SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. – Stalled development projects,
lagging real estate sales, and brows furrowed over the coming ski season
continue to dominate the news in ski towns.
Double-digit gains in real estate have been replaced by
declines that are just as unrelentingly in double digits. A new Land Title
Guarantee Co. report says sales volume was down 36 per cent for the year
through September in Aspen and surrounding Pitkin County, while dollar volume
plunged 46 per cent.
Construction activity is also being affected by the credit
constriction. In Snowmass Village, real estate developer Related WestPac has
announced that shaky credit has delayed three buildings scheduled for
construction this fall at the $1 billion Base Village project. However, work
will continue on two buildings now under construction.
Financing WestPac’s projects are Hypo Real Estate Holding,
which recently received a $69 billion bailout from the German government, and
Lehman Bros., the U.S. firm that filed for bankruptcy protection in September.
Lehman Bros., the nation’s fourth-largest investment bank, was
also in the news in Telluride, where it was the financier of the swank Capella
Telluride Hotel. The division of Lehman responsible for the financing was
acquired in September by Barclays, the London-based global financial services
company.
However, moving into October, Barclays had not confirmed that
it would extend financing of the hotel. As the general contractor jockeyed to
ensure payments, subcontractors began pulling out. The result, reports the
Telluride Watch, was silence at a work site that before had been a cacophony of
construction.
The construction trades returned to the project after about a
week, when the financing extension was confirmed. The hotel, the first North
American operation by Horst Schulze, who previously founded the Ritz-Carlton
chain, is scheduled to open in February.
Lehman Bros. was also involved in financing the Fortress
Investment Group acquisition of Intrawest, the operator of three major resorts
in Colorado plus Whistler-Blackcomb. A $1.7 billion loan due Oct. 23 was
causing apprehension, but the refinancing was accomplished.
Jackson Turner, an analyst with Argus Research, told newspapers
that the debt costs had undoubtedly increased. The result, he suggested, will
be reduced service and restricted capital investments at Intrawest’s various
ski areas.
Intrawest spokesman Ian Galbraith
brushed aside that idea, reports the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Chris
Diamond, president of the Steamboat ski operation, one of the three ski areas
in Colorado operated by Intrawest, dismissed Turner’s comments as “nothing more
than outside speculation.”
Looking out to the ski season,
however, the only thing clear is that the times have changed. “There will be a
new normal,” said Ralf Garrison, of the Mountain Travel Research Program.
Garrison said the pace of
reservations in September for future months was down 19.6 per cent across the
ski sector. Vail, he said, is down 19.5 per cent.
Aspen seems no different. “Booking numbers are definitely
down,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass, a central
reservations agency. Tim Clark, president of the Aspen Lodging Association,
said the economy is causing people to book closer to time of arrival. As such,
it’s possible that positive economic news may turn around reservation numbers
yet this winter, he said.
But with
38 to 40 per cent
of the season already “on the books,” in the words of Andy Wirth, Intrawest’s
vice president for marketing, there is plenty of concern.
Bob Milne, who operates a property management company at
Steamboat, says he’s not particularly concerned about Christmas. However, he is
fretting about the gaps of February and March.
“Am I nervous? Of course I am,” he told the Pilot & Today.
“The thing that makes me nervous is that people aren’t calling right now. The
phone volume isn’t there.”
Should restaurants, lodges, and
other resort operators slash their prices?
Travel consultant Peter
Yesawich, of the Y Partnership, said he expects affluent travelers —
defined as people with incomes of more than $150,000 — will continue to
take ski vacations, but even the very wealthy will be more sensitive to prices.
In fact, said Garrison, Vail lodges
have reduced their day rates by 0.7 per cent, the first reduction in several
years. However, he warned against discounting too deeply, for fear of damaging
the perceived value of the resort experience once the economy resumes.
