Vail Resorts plans to build a 108-room luxury condominium project in Lionshead Village with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., the company announced Thursday.
“We think the Ritz-Carlton is a very powerful brand name in the marketplace, and we expect that it will be helpful for us,” Vail chairman and chief executive Adam Aron said during a conference call with investors.
The proposed development, to be called the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Vail, will be built on the 2.5-acre parking lot that the company’s lodging subsidiary purchased along with the Vail Marriott Mountain hotel in 2001. Vail Resorts sold the Vail Marriott last month for $62 million but retained the adjacent lot.
“This is a very wise move for the company,” said Will Marks, a leisure industry analyst with JMP Securities in San Francisco. “They’re sitting on a very, very valuable piece of land, and, given the pricing today in resort towns, it would be stupid not to develop it.”
In conjunction with the 195,000-square-foot development, Vail Resorts also plans to build a high-speed, four-person chairlift on the western edge of the property.
The condos will start at 1,200 square feet and will range in size from two to four bedrooms. The Ritz-Carlton will operate and manage the property.
The company declined to say what price they’ll seek for the condos.
The company said it will begin selling the condos in the next six to 18 months, pending approval from the town and the U.S. Forest Service.
Also on Thursday, Vail said it had a $39 million increase in revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2005, a bump of 13.5 percent.
Overall revenues for the three-month period ending April 30 were $327.5 million. Mountain revenues were up 10 percent, to $256.8 million. Lodging revenues grew by $5.4 million, or 10.6 percent, to $56.3 million.
Net income was $58.8 million, down from $62.5 million in the third quarter of 2004.
The results reflect a $1.6 million asset impairment charge associated with RockResorts, a subsidiary.
The company also said it saw a 5.3 percent increase in skier visits at its five resorts during the 2004-05 ski season.
All five of the company’s ski resorts had an increase in skier visits last winter, with Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Heavenly, in Nevada, seeing record traffic. The company also owns Vail and Keystone.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
