HAILEY, Idaho — Air service into the Ketchum-Sun Valley market is expanding. The resort had daily flights from Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles, as well as shuttles from Salt Lake City.
But a second daily flight from Seattle is possible, and six-days-per-week flights from Boise have just been announced. Discussions are continuing about a flight from Denver, which would make Sun Valley/Ketchum easier to get to for people east of the Rocky Mountains.
While the Sun Valley Resort had to post revenue guarantees during the past two years to induce the flights from California, Horizon Air this year only asked for an aggressive publicity campaign. To that end, Sun Valley and the local chamber are distributing 100,000 postcards, while the resort is spending $50,000 on newspaper advertising.
Ski company spokesman Jack Sibbach says eventually Sun Valley/Ketchum will have to undertake a more major program of minimum revenue guarantees, such as has been done in Jackson Hole, Vail, Steamboat Springs, as well as Telluride, Crested Butte and others. This is particularly true if a new, larger airport is built that is located 30 miles from the resort. Current flights go to Hailey, only 12 miles down-valley from the resort complex.
Interest in retirement homes grows
KETCHUM, Idaho — There’s plenty of cocktail-hour conversation in Ketchum, Sun Valley and other communities in the Wood River Valley about the need for a retirement and assisted-living facility. But is there enough money to make it work?
Answering that question is the goal of a group called the Croy Canyon Ranch Foundation, which is talking with a Texas-based developer of extended-care living facilities called Greystone Communities Inc. Greystone’s chairman, Mike Lanahan, was in Sun Valley and Ketchum recently to meet with politicians, health care workers, fund-raisers and real-estate brokers to discuss the possibility.
The Greenwood Company, a San Francisco-based fund-raising consultant, says there is "tremendous financial support" in the Wood River Valley. American Baptist Homes, which despite its name, is a non-religious organization, could manage the extended care facilities.
By next year, the Wood River Valley is projected to have 94 people as potential customers of such retirement and assisted-care living. Similar to the Eagle Valley, where Vail is located, where there is similar talk about the need for assisted-care living, the market is not strictly locals, but parents of locals. About 50 per cent of customers would be non-locals.
Meanwhile, in the Eagle Valley, a consultant recently reported a "reasonable demand" for 17 to 22 assisted living units and 30-45 skilled nursing facility beds within the next few years. The county expects to see the number of people aged 55 and older to double in the next four years. The consultant, Elizabeth Borden, of Boulder-based Highland Group, warned against overbuilding. Still, current plans envision an $8 million facility.
Cool shops coming to Aspen
ASPEN, Colo. — Billabong, a national surf chain, is opening a snowboard shop on Aspen’s Hyman Avenue. It is, reports The Aspen Times, but the latest shop that caters to the younger crowd to open its doors in a resort that was once grappling with the "stodgy" label.
"I've only been here four years, but it seems like it's moving more toward a younger crowd here," said the Aaron Bock, 27, the manager of the newest store. He credits Aspen’s hosting of the X Games during the last four years with this youth movement.
Brad Pitt shooting in Alberta
CANMORE, Alberta — Brad Pitt has been turning heads in Canmore. He’s been in Alberta since late summer to shoot a movie being called The Assassination of Jesse James , the most recent of a long list of movies shot in the area between Calgary and Banff.
Alberta seems to be a stand-in for many other places in the West. A movie now arriving in theatres, Brokeback Mountain , was also filmed near Canmore, in Kananaskis Country. That story, about two bi-sexual cowboys, is based on a short story by Annie Proulx. She set the story in northern Wyoming.
In the story about Jesse James, some of the action is supposed to take place in Creede, a Colorado town that boomed with the discovery of gold in 1890. It is located near the Wolf Creek ski area, in the southern part of the state. Bob Ford, the former gang member who killed Jesse James to collect a reward (and dodge his own sentence for a murder), ended up in Creede, where he ran a saloon and gambling den.
A new makeshift town has been constructed near Canmore that is supposed to resemble the Colorado town, and a casting call was made for 100 extras. The production company had no problem finding takers, possibly because of all the buzz surrounding Pitt. But, in order to lend some authenticity to the scenes, there was a decided imbalance – four men for every one woman. That’s what the gold-mining camps were like – or worse. Of course, some seem to think it’s that bad in ski towns.
Paying a premium at the pumps
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. — People in mountain resorts have always griped about the higher prices they pay for gasoline compared to their counterparts in the city. Such complaints are particularly loud in Colorado’s resorts located just across the Continental Divide from metropolitan Denver.
While Gary Lindstrom, a state legislator from Breckenridge, acknowledges that it costs money to transport gasoline into the mountains, he contends those costs do not justify the higher costs charged at the pump. He charges gasoline dealers are engaging in collusion. Gas prices in Summit County have been 50 cents per gallon higher than in metropolitan Denver, only 70 miles away.
While Lindstrom wants an investigation by the Colorado attorney general, Attorney General John Suthers said high prices alone do not prove or even suggest illegal conduct by gasoline retailers. What he needs, he added, is evidence.
"The key is the existence of an actual agreement by competitors to fix prices," he wrote. "Charging similar or even identical prices (for) a commodity by watching a competitor’s price postings is not price-fixing."
Telluride real estate up
TELLURIDE, Colo. — Like everywhere else, the real estate market in the Telluride area has been dervish this year. Total sales are up 22 per cent during the first nine months. While the lower and middle ends of the market were most prominent the last year, the high-end buyers are notable this year. To wit, the average price of a residential lot in Telluride has gone from $686,000 last year to more than a million as of September.