Rob Katz, chief executive of Vail
Resorts, told a community gathering of several initiatives already announced,
including one called Holidays on Us, in which those who stay for five nights
during major holidays will get the holiday night free. “What we are trying to
do is get people to pick up the phone and call,” he said.
In Vail, Katz and a group of well-heeled and influential
figures called on the town to funnel several million dollars normally allocated
to summer tourism marketing into a fund for winter promotions. That council was
scheduled to take up the proposal this week.
One of the ad hoc committee members, former council member Kent
Logan, said Vail must respond rapidly. “We must act now, and we must act
boldly,” said Logan, who several years ago donated, along with his wife, Vicki,
$35 million to the Denver Art Museum. “I don’t think we can wait until
December, and I don’t think we can wait until January.”
From casual inspection, Vail would seem to be in no pain. The
skyline continues to be a phalanx of construction cranes, testimony to
continued work at several major real estate development projects at the ski
mountain base.
But Logan, a former investment banker, said the town needs to
put together the pieces of the next redevelopment of the town.
Just what the town’s major step will be is anything but clear.
For decades, factions within the community have lobbied for a convention
centre. Meanwhile, the town is under the gun to revamp a major but
deteriorating affordable housing complex called Timber Ridge.
The most likely prospect seems to be Ever Vail, a huge new
base-area real estate development being planned by Vail Resorts. While the
company is preparing for a tough winter, Katz made it clear the company is in
good shape financially. It has $150 million cash on hand, he said.
In both Vail and Aspen, there was a sense that the setbacks are
only temporary. “Let’s not do the Chicken Little thing because the sky is not
falling yet,” said Arnie Morkin, a mayoral candidate in Snowmass Village,
responding to the news of the slowed construction schedule there.
Jim Westkott, the individual often described as the Colorado
state demographer, for more than a decade has warned of explosive growth in the
mountain resort valleys. He’s backing off his projections somewhat, reports The
Aspen Times, but continues to insist that the growth will continue.
“This will bring things down to Earth, and in the long term
it’s probably a good thing,” he said at a conference in Glenwood Springs. The
slowdown, he said, should be used by communities to plan their futures, instead
of being reactive.
LEED gold possible in Canmore
CANMORE, Alberta – LEED designation is becoming more and
more common in public schools in ski towns across the West. And where it’s not,
the absence of the designation is a point of contention.
In 2002, Banff Community High School’s renovation became the
first school in Canada certified under the LEED program. Now, a new middle
school at Canmore, located down-valley at the entrance to Banff National Park,
is seeking gold-level certification in the LEED program.
Gold is the third highest of four levels in LEED, which stands
for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
School officials decided that the energy savings of a new
school, if done right, would save more money in the long run than renovating the
existing school. The new middle school, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook,
will require 30 to 55 per cent less energy because of its design and materials.
In Colorado, school districts are struggling with whether LEED
designation is worth the added cost. In the Eagle Valley, where Vail is
located, school officials were persuaded by architects that the money was
better spent in the building itself than on the rigorous reviews mandated by
LEED.
But how do you verify how “green” a building is without the rigorous
review of a LEED or some similar process?
That is precisely the issue now before Crested Butte. There,
the town council is negotiating use of town land for a school expansion. The
council, reports the Crested Butte News, is emphasizing its desire that any
school construction be certified under the LEED program.
Similar to the argument in the Eagle Valley, school officials
in Crested Butte say they intend to meet the goals of green-building without
the expense of certification. Energy efficiency advocates, however, say that
the cost of LEED certification will run only $40,000 to $60,000. Any
third-party verification process will cost that much, maintains Andris Zobs, of
the Office for Resource Efficiency.
“I want it LEED-certified,” said Alan Bernholtz, the town
mayor. “The school should be the leaders and be an example of energy
efficiency.”
Ski Area Management in January addressed the same issue. The
magazine noted that even some advocates of green building describe the LEED
review as annoyingly bureaucratic. However, some green-building advocates
reject the argument that LEED buildings are more expensive.
