Gerald Petitt is investing more than $5 million to get the long-defunct Squaw Pass ski area up and running by December. Its new name will be revealed at a news conference today.
In a bid to attract younger snowboarders and freestyle skiers, the retooled ski area south of Idaho Springs will consist only of a terrain park filled with rail slides, pipes and jumps that will be open well into the evening.
“We want to make it a unique place, not your standard ski resort,” said Petitt, who bought the private 250-acre ski area at auction in 2002 for roughly $700,000. “We wanted to focus on the growth end of the market. We’re going to put up lights, have a sound system on the whole mountain. The buildings will have a funky, urban style.”
A Colorado native, Petitt is president of Maryland-based Creative Hotel Associates, which owns five properties in Colorado, including the Comfort Inn & Suites in Carbondale. He also owns a collegiate summer baseball league in North Carolina.
“I develop hotels, and I have some experience in sports business as well, so we decided this might be something interesting to do,” he said.
Lift-ticket prices will fall in the $30-to-$40 range, Petitt said.
The ski area, which first opened in 1962, catered to Denver skiers. According to Coloradoskihistory.com, day passes cost about $3 when it shut down in 1975, mainly because of a lack of snow.
The goal is to have 30 acres of terrain park with more than 600 vertical feet open by December, said project manager Doug Donovan. Idaho-based Planet Snow Design is designing the park.
“There is not another resort in Colorado that is exclusively a terrain park,” said Rob Perlman, president of industry trade group Colorado Ski Country USA. “They definitely have a niche and could be quite successful if they can carve that out.”
To reopen, the ski area had to win development approvals from the Clear Creek County planning commission and road access from the U.S. Forest Service. Crews are busily working on improvements, such as adding snowmaking equipment, installing a new chairlift and building two lodges and a maintenance building.
The ski area is just 35 miles from downtown Denver, and Petitt believes the proximity will help the small terrain park attract enough day-trippers to survive. Possible plans include busing skiers and ‘boarders up from Denver skate parks. He also is working with Alpino, a local program that encourages Colorado’s quickly growing Hispanic population to hit the slopes.
“It’s tough for us to compete with a Vail or a Breckenridge because we don’t have 3,000- foot drops and a bunch of land at the base that we can develop into condos, hotels and restaurants,” Petitt said. “This is a day-skiing and snowboarding area.”
Loveland Ski Area, 53 miles from Denver, said it doesn’t expect stiff competition from Squaw Pass.
“I don’t see it impacting our overall skier visits because people won’t be able to get powder turns and face shots and all that over there,” said Loveland spokesman John Sellers. “It’ll be really interesting to see what happens with them.”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
