A $200 million, five-star resort and condominium project is planned for Telluride’s Mountain Village by the Honigman Group, a private investment firm.
Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has signed on to manage the ski-in, ski-out property, which will have roughly 75 hotel rooms, 65 wholly owned residences and a 12,000-square-foot spa.
“We feel Telluride is tremendously undervalued compared to other mountain resort communities,” said Aaron B. Honigman, president of the firm, which is based in Park City, Utah, and Jupiter, Fla. He also is a former Telluride resident. “This is the first product that Telluride has ever seen like this, so we think there will be a lot of demand for it.”
Rosewood operates 16 high-end luxury properties around the world, including the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and the Carlyle in New York.
“Telluride is still a little bit lesser known than other mountain resorts, so it offers a bit of exclusiveness,” said Bob Boulogne, Rosewood’s chief operating officer. “We’re going to help create the destination.”
Since its incorporation 11 years ago, Mountain Village has struggled to attract a critical mass of tourists, many of whom choose to stay in the historic mining village below. But several other hotel properties are in the works, including the $25 million condo hotel Lumière.
Lumière is being developed by Tucson-based Bourn Partners and will be managed by the Houston-based Valencia Group when it opens in December 2007.
Ground has also been broken on a project known as Lot 50/51, a condo-hotel development by RAL. The hotel operator has not been chosen yet.
“It’s exciting to see these operators and developers from outside of Colorado coming into Mountain Village and really doing world-class stuff,” said Ernie Graham, co-owner of Telluride 360 Real Estate. “These hotel projects will obviously bring in new visitors, and they will bring more retail and activity to the mountain core.”
Graham said new development in Mountain Village is selling at an average of $1,100 per square foot.
Pending approval, construction on the Rosewood Telluride is expected to begin early next year. Denver-based JG Johnson Architects is the architect of record for the project.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-954-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
