The attorney for the development group planning an affordable-housing complex at the former Boomerang Lodge site said Tuesday that he doesn’t know when construction is likely to begin on the project.
“I think it turns on when we will be able to get an acceptable construction loan,” said E. Michael Hoffman, attorney for a Virginia group represented locally by developer Steve Stunda. “I frankly don’t know the status of that.”
Stunda was not available for comment Tuesday in the wake of Monday night’s decision by a majority of Aspen City Council members to allow a 40-unit affordable-housing development with 38,000 square feet of floor space on the former lodge property on West Hopkins Avenue.
Neighbors of the old Boomerang lodge, most of them opponents of the project, turned out in force for Monday’s public hearing. One man even proposed an alternative plan, complete with design sketches, calling for 32 units using 30,100 square feet of floor space, smaller buildings, a rooftop deck and more green space.
West Hopkins resident Steve Goldenberg, who has perhaps been the most outspoken critic of the project, said he would prefer that Stunda build a lodge on the site rather than affordable housing. Stunda received approval in 2006 for lodge redevelopment on the property, but switched gears and turned to the affordable-housing concept after the economic downturn made it difficult to obtain financing for a lodge.
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