Brian Dunbar, who directs the Institute for the Built
Environment at Colorado State University, cited two high schools in Fort
Collins, Colo., of equal capacity and built at identical costs and with equal
sizes. Yet the newer, greener (and LEED-certified) high school saves $105,000
in annual operating costs. Better use of natural resources allowed the
building’s mechanical system to be downsized, he said.
Todd Palin makes rounds
EAGLE, Colo. – Todd Palin stopped by the Eagle Diner last
week for a grip, grin and gripe with the locals. He’s the husband of Republican
vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and although he often has been appearing
with his spouse, last week he was running solo.
He was wearing blue jeans and a black jacket, with an emblem
from the Iron Dog snowmobile race pinned to it. Personable and friendly, he
went from booth to booth in the small diner, which can hold no more than a few dozen
people.
The community of 7,000 people, located a half-hour down-valley
from Vail, is contested turf, as is Colorado — at least in theory. There
are official headquarters in Eagle for both Barack Obama and John McCain. For
decades, Eagle County was reliably Republican, but beginning in 1992 began
drifting blue.
But for many of the local electricians, fishing guides and
builders, Obama is an abstraction — and a feared one. Although none
appeared to be the sorts who make more than $250,000, the income bracket
targeted by Obama’s tax plan, they told Palin of fears that Obama will divert
their income to less-deserving people.
As well, they talked to him about hunting and wanted to know
about his snowmobile racing.
Women at the diner gushed at the attention of Palin, as
handsome in person as he appears on television, reported the Eagle Valley
Enterprise.
Skiing couple up to 505
KETCHUM, Idaho – John and Jewel Andrew, who are well into
their retirement, stopped by Sun Valley recently. Twelve years ago they decided
to ski all the alpine resorts in North America, and so far they’ve accomplished
that at 505 ski hills from Alaska to Georgia.
“Hill” might seem like an exaggeration for some of these ski
areas, observes the Idaho Mountain Express. For example, New York’s Sawkill
Family Ski Center has only 70 vertical feet. The average in North American is
948 feet.
Many of the ski hills are operating on a shoestring. John, who
is 77, says he insists on paying, even though most ski areas want to give him a
free lift ticket when they discover his age.
Another 200 or so ski areas remain on the couple’s list, with
40 to 60 each in Ontario, Quebec, New York and Michigan. “Our goal of skiing
all of North America may be forever elusive,” John Andrew told the newspaper.
Still, he didn’t sound the least bit rueful about the quest. Sensible retired
people, he added, went on ocean cruises.
Mining renewables
OURAY, Colo. – Do you support renewable energy? Energy
independence? If so, then you’d better support domestic miners, says Jim
Burnell, of the Colorado Geological Survey.
Burnell recently spoke in Ouray, a one-time mining town on the
edge of the rich mining districts of the San Juan Mountains. His speech was
reported by the Ouray Watch, a companion of The Telluride Watch.
Solar panels, batteries, and hybrid cars all contain the kinds
of minerals that were historically mined in Colorado.
“Cadmium-tellurium photovoltaics — these would take over
the world if one of these minerals weren’t so rare,” he said. The most
important element, tellurium, is the namesake for Telluride.
Concentrated solar power, which many energy experts say is the
most crucial technology necessary to reduce greenhouse gases, uses aluminum or
silver. And the tubes used to transport the energy contain molybdenum, said
Burnell. Colorado has one active molybdenum mine, located just north of the
Eisenhower Tunnel, with another mine scheduled to reopen soon between Copper
Mountain and Leadville. A third is proposed at Crested Butte.
Colorado also has zinc, which is necessary for certain types of
fuel cells.
Of the minerals and metals needed for production of alternative
energy, only a few — selenium, vanadium, bromine and copper — come
primarily from domestic U.S. sources. Most of the rest are imported, primarily
from China. Perhaps not coincidentally, nearly all batteries and photovoltaic
panels are also imported.
