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Innsbruck Inn embraces fractional ownership

Janet Urquhart

The conversion of Aspen’s Innsbruck Inn into a timeshare lodge won unanimous approval from the City Council on Monday.

Council members balked at the plan a month ago, when new owners of the Main Street lodge proposed turning the 33 rooms at the Innsbruck into 22 fractional suites and upgrading the establishment in the process.

The plans for the lodge have since been reworked, adding four new bedrooms for a total of 37. The suites will still be sold in one-twelfth shares, but each room in 10 three-bedroom suites can be locked off and rented as a separate hotel room.



In addition, there will be seven one-bedroom units in the expanded lodge, including four on a garden level to be created with the excavation of a full basement.

“Thank you for making us rethink the project. We listened to what you said,” project director Gwen Dickinson told the council last night. She described herself as a “minor partner” among the lodge’s investors.




Dickinson, a local real estate broker, said the Innsbruck’s fractional shares will be priced for the middle-income buyer.

“Our marketing approach is, well, now you can afford Aspen,” she said.

Before the project was redesigned, the developers indicated the price per fraction would range from $69,700 to $177,000 for four weeks of use annually.

The Innsbruck is no longer profitable as a standard lodge, averaging 43 percent occupancy over the past five years, according to planning consultant Mitch Haas, representing the owners.

The establishment is in danger of going out of business without conversion to the fractional-ownership arrangement, he told the council last month.

Council members decried the loss of rooms, though, and sent the Innsbruck’s owners back to the drawing board with instructions to boost the room count if possible.

The new plans won quick approval on a 4-0 vote.

Janet Urquhart’s e-mail address is janet@aspentimes.com

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