Basalt – A new wave of immigrants is washing into this former railroad town. They’re being flushed out of Aspen by home prices hovering near $4 million and $100-a-square-foot retail rents in that upscale ski resort.
Aspen’s population has remained relatively steady for more than a decade, but Basalt – a dozen miles northwest – has seen its population more than double since 1990. It’s on pace to double again by 2010.
“We are seeing an exodus of Aspen’s galleries, restaurants, small recreation shops and small businesses coming here to escape the pressure cooker in the ski town,” said Fred Durham.
He owns the Town Center Bookstore, which anchors a new commercial project underway along Basalt’s turn-of-the-century main street.
It’s an increasingly common theme across the Mountain West. Communities that spent decades quietly serving as crash pads for ski-town laborers are erupting into bona fide towns, with vibrant commercial centers, thriving villages and year- round economies.
Populations are climbing. Homes are sprouting. Shops are bustling. Second- home owners are following the locals, buying vacation homes along sunny down-valley golf courses. Meanwhile, ski towns are left wondering how they lost their cachet and, more importantly, how they can get it back.
Basalt is emerging as the community imagined by Aspen’s founders and leaders. They have spent close to 60 years carefully sculpting a communal vibrancy that, in the past decade, has been eclipsed by Aspen’s astronomical rent and home prices.
“There’s no question the down-valley towns are attracting the eye of the original resorts that spawned them,” said Ford Frick, a resort analyst with BBC Research & Consulting in Denver.
“It’s kind of like watching your kids grow up. All of a sudden they are 3 inches taller than you, and you ask, ‘Hey, what happened here?’ (These towns) often have more space, fewer regulatory limitations and are more flexible and accommodating to growth.”
The flourishing down-valley vibe coincides with a host of problems in ski-resort towns. Deep-pocketed second-home owners have emerged as the economic force in ski towns, and they have chased away the less affluent locals.
Communities enjoying unprecedented growth include Edwards and Eagle near Vail; Driggs and Victor, Idaho, near Jackson, Wyo.; Hailey, Idaho, near Sun Valley; Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe; Granby, north of Winter Park; and Basalt and Carbondale, near Aspen. They are rife with recreational amenities. They are roomier, sunnier and less expensive than their up-valley ski-resort neighbors.
Basalt was born in the late 1800s as a railroad town, crowded with Swiss and Italian immigrants who worked for nearby silver mines and coal smelters. When the mines closed, those who remained turned to ranching. Today the town is reinventing itself as a destination community able to stand on its own.
Midway between the Gucci store in Aspen and the Wal-Mart in Glenwood Springs along a newly expanded highway, Basalt now offers two top-tier fishing rivers and miles of trails a short drive from the ski slopes.
“I don’t want to be in Aspen anymore,” says Sonya Taylor, a former Aspen resident who recently opened a children’s art center called the Yellow Canary in downtown Basalt. Her studio could not survive in Aspen’s high-rent commercial core.
“This is a real town. It’s a locals’ town. It’s laid-back. It’s what Aspen wants to be,” Taylor said.
Instead of cramped century- old homes or crowded condos, Basalt residents can choose from funky farmhouses, creekside cabins and a 10-city-block New Urbanist community just west of town.
“Yeah, Aspen is great, but there’s a better quality of life here,” said Jacy Allen, who moved from a fun-focused life in Aspen several years ago when her son was born.
She lives with her husband and son in Willits, the new urban dream of Aspen architect- turned-developer Michael Lipkin. He spent 23 years in Aspen before buying three ranches near unincorporated El Jebel. In the past five years he has developed the parcel into an affordable mix of retail, office and residential space.
When finished in 2010, Willits will add 2,400 residents, nearly doubling Basalt’s population. A 600,000-square-foot town center, with lofts above offices and retail space, will anchor the community of single-family homes, condos and townhomes.
Lipkin describes the town as what Aspen would be if it had never been discovered by people who pay $3 million for a home they intend to tear down.
“It’s unimaginable how rich you have to be to live in Aspen now,” he said. “It’s crazy. I saw a need for a community for the rest of us, the working people. It has turned out to be more popular than I expected.”
Before he broke ground this spring, Lipkin sold 38 of 44 planned lofts with prices ranging from $250,000 to more than $700,000. Condos sold out five years ago for more than $220,000 each, townhomes sell for as much as $500,000, and single-family homes fetch $700,000 or more. Since Lipkin began building in 2000, prices for everything have more than doubled.
“Everyone I know lives down here now,” said local Realtor Wendy Lucas. “There’s no question we will hit the $1 million mark for condos.”
But if, in fact, Basalt is the “New Aspen,” then what happens in 10 or 20 years when Basalt’s home prices reach $4 million? Residents hope they can avoid Aspen’s mistakes.
“Truthfully, it’s looking kind of bleak for the workingman in Basalt right now,” said Tom Newland, a longtime local. The home he bought in 1982 for $98,000 is now worth nearly $1 million.
Newland hopes his hometown can avoid the fate of the ritzy burg up the road. He’s helping by building trails and creating more reasons for the recreationally minded to come.
Another lesson his town can learn, he said, is to plan for the second-home owners who undoubtedly will arrive. Such a move is underway at the elite Roaring Fork Club, a golf- and-fishing private playground for wealthy members.
“Aspen didn’t build any neighborhoods for the second-home owners, and the west end of town was taken over by people who scraped off the old houses and built new ones they live in maybe a few weeks a year,” he says.
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-820-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
Basalt vs. Aspen
Basalt, Eagle County
1990 population: 1,359
2000: 2,681
2003: 2,989
2000 median household income: $67,200
2000 median sales price for home: $482,500
2003 median sales price for home: $510,000
Aspen, Pitkin County
1990 population: 5,049
2000: 5,914
2003: 6,455
2000 Median household income: $53,750
2000 median sales price for home: $3.35 million
2003 median sales price for home: $3.18 million
Sources: Colorado Department of Local Affairs, U.S. Census Bureau, Colorado Association of Realtors
