New transit center proposed for Snowmass Mall
Mall owner Romero Group proposes several developments
Connect One dESIGN/Courtesy image
The Romero Group wants to redevelop parts of the Snowmass Mall to build a new transit center, nearly a year after the town withdrew its own mall transit center project application after hearing from community members that it was not the right time for the improvements.
The redevelopment proposed by the Romero Group and Connect One Design also included redeveloping one of the parcels on the mall to build affordable and free market housing units. That development would likely be the second step in the project after the transit development if the Snowmass Village Town Council agreed to move forward with the plan.
“It’s not fully vetted,” said Dwayne Romero, CEO of the Romero Group. “Our goal tonight is for you to find consensus and political will and ask staff to advance it for some political viability.”
But members of the Town Council were hesitant to move forward with any plans to redevelop the mall’s transit center, especially after the Town Council and Planning Commision went through months of meetings and lost millions of dollars of secured funding after withdrawing the project. The town withdrew its application in April 2023 after the Planning Commission recommended denial of the project and members of the community said that a 40-month building plan would not be sustainable.
The preliminary proposal to redevelop the mall’s transit center would reconfigure parking lots five and six next to the upper mall, reroute Carriage Way slightly, and build a two-level bus station. The top level would accommodate Roaring Fork Transit Authority (RFTA) buses and the bottom would accommodate the Village Shuttles.
“From where I sit, it’s difficult for me to get excited about it because we’ve just gone through this long-term project of redesigning the transit center, which solved all the problems that you’re trying to do with this project,” Mayor Bill Madsen said. “The redevelopment looks cool, there’s some great stuff that can happen there. But just going through that exercise…and not getting community support and not getting the Planning Commission’s support, it’s hard to think about going through that again.”
Romero and Heather Henry, an owner at Connect One Design, also proposed acquiring the land on Daly Lane that currently serves as the Village Shuttle bus center to develop housing units. The land is owned by the town and the Romero Group acquired the mall in 2018.
The plan would redevelop the parcel that houses Four Mountain Sports, Big Hoss Grill, a fitness studio, and other businesses, temporarily relocating some businesses during the construction process. It would add 22 affordable housing units and 22 free market units to the 20,400 square-foot parcel. The first level of the building — where the transit center is — would have 10 housing units, the second level would have 10 units, and extra two levels would be added to the top of the existing building to add the remaining two housing units.
It would also modernize the space for local businesses.
“(The mall) has reached a certain life and there is an aspect of being able to redevelop this in a healthy way,” Henry said.
Henry and Romero said the biggest struggle for businesses on the mall is staffing shortages.
They pointed to the town’s 2018 comprehensive plan and 2021 housing master plan that both cite affordable housing as a major concern the town must continue to address. The housing units on the mall could house employees who work at local businesses on the mall, Romero said. The free market housing would likely be condominiums, he added.
While the Town Council appreciated the move to add more units to the town’s affordable housing stock, council members were hesitant to bring a transit center redevelopment back on the table.
“I love the housing on the mall, taking those existing commercial spaces and giving them a new space, I love that those workers will be living and working in that space,” Council member Susan Marolt said. “But before I can think about going back to a transit center plan…we all need to think about why the other transit center plan was not viable.”
Council members tentatively agreed to move forward with preliminary plans for the redevelopment, including asking Henry and Romero to look at the feasibility of the transit center’s plans for the roadways.
During the same meeting, Snowmass Transportation Director Sam Guarino presented a separate plan to redesign the transit center at the mall, which would increase the number of RFTA pickup and drop-off locations by one and construct a restroom facility on the southeast end of the RFTA depot. The proposal comes after a June 12 Town Council meeting where town staff proposed potential next steps for the mall transit enhancements after the transit center development was withdrawn.
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