Glenwood Springs – The pending sale of Sunlight Mountain Resort has some locals and longtime employees anxious about the possibility of a glitzy development that could wipe away the small ski area’s rustic character.
“I don’t want to see it turn into a Vail or Aspen,” said vice president of operations Ross Terry, who has worked at Sunlight for 16 years. “We have a nice niche in the middle market. Try and do something up here on a five-star level, and you’re going to price yourself out.”
Sunlight sits up a windy two- lane road 10 miles southwest of town. It is one of Colorado’s most affordable ski areas, with daily lift tickets that cost $39 this winter, compared with $78 at nearby Aspen and $81 at Vail. Glenwood locals make up 60 percent of visitors; church and youth groups from neighboring states are frequent guests.
“Everybody is afraid of it becoming overdeveloped or too ritzy,” said Brian Long, Sunlight’s special-events director. “This place has been lost in time – look at the lodge; look at the lifts. But the people who ski here don’t mind because the lack of crowds makes up for it.”
Sunlight served 15,000 skiers during the winter of 1966-67, its first season. Its number of skiers peaked at 102,389 during the 1997-98 season but had dropped to 72,004 by last winter, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.
“The more people going up there, the better our business is going to be,” said Jim Hawkins, who owns the Four Mile Creek Bed & Breakfast just down the road from Sunlight.
He said he also has mixed feelings about possible development.
Interest has been high since Sunlight’s owners put the resort’s 470 acres of skiable terrain and 450 acres of developable land on the block in October.
Sunlight also holds U.S. Forest Service permits that would allow it to add 2,000-plus acres of skiable terrain.
More than 200 information packets were sent to potential buyers, and six groups of investors are seriously interested in purchasing the ski area, said Jerry Jones, the Avon real-estate broker handling the sale. He expects to have an offer by the end of the ski season.
“The development could be virtually anything, from a five- star resort to a vacation-club development,” said Jones.
Although the asking price is $50 million, he expects Sunlight to bring $30 million to $40 million.
“This is not a ski-area opportunity,” Jones said. “It’s a real- estate development opportunity.”
The land at Sunlight’s base is zoned for up to 780 residential units and a retail village. An adjacent 1,317-acre parcel just came up for sale, along with municipal water rights adequate for a large-scale development.
David Keller, owner of Littleton-based Steel-Velvet Investments Inc., is handling the second property but declined to disclose the price.
Several Colorado ski-industry players have requested information on Sunlight. Both Aspen Skiing Co. and the group of investors who own Monarch Mountain inquired about Sunlight but declined to make an offer.
The ski area has been owned by a group of 32 investors since 1992. They decided last fall to sell the property instead of investing the more than $10 million needed to update its infrastructure.
Minority owner Richard Schafstall, who serves as Sunlight’s president and chief executive, said the ski area is profitable but declined to discuss financials.
“My guess is anybody who comes up here will (have) a development focus, but you can be high-end without being expensive,” he said. “You could have a private club and a ski valet and still accommodate the locals.”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
