Washington – Critics of a proposed multimillion-dollar land swap between the Vail ski area and the federal government say taxpayers will be shortchanged by the deal.
The U.S. Forest Service land to be swapped at the foot of Vail Mountain is expected to be valued at $5 million to $7 million, according to the land broker for Vail Resorts Inc. Vail has assembled undeveloped land to trade that’s worth roughly that much.
But critics say the slope-side land the Forest Service is giving up is worth closer to $50 million, far more than the value of the property the government is getting in return.
“I don’t think the taxpayers are receiving fair and equitable value for assets they are exchanging,” said Paul Heeschen, a trustee for a neighboring landowner who commissioned a private appraisal.
Supporters of the swap say Heeschen’s appraisal is flawed.
Though they have outlined the terms of the swap in planning documents, Forest Service officials say they don’t have an official appraisal of their land yet. They say they can require Vail to buy more land if the price is higher than expected.
“We know it’s worth a ton of money,” said Steve Rinella, who’s in charge of Forest Service real estate transactions in the region that includes Colorado. “Before we move forward, we’re going to have a good, solid appraisal.”
Under the exchange, the Forest Service would get a tract of stream-crossed mountain land called Vassar Meadows that conservationists have long been seeking to protect.
Vail Resorts would get a 5-acre parcel at the base of its Vista Bahn chairlift. The ski resort has developed the acreage under a use permit.
The deal will help the ski resort and the city of Vail complete their “Front Door” redevelopment project. Aboveground, there will be a new skier- services plaza, providing one- stop shopping to slopes-bound resort-goers. Underneath would be a new freight distribution center.
The swap started with informal talks between Vail and the Forest Service in 2000, but efforts to protect Vassar Meadows stretch back a decade to proposals to create the Adam’s Rib ski area.
Under the current plan, Vail will get the 5-acre tract in exchange for up to 475 acres of Vassar Meadows and all of another piece of land, the 135-acre South Game Creek tract.
Land swaps are a common way for federal land managers to consolidate their holdings and for private property owners to get developable land.
Though they are supposed to be even trades, some have been criticized as cozy deals between government officials and developers.
An exchange intended to consolidate federal land in Utah’s picturesque San Rafael Swell was dropped after federal appraisers revealed the federal government would get shorted by $117 million.
And in 1996, Congress forced through a land exchange at Utah’s Snowbasin resort that the Forest Service had rejected as unwise, with lawmakers saying it was needed for the 2000 Winter Olympics. Citing inequities in land value, Sports Illustrated dubbed the deal “the greatest snow job on earth.”
Vail’s Front Door project is controversial. Heeschen, the trustee for a family trust that owns condo units nearby, objects to bringing delivery trucks to the center of the resort.
Heeschen acknowledges that attacking the land exchange is a “mechanism” to fight the local project, but he said he was also bothered that the Forest Service wasn’t sticking up for taxpayers.
He thinks that town and federal officials are too eager to help out the most prominent business in the White River National Forest.
He spent $15,000 on an appraisal that looked at other sales in mountain resort areas. Rocky Mountain Valuation Specialists of Lakewood settled on a value of $50 million for the 5-acre Vista Bahn site.
But Vail’s land brokers say Heeschen’s appraisal is flawed. Adam Poe, president of Denver- based Western Land Group Inc., said Heeschen ordered the appraisers to make unrealistic assumptions that all 5 acres could be developed right away.
About half the land is a ski slope, he said, and construction on another third would be blocked by Vail ordinances.
“There’s less than an acre where you could build something,” Poe said, adding that the appraisal “just doesn’t pass the whiff test.”
But Heeschen said his appraisal found a comparable sale in which a single acre sold for more than $13 million.
Vail Resorts officials say they haven’t reviewed Heeschen’s appraisal but are confident the exchange will work out for Vail, the Forest Service and the public.
“We trust the process that’s taking place,” said Vail Resorts spokeswoman Kelly Ladyga.
Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.
