The two hotels proposed for South Aspen Street at the base of Aspen Mountain appear to be growing.
Conceptual plans for the hotels shared with members of a citizens’ planning group on Thursday revealed that the number of hotel rooms or suites represented by the projects is now larger than a year ago.
The Lodge at Aspen Mountain, which was voted down last year by Aspen City Council in part because it was too big, is now seen as having 87 hotel rooms and 25 suites to be sold in fractional interests, according to John Sarpa of Centurion Partners. The final version of the lodge denied approval last year had 73 hotel rooms and 25 suites.
The current concept for the Lift One Lodge includes 35 to 40 suites that could be “locked-off” into between 80 and 90 rooms, said Bob Daniel on Thursday. Daniel represents project developers David Wilhelm, Jim Light and Jim Chaffin.
The version of the Lift One Lodge recommended for approval by Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission last year included 32 suites that could be configured into 97 rooms.
Both Sarpa and Daniel emphasized Thursday that the version of the hotels they were describing to the Lift One Neighborhood Master Plan task force were only preliminary.
Sarpa said his description of the latest potential version of the hotel was a “wild-ass guess.” Daniel said his description was only “an idea” of “what might go into the box.”
“Don’t overthink this,” Daniel said before sharing the latest vision for the Lift One Lodge.
Neither Sarpa nor Daniel told the task force members the physical dimensions envisioned for their hotels. When asked how large the hotel would be, Daniel replied, “We’re not anywhere near that.”
The version of the Lift One Lodge approved by P&Z was 114,000 square feet. The Lodge at Aspen Mountain was proposed at 175,000 square feet.
The developers of the Lift One Lodge voluntarily pulled their application from the approval process to participate in the master planning process now under way for the bottom western side of Aspen Mountain, once the epicenter of skiing in Aspen.
The task force was formed in part because many Aspenites thought the hotels were too big, that it makes sense to bring a new chairlift down the mountain and closer to town, and that there might be advantages to planning both hotels contemporaneously.
The latest conceptual site plan endorsed last week by the task force situates the bottom terminal of the new lift 160 feet above the location of the bottom terminal of the current Lift 1A. It also shows blank footprints for the hotels on either side of the street. The footprint proposed for the Lift One Lodge has changed little during the master planning process.
The next step in the process is for developers of both projects to work with experts from the University of Colorado business school to rough out the costs and revenues for each project to share with the task force next week. The experts have been hired by the task force.
Heather Rousseau/Aspen Daily NewsThe former youth center building, which sits on the edge of Galena Plaza, could be the site of a new Aspen Art Museum. But any plans must continue making their way through a public process and will eventually be subject to a vote.
Once financial pro formas for each hotel are in hand, the task force members expect to begin discussing tradeoffs regarding the size of the hotels versus the cost of providing affordable housing, transportation systems and other public elements of the projects.
The citizen task force has been told repeatedly that if it requires such elements as 100 percent affordable housing on site or an elaborate public transportation system, both hotels might need to be larger in order to generate more revenue to pay for such elements.
But the emphasis at Thursday’s task force meeting was more about how the hotels would function than how large they might be.
Neither the Lift One Lodge nor the Lodge at Aspen Mountain would be strictly hotels, although both would look and feel much like a traditional hotel with lobbies, front desks, restaurants and hotel rooms.
And if approved, both projects would include opportunities for people to buy into them as either club members or fractional owners.
Both Sarpa and Daniel said it is now very difficult, if not impossible, to get a loan for a hotel project. Sarpa said his research found that new hotel projects now include, on average, at least 30 percent fractional or for-sale residential units.
The Lift One Lodge would be sold as a private club where members buy the right to stay in the hotel as opposed to buying a specific hotel room. Daniel said the hotel’s program of being available to both members and public guests would help keep hotel beds occupied.
Any units not occupied by members would be made available for the public to book through Stay Aspen Snowmass, a central reservation agency.
The hotel would include a public restaurant and bar placed on a large après-ski deck overlooking the lower portion of the 5th Avenue ski trail at the bottom of the western side of Aspen Mountain. There would also be a private restaurant for club members next to the public restaurant.
The hotel would also include locker rooms and meeting rooms for Aspen Skiing Co. personnel to replace the space currently used by ski patrollers, lift operators and snowcat drivers in the red building behind Lift 1A.
There will also be public lockers, a public lobby, a check-in deck and a business center.
“All the things you would expect in a lodge,” Daniel said. He also said there would be storage for members’ belongings, underground parking and space for mechanical systems and the hotel’s “back of house” operations.
Sarpa said the Lodge at Aspen Mountain would likely include one restaurant just off the lobby, a modest spa, and some meeting space, although he said his ownership group is not seen as a “group business” hotel. He does not see any retail space in the hotel except a small store selling accessories commonly found in hotels.
Sarpa expects to build a 260-space underground parking garage and might sell some of the parking spaces as either private condominiumized spaces or for a daily rate.
“If you can generate revenue underground, it helps all of us keep these structures small,” he said.
bgs@aspendailynews.com
