Snowmass a hotbed of housing

SNOWMASS VILLAGE — Tara Walker was born and raised in Snowmass Village and has spent several seasons working for Aspen Skiing Co. But this winter, she was having trouble finding housing she could afford.

She put her name on Craigslist.com, advertised for a work-trade situation, and even contemplated moving back in with her parents.

“I can’t afford to pay the rent up here,” she said.

But thanks to new affordable housing coming online this winter, she’s currently high on the list for a brand-new unit in Club Commons II.

Need housing? Try Snowmass Village. If all goes as planned, by next summer 77 new employee housing units will have opened in the town, in configurations appropriate for families, single ski bums and the well-heeled.

Club Commons II

For rent: brand-new one-bedroom, one-bath apartment near the Snowmass Club in a $14 million building expected to earn LEED Silver certification. Walk-in closets, carpet, Energy Star appliances, porch, washer-dryer hook ups, and outside gear storage. Rent includes all standard utilities and basic cable. $900 per month.

Built by Related WestPac as mitigation for Base Village — on land donated by the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District — Club Commons II adds 120 beds to the town’s housing stock. Full-time employees of Snowmass Village businesses are eligible to rent the three three-bedroom units for $1,800 a month, the six two-bedroom units for $1,200 a month or the three one-bedroom units for $900 a month.

In the adjoining building, the 24 four-bedroom, “dormitory-style” furnished units will go to seasonal Skico employees during the winter, and possibly to Aspen Music School students, Anderson Ranch students or Aspen Meadows employees in the summer.

They will rent for $575 per bed, including basic utilities and cable television. Residents will also have access to coin-operated laundry.

Including the nearly finished Holiday House, the Skico now has 600 units for its roughly 3,000 winter employees — up from only 200 units five years ago.

Bill Tarallo, Skico housing manager, said the company will be strict about its bans against smoking, pets or wild parties in the building; the units will be equipped with exterior security cameras.

But even with the rules, the ski-bum price is hard to beat.

“It’s the steal of a lifetime,” said Tarallo.

Not all the Club Commons II units will go to straight to Skico or town employees, though. Between 10 and 20 Related WestPac employees have an option to live there, depending on the season. And Snowmass Water and Sanitation employees have access to four units.

Built to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating, the building’s efficient touches include baseboard hydronic heat run by three boilers half the size of a refrigerator, low-flow water fixtures and Energy Star-rated appliances. The building also earns a high sound transmission rating and has fans that improve air quality. And it was constructed with modular units from Colorado-based Barvista Building Systems, raised in 12 working days.

All the construction wasn’t that easy, though. The biggest challenge was the fact that the site was originally under water, construction manager Joe Enzer said. Related WestPac spent roughly $1 million rebuilding and deepening a 30-year-old effluent pond at the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District site so that it would take up roughly half its original space and Club Commons II could be built on the remainder.

Officials said they hoped to earn their certificate of occupancy this week and move employees in soon.

Rodeo Place

For sale: brand-new, single-family home in Snowmass Village for between $399,000 and $435,000. Garage, solar hot water, basement, wood porches, mud rooms, landscaping and irrigation included. Knotty-alder cabinetry, carpet, pine trim. Within walking distance to the Snowmass Village Recreation Center.

Thanks to a town subsidy, three families of Snowmass Village employees have already closed on these single-family homes in the Rodeo Place employee housing development. Three more are scheduled to close next week.

Though the project drew early notoriety for its construction problems, recent changes authorized by the Town Council appear to have paid off. This summer, the town changed construction companies (from Roaring Fork Custom Homes to Rudd Construction), and hired Resort Opportunities and Investments (ROI) to manage the project. The remaining homes are now on time and on budget, according to Robert Kaufmann of ROI. And they arguably constitute one of the best real estate deals for a single-family home in Snowmass Village.

Kaufmann called the development “new urbanist,” citing design items such as facing front porches and the service alley that consolidates trash pick-up. All of the 15 buildings in Phase One — 13 single-family homes and two duplexes — were also built using modular construction. The modules arrived from the factory already finished with tile, light fixtures, drywall and pipes, said Kaufmann. After arriving on site, they were set on a concrete foundation and “sewn” together. Adjoining garages were built with stick framing.

Energy-efficient elements include solar hot water, fluorescent fixtures and aluminum-clad windows of the same quality “as you’d see in Base Village,” said Kaufmann. And while the lottery winners didn’t get to choose the furnishings (Kaufmann said the project is a development, not a collection of custom homes), he said they did collectively pick the carpet. Optional upgrades include a fireplace and a finished basement, though homeowners had to contract the latter option on their own with Rudd or another construction company.

Lottery winners are expected to close on between three and four homes every month through March, to complete the first phase. A representative from the housing office confirmed a second phase is scheduled, but said the town has not yet decided how many units it will include or when it will begin.

Capitol Peak and Sinclair Meadows

By mid-January, Related WestPac expects to be selling five ski-in, ski-out condominiums in Capitol Peak Lodge at Base Village: one two-bedroom unit, one one-bedroom unit and three studios. All are within walking distance of Base Village restaurants and shops. The employee condominiums have “pretty much the same finishes” as those that sold on the open market, according to Enzer. Prices are expected to be similar to those in the Daly Townhomes on Brush Creek Road but are not yet confirmed. Related WestPac recently submitted a pricing proposal to the Snowmass Housing Office and awaits approval.

And by early next summer, the final buildings in this housing frenzy are scheduled to come online — a 21-townhome project called Sinclair Meadows to be built by Related WestPac. Like Club Commons II, it will be financed by United Western Bank.

kredding@aspentimes.com