The L’Auberge d’Aspen cottages on Main Street will remain open for guests through the summer, as the Jewish Community Center construction project is taking longer than anticipated to get started.
The project would have been one of Aspen’s largest this season, replacing the 16 cottages at Fourth and Main streets with a 19,000-square-foot structure housing a synagogue, rooms for special events and classes, a Jewish library and a daycare, among other features.
But an anticipated start to construction early this summer has been pushed back and the L’Auberge will be able to operate for one more season.
Rabbi Mendel Mintz of the Chabad Aspen Jewish congregation, which is building the center, said he still has not received a building permit for the center, and that there is some minor architectural work still to be completed.
“We never had an official start date, so it’s not like there’s really a delay,” Mintz said.
Mintz said on Wednesday that he told the L’Auberge management they could expect to operate at least through July, although a woman who answered the phone at L’Auberge on Friday said the lodge would be open through the summer.
There is also the issue of the cabins, six of which are incorporated into the site plan. Mintz and contractor John Olson are looking for new homes for the other cabins.
Mintz said the financing for the project is secure, as a construction loan is already in place.
