The Irwin Lodge is back on the market.
Archie Cox, the Midwestern businessman who bought the ailing backcountry ski lodge 12 miles outside Crested Butte in 2003 for $1.6 million, has put it back on the market for $3 million cash.
Cox, an investor who recently moved his Magnequench magnet-making company from Indiana to China, had big plans for the fabled Irwin Lodge, which once ranked as the largest snowcat backcountry skiing operation in the country. He crowed about $14 million in upgrades that would transform the remote, rustic 28-room lodge into a high-end luxury retreat. He promised to revive the ski operation and promote the lodge as a backcountry snowmobiling playground.
To start his plan, he gutted the entire building. He tore out walls, insulation, a giant deck, windows and everything inside the building. His representatives in Crested Butte worked with Gunnison County planners and Forest Service officials to permit increased operations.
Then Cox suddenly had “some life changes and is no longer interested in doing the project,” said Missy Fowle, the project manager who is now spearheading the sale.
The deal works out like this: $3 million cash and a 60-day closing for roughly 84 acres, the dilapidated lodge, some property such as snowcat and snowmobiles and a Forest Service permit allowing commercially guided skiing on 2,100 north-facing acres that always boast twice the snowfall of nearby Crested Butte ski area.
Fowle said 12 potential buyers are circling. She did not comment on any of the potential buyers’ intentions of reviving Irwin as a ski lodge. But she admits the backcountry ski plan is a losing business model for those seeking annual returns.
“I think the only way it can work is as a high-end destination product, and that’s what we were going to offer. The owner would never realize a return on his investment until he sold,” Fowle said. “But I think if he had put the money into it, we probably could have sold it in five years for $20 million to $25 million.”
