Viewline, Wildwood hotels slated to reopen in mid-December
Snowmass properties aim to hire for more than 50 roles before season starts
There’s more than just a fresh coat of paint coming to one of Snowmass Village’s largest hotels — though most onlookers will have to wait until December to see for themselves what’s been going on behind the doors of the property formerly known as the Westin since the last guests checked out in April.
The slopeside lodging mainstay on the Snowmass Mall is now called “Viewline Resort Snowmass” and will operate as an independent hotel that is part of the Marriott Autograph Collection.
It was acquired along with the Wildwood and the Snowmass Conference Center for $70 million late last year and is managed by Davidson Hotels; the ownership structure also includes RGP Partners — an affiliate of Aspen’s Ajax Holdings — and Atlanta’s High Street Real Estate, with the Zurich-based ACRON Group as a financial partner.
The new name made its quiet debut this month in an announcement about an upcoming job fair and on a banner that now hangs outside the property facing Fanny Hill; the conference center has been rechristened as the Viewline Event Center, but the Wildwood will retain its name when the properties reopen in a few months, according to a news release.
Both properties have been closed since just before the end of the last ski season while crews work on nearly $40 million in renovations on the properties. The Gettys Group has overseen that work, the release states.
Initial reopening targets were slated for Thanksgiving weekend when the lifts start spinning at Snowmass, but Complex General Manager Jeffery Burrell now has eyes on an opening date by Dec. 17, he said in a phone call this week.
Though that’s slightly later than initially planned, Burrell said that — “knock on wood” — the renovations have “been going amazingly, amazingly smooth considering all the supply chain stories you hear in the news.” When delays have occurred, the team has been able to shift the labor to other projects onsite to keep things on schedule.
There hasn’t been much change to the exterior of either structure (a fresh coat of paint and other touch-ups notwithstanding), but the guest rooms, common areas and other interior spaces have been upgraded.
At Viewline Resort — housed in a building that has been around since the late 1960s, a decade longer than the town has been incorporated — renderings of common areas show that the renovations hearken back to those early days on the Snowmass Mall.
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A model room at Viewline Resort Snowmass, which is currently undergoing renovations and is slated to reopen in December.
Courtesy image
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A model room at Wildwood Resort Snowmass, which is currently undergoing renovations and is slated to reopen in December.
Courtesy image
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A rendering shows the renovated interior of the Lobby Bar at Viewline Resort Snowmass, slated to open open this December.
UR Studio/Courtesy image
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A rendering shows the renovated interior of the lobby at Viewline Resort Snowmass, slated to open open this December.
UR Studio/Courtesy image
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A rendering shows the deck of Viewline Resort Snowmass, slated to open open this December.
UR Studio/Courtesy image
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A rendering shows the interior of the lounge at Stark’s Alpine Grill, a new restaurant that will open this winter at Viewline Resort Snowmass.
UR Studio/Courtesy image
“We took a lot of inspiration from the late ’60s when the hotel was originally opened. … You’re going to feel the energy from that era, but we’re not recreating the ’60s, if you will — just some design influences and the mindset that we’re creating the service from,” Burrell said.
Guestrooms at the hotel and at the neighboring Wildwood aren’t quite as much of a throwback.
Several new food and beverage options also will debut. At the Viewline, the tavern-style Stark’s Alpine Grill will serve up American fare as the signature restaurant, linked by extension to the Lobby Bar, which will offer service on a three-level deck. At the Wildwood, the bar and restaurant Last Chair will cultivate a slightly more casual vibe and is “really designed as a local’s hangout,” Burrell said.
With an eye on reopening, both properties seek to hire staff for more than 50 positions spanning nearly every department across both properties and will host a job fair on Monday at The Collective in Base Village. Burrell said that the hotels have been inviting former staff to come back if they wish and have gotten “quite a few” to return, but there are still many roles to fill and positions will be offered on the spot to some applicants at the fair.
“It’s a little more daunting this year,” Burrell said. “But the buzz in the community and our current staff — we’ve really been pleased with the applicant flow, quite honestly, pleasantly surprised.”