Meanwhile, Jackson Hole real estate agents are expecting to pop the $1 billion bubble, while Aspen-area agents expect to surpass $2 billion. The Eagle Valley, based on what happened last year in Vail, will probably go much higher yet.
Contractors soiling landfill
ASPEN, Colo. — So, what do you think is the most common item taken to the Pitkin County Landfill?
If your answer was dirt, you’re right on, although the answer should probably be expanded to include rocks.
Say what? Well, lots of holes are being dug in Aspen, particularly for major hotels. Construction of one big hotel/condominium project now getting underway is projected to yield 60,000 cubic yards of dirt. That’s 6,000 dump trucks full.
The landfill is accepting it – but requiring the developers to buy some of it back. The landfill has what is called an "aggregate recovery program," in which what is broadly called "dirt" is sifted into various products, including gravel, mixed rock, and topsoil, that can be used in construction.
The Aspen Times reports that landfill officials say they have no choice but to foist the recycled material back onto developers. To not recycle the waste would mean that these major construction projects would soon consume the remaining space in the landfill. County officials are even talking about assessing an impact fee based on the dirt produced.
New hospital hardly sterile
FRISCO, Colo. — The new hospital in Summit County will open in early December, and the Summit Daily News says the architecture and building materials make it feel more like an expensive ski lodge than the sterile, clinical feel that permeate most hospitals.
Visitors will find stone columns, slate floors, and cherry-coloured wood. An iron chandelier adorned with pinecones hangs above overstuffed chocolate-colored sofas near a fireplace. Private hospital rooms include oversized sofas that convert into beds, so family members can stay.
New beds, new worries
MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. — With $1 billion in work now underway, Vail already is experiencing a building boom at the base of its ski mountain, Aspen is starting down the same path of massive investment in base-area construction.
Mountain Village could soon join the list. The slope-wide counterpart to Telluride, Mountain Village has a million square feet of space in the pipeline. Potentially six projects will be built, yielding 500 new condominiums and hotel rooms.
The St. Regis is typical of the hybrid, explains The Telluride Watch. Six years in the planning, it is designed to have 100 hotel rooms and 42 condos.
With all this inventory coming on line in the next two to five years, there’s some nervousness whether the market will be sufficient. Among the optimists are those who say that St. Regis with its global marketing reach will generate sufficient business.
But filling the beds requires improved air transportation, and Tom Hess, president of the Telluride/Montrose Regional Air Organization, says fuel costs and air operations are rising more rapidly than tax receipts. He suggests the new lodges will need to belly up to the partnership, to help subsidize more flights.
Another worry is whether the rising cost of construction could destabilize these plans. China’s hyperventilating economy and the hurricane redevelopment are both pushing costs of everything from timber to cement. One developer says sales may need to reach $1,500 to $2,000 per square foot to justify expansion.
Not least, this added high-end housing will generate more jobs, and the Telluride-Mountain Village never has enough affordable housing – with no easy escape valves to bedroom communities.
Catastrophe narrowly averted
RED LODGE, Mont. — When the first people at a gathering celebrating the 230 th birthday of the Marine Corps began to feel weak, woozy and irritable, they chalked it up to other reasons.
Some thought it the consequence of the altitude of 5,500 feet. Others attributed it to lingering hangovers. Yet others thought it was from standing in formation too long. But when a Marine toppled over, they knew something was seriously wrong.
Indeed it was. A quick-thinking Marine corpsman suspected bad air. Later study revealed that a boiler in the lodge where the event was held was malfunctioning.
People were rushed from the lodge, and altogether 42 people were hospitalized, although blood tests revealed carbon monoxide in 70 people. While some had not been there long enough to be affected, others had been there much of the day practicing for formal ceremonies.
All in all, says the Carbon County News, it could have been much worse. Had people gone to bed before the poisoning was discovered, there could have been deaths. The boilers had been inspected as specified, although the Montana law does not require carbon monoxide detectors for boilers, reports the Billings Gazette.
Pellet stove sales up
TRUCKEE, Calif. — With prices of natural gas rising rapidly, sales of pellet stoves are booming. One store in Truckee, Mountain Home Center, reports sales have increased 300 to 400 per cent during the last two months. The demand is so strong that manufacturers are completely sold out, meaning some purchasers won’t get their stoves until January or February, the Sierra Sun reports. The stoves, which burn pellets of wood, cost from $1,800 to $3,000.
Escort service sets up shop
DURANGO, Colo. — Durango now has an escort service. Police say they have no reason to believe it is offering anything other than what it purports to offer, companionship for social functions. Houses of prostitution did thrive in Durango until the 1950s, local historian Duane Smith tells the Durango Herald. In a newspaper advertisement pitched at "college ladies," the escort services promises "great income potential."
Tax change could be big
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A federal panel in early November released a lengthy report recommending federal tax reform – including a change in income tax deductions that could affect the market for vacation homes.
Just how this recommended change would affect Jackson Hole, however, remains a point of discussion, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide.
Current federal law allows taxpayers to write off a portion of the interest they pay on home lands. The provision is limited to $1.1 million in debt. But the advisory panel recommends that taxpayers get a tax credit equal to 15 per cent of mortgage interest paid. There would be no deductions for second homes.
Realtors and financiers involved in the resort market are ready to battle the proposal. Clayton Andrews, managing broker at the Sotheby’s affiliate, tells the newspaper that he believes the tax reform that has been proposed will decrease the amount of money brought into the market by investment or speculative buyers. But because Jackson Hole is the vacation home to some of the wealthiest citizens in the United States, the change would not affect it as much as it would other resort markets that cater to the less well-heeled.
