Vail-based East West Partners and , the owner of California’s Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows ski area, are partnering to purchase and complete development of the base village at Snowmass.
Details of the deal with seller New York-based were not disclosed.
One of the few undeveloped base villages at a major ski area, the Snowmass village has a troubled history. Related bought the base village — which voters had approved for a transformative development in 2004 — from resort developer Intrawest and Aspen Skiing Co. in 2007 for $169 million.
After an ugly period of lawsuits, Related regained control of the village project in 2012, when it acquired the property from four European banks that had foreclosed on the acreage at the base of the Snowmass ski area.
East West and KSL, two heavyweights that have worked together since 2011, most recently on the development of the Empire Mountain Village at Utah’s tony Deer Valley, will take over as master developer. Aspen Skiing will continue to develop a planned Limelight Hotel on a village lot that was not part of the deal.
The Snowmass Village town council last week approved preliminary plans for the project. The sale will not impact the timeline or the final development application scheduled to be submitted later this month.
East West and KSL put in a bid to buy the Snowmass village base project out of foreclosure in 2012, East West managing partner Craig Ferraro said.
“We’ve known about it since then and kept it on our radar screen,” he said.
East West developed Beaver Creek Village, Bachelor Gulch, Village at Northstar ski area in California and Main Street Station in Breckenridge. The company has been a key player in the and with its Riverfront Park community. Last year, it , which had languished after developer Zachary Davidson was indicted in Arapahoe County and later killed himself. KSL Capital, a private equity firm, has a large portfolio of ski and golf resorts and high-end hotels.
The chance to build what is likely one of the last base villages at a major ski area “is a big opportunity” for the two firms, Ferraro said.
“There are not a lot of these opportunities at the base of world-class ski areas anymore,” he said.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or @jasonblevins
