Long the forgotten stepchild between the resort communities of Vail and Beaver Creek, little Minturn – with its turn-of-the-20th- century clapboard houses – is now in the spotlight.
Florida developer Bobby Ginn’s plans for Battle Mountain, a $4 billion private, gated resort community south of Minturn, is driving the frenzy.
Work on the ski, golf and housing project could start this year, depending on how quickly the town of Minturn grants annexation approvals.
Some developers have made profits of almost 60 percent in one year by buying and selling new townhouses and duplexes. Others are buying modest Main Street homes and advertising them as spots for new construction.
“Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. It’s all speculation,” said Anne Agneberg, a Keller Williams Realtor who does business in Minturn.
Real estate broker Craig Denton lives in nearby Eagle and is bullish on the former railroad town. He bought a newly built townhouse for $370,000 in September 2005 and sold it for $590,000 just a little more than a year later. About the same time, he also bought a piece of land for $425,000 and sold it last summer for $625,000.
“I wish I would have kept (the townhouse). It was a good-timing thing, but if I held onto it, it would be worth more now,” Denton said. “I’ve always loved Minturn. It’s a great little town nestled in there.”
The final two townhouses in the 27-unit Minturn Towne Homes project went under contract this year – a four-bedroom for $825,000, another for $795,000, said Denton, who works at Ron Byrne Associates in Vail.
Some Racquet and Trout Club condos being built along the Minturn River were pre-sold to investors in the mid-$700,000 range and have already resold for more than $1 million, Denton said.
Boulderite Rob Schuham is looking to sell a three-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath townhouse for $619,000 after owning it for a year. He plans to buy a bigger one in the same complex.
Schuham said he likes the quick access to Vail ski area on weekend mornings as well as the “Minturn Mile,” an out-of-bounds backcountry ski run that starts atop the ski area and ends in Minturn.
“Minturn has got all of its charm and all of its funkiness,” Schuham said. “The speculation on the new resort going in is just such an ‘aha,”‘ he said. “It’s faster for me to get from my front door to Vail than from East Vail. It’s like a reverse commute on a Saturday or Sunday morning.”
Ginn reportedly kicked off the Minturn speculation by buying a downtown bed and breakfast for more than $6 million a little over a year and a half ago from town council member Tom Sullivan.
At the same time, Minturn’s tax base has been eroding for the past couple of years as residents struggle to keep retail businesses afloat. And many who live there complain that the narrow valley is a few degrees colder than its neighbors to the west, mainly because the sun goes behind the hills early in the afternoon.
“The town of Minturn is not very healthy economically right now,” said Josie Wasterval, a longtime resident. “They’re waiting for Mr. Ginn to come in with some goodies, which he is doing.”
Residents should not depend solely on Ginn’s development for their economic prosperity, especially since it will be private, warned Ford Frick, a principal at BBC Research and Consulting, a resort development economics firm in Boulder hired to do a development study for the town.
“In my view, what drives value there is proximity between two major resorts, and a certain amount of community character,” said Frick. “I think community character has increased in value in recent years throughout the mountains.”
But Minturn has also been “overlooked and underdone,” so the new resort plans are bound to put it front and center in people’s minds, Frick said.
“I’m sure the speculation about Battle Mountain, even though it isn’t annexed yet and it isn’t done yet, will bring a greater focus to the area. When the market is that small, it doesn’t take a lot of people to make it spurt,” he said.
