Aspen officials forge on with new housing at Aspen Business Center aspentimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspentimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A look at the Lift 1A area at the base of Aspen Mountain on Monday afternoon. The bottom terminal and surrounding buildings were included in the sale to Norway Island LLC for $10 million. (David Krause / The Aspen Times)
The partners in the proposed Gorsuch Haus purchased about 2 acres of land at the base of Aspen Mountain last week, but don’t expect groundbreaking on the hotel any time soon, according to a spokesman for the group.
Norway Island LLC purchased the land for $10 million from Aspen Skiing Co., according to a special warranty deed filed with the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder. The property sale included the existing lower terminal for Lift 1A and the surrounding buildings as well as vacant land farther up the slope.
Aspen’s elected officials last week decided to not make the preservation of locally serving businesses a critical goal due to the complexity of the issue, but they lamented that the town has changed significantly and local residents are being priced out.
“What I mean are places for locals to still enjoy this community, and we’ve seen such a deterioration of it,” Mayor Torre said during last week’s council goal-setting retreat. “Currently, we have several locally priced affordable restaurants that are not in operation because of redevelopment, and it’s impacting us community wide.”
Recognizing that controlling the market is nearly impossible, council members agreed to continue working on the issue with willing partners, like the chamber of commerce and the business community.
A group of residents failed to meet the deadline on Friday to submit 925 signatures from registered Aspen voters to place a question on the November ballot asking to re-appropriate a portion of revenues from the real estate transfer tax that goes to the Wheeler Opera House.
Kurt Hall, a member of the group, which started their effort at the beginning of the week, said he didn’t have a final count of signatures on Friday because there were several individuals collecting and a tally hadn’t been done.
“We are going to keep going and when we get to 925 we will go in front of (Aspen City Council) and hope they will take it as an endorsement,” Hall said. “Even though we didn’t make the deadline, the pressure is going to build and our cause and approach and goal will be spread throughout the community.
The Isis crisis: A theater in peril aspentimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspentimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.