That means that renewable energy may be possible, but given
current policies, not energy independence.
“Achieving energy independence by means of alternative energy
technology can’t be done without domestic mining,” Burnell said. “Moving to
renewable energy technologies is inconsistent with anti-mining advocacy.”
While there is no such thing as no-impact mining, the impacts
to environmental and human health are much more minimal than in the past, he
said.
Snow blanket tested
SNOWMASS, Colo. – The snowpack never completely melted
this summer at the Snowmass ski area, where a mound of snow 20 feet high
survived even the 80-plus days of summer. The mound is the remnant of a massive
jump that was part of a snowboard terrain park built last winter.
Until early October, the snow was covered by a blanket produced
by a Swiss company called Landolt. The product is called Ice Protector
Optiforce, and it’s being used in European ski resorts, which tend to be lower
and more vulnerable to the warming climate.
Rich Burkley, general manager of mountain operations for the
Aspen Skiing Company, said the snow blanket is expected to be most useful in
protecting snow or ice at critical connections or access areas, such as at
ramps below chairlifts that get skiers to trails. One goal, he told The Aspen
Times, is to reduce the energy consumption needed to make snow.
However, whether the blanket is cost effective is still being
evaluated, he said. Also testing the blanket for effectiveness are the Vail and
Telluride ski areas.
Ozone violation possible
FARMINGTON, N.M. – While violations of the federal ozone
standard have already been registered in New Mexico’s San Juan County, they could
be ahead for Colorado’s La Plata County, where Durango is located.
The ground-level ozone, explains the Durango Telegraph, is the
result of tens of thousands of compressors used at oil and gas wells in the San
Juan Basin from Durango south to Farmington, plus industrial facilities, the
exhausts from two coal-fired power plants, plus the emissions of motor
vehicles.
Christopher Dann, of the Colorado Air Pollution Control
Division, told the newspaper that non-attainment could also be in store for
Colorado’s La Plata County, where Durango is located. While the energy industry
is partly to blame for the pollution, he said, “the “region’s booming
population is also coming into play, and you’re seeing more cars and more
emissions all the time.”
Democrats still in minority
SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah – Voter registration has increased
substantially in Summit County, reports The Park Record. Two-thirds of new
voters have aligned with the Democratic Party, but the Democrats remain the
smallest voting bloc. Nearly 16,200 voters are independent, while 6,845 are
Republican, and 3,579 are Democrats. Another 650 align with yet other parties.
In addition to Park City, the county includes a place called Snyderville Basin,
a bedroom community to Salt Lake City, a half-hour away.
Transferable development rights program launched
HAILEY, Idaho – The transfer-of-development-rights
program is being used for the first time in the Wood River Valley, where the
Ketchum and Sun Valley resort areas are located. A 117-acre parcel that has rights
to develop five lots is instead transferring those rights to a subdivision near
the town of Hailey, where 19 lots are now permissible. Officials in Blaine
County tell the Idaho Mountain Express that few landowners have been willing to
place their development rights in so-called sending areas — areas where
county officials would prefer not to see developing — into the pool
available for transfer.
In such programs, development rights become a commodity,
meaning there is a price attached to them, so that a developer near a town
could buy the development rights from a rural landowner. In Colorado, both
Aspen and Summit County have highly developed programs.
Mining company vows mine activation in 2009
SILVERTON, Colo. – Colorado Goldfields Inc., which several
years ago set out to resume mining and ore processing in the Silverton area,
says it is within 18 months of profitability. The company spent the summer
drilling in Ross Basin. The current plans call for work to begin next May to
reactivate the Pride of the West, a gravity, flotation and cyanide leach mill
located near Silverton. The goal is to start accepting ore from other
properties in the San Juans beginning next September, and then begin drilling
for ore in a nearby mine called the Gold King that is owned by Goldfields.