Renters at the new $60 million Timber Ridge apartment complex in Vail will have their own health club, central big-screen TVs, outdoor fire pits and some ski-run views, according to building plans.
In fact, the plans are so nice that some real estate folks and other residents worry that the apartments will push prices down on other rentals in the ski town’s fragile real estate market.
That’s because about 170 more people can live at the new 352-unit rent-controlled piece of the Timber Ridge complex than live in the current units. Nothing has been approved yet.
Adding to the rental pool, Vail Resorts plans to start building a 124-bed apartment complex (about 30 units) this spring — to fulfill a town requirement for its Arrabelle at Vail Square hotel in Lionshead.
“In the macroeconomic sense, it could be bad . . . because the inventory will be more,” said Onie Bolduc, president of Bolduc Real Estate Solutions in Avon, which manages many rentals in the Vail Valley.
But the existing 198-unit Timber Ridge apartment complex in the Sandstone neighborhood along Interstate 70 is an “eyesore” that needs to be remodeled, anyway, Bolduc added.
“To an outsider looking in, sure, it’s going to look like that,” Bolduc said. “But then they can raise prices and values will go up. Vail is going to continue to grow.”
Half of the existing Timber Ridge complex is slated to be knocked down, possibly as soon as May, to be replaced by a five-story building with a tenant parking garage. Texas developer C.F. Jordan was chosen by the town to work on the project. President Darren Woody did not return calls for comment.
Rental prices dropped sharply in neighboring Avon when the privately built Buffalo Ridge apartments first opened there in 2006, said Matt Scherr, a Minturn resident who owns an Avon condo that he rents out. But the Timber Ridge plan could be good for area rental prices in the short term, because it takes some rentals off the market until the new building is finished, he said.
“It could be good timing,” Scherr said. “It would be nice to have some of those Timber Ridge units gone. Right now, we could use a reduction in inventory.”
Dennis Scalise, a Vail resident with several rental properties, said the rental market is already soft. He worries that new employee housing projects could hurt his future profits.
Rental prices are a delicate issue in a town where elected officials want 30 percent of the town’s workforce to actually live there, a goal approved in 2006. Because an estimated 70 percent of the homes in Vail are owned by second homeowners who don’t rent them out, and rental prices are generally higher in town than they are in neighboring communities, many workers live outside of Vail.
Vail officials bought Timber Ridge in July 2003 for $20 million. Vail Resorts has a “master lease” with the town for 171 units, renting them for $1,192, according to George Ruther, town planning director. Up to four people live in each unit.
Vail Resorts officials have said the ski company will not commit to the redeveloped Timber Ridge.
No rental prices have been set for the new project. But based on previous negotiations, price per renter could range from $380 to $575 or more.
