last five years, mostly through the destruction or conversion of small lodges, the Boomerang expansion was embraced by the business community.

Aspen Skiing Co. Vice President John Norton lauded the project and predicted fractional ownership of the chalets would keep them filled with visitors.

“These should be hot beds for the community, which is what we need,” he said.

The Skico looked at fractional ownership arrangements at lodges in Telluride, Deer Valley and Vail before moving forward with its own such project at the new Snowmass Residence Club, Norton said.

“There’s no question about it – it produces higher occupancy on a year-round basis,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Aspen Central Reservations. He also spoke out in favor of the project.

Fractional ownership allows the sale of a unit to several buyers. Instead of buying blocks of time – the traditional time-share arrangement – buyers own a fraction of the unit itself.

The concept is also being embraced at the Ritz-Carlton Club, to be built at the base of Aspen Highlands, and at The Timbers project in Snowmass Village.

At the Snowmass Residence Club, two-bedroom units are selling at $229,000 and three-bedroom units are going for $329,000. Those prices are one-seventh of the total price, as there are seven buyers per unit, said Dave Hanna, director of sales. The first 12 of the 30 units will open in December and Hanna expects all of the units to be fully sold by the end of the upcoming winter season.

At the Boomerang, though, the lodge preservation zoning will require the new chalets to be open to the general public at least six months of the year, even if Paterson obtains city approval to sell a fractional ownership interest in them.

That means the chalets will function as family lodge units, for which there is a high demand, during part of the year, Paterson said.

And accommodations for families will help the Boomerang thrive in a changing marketplace in which traditional lodge rooms fill up on weekends but may sit empty during the week. Units with multiple bedrooms and a kitchen will be filled for a week, Paterson predicted.

“We need a new product in marketability – just to give us a shot in the arm,” said Paterson. “We need something for families.”