REAL ESTATE IN THE NEWS
REAL ESTATE IN THE NEWS
Current Events in the Roaring Fork Valley of Particular Interest to the Real Estate Community
Compliments of the Aspen Board of REALTORS® A rundown of government and business activity over the last month, focusing on issues and items that are of particular interest to the Real Estate community.
ASPEN
Local News: Sales Tax Increase to Support Schools Reaches November Local Ballot
Aspen voters will decide in November whether to increase their financial support of the Aspen School District amid the district’s ongoing financial woes. Aspen City Council decided to ask voters if they would like to increase an existing sales tax from 0.3% to 0.6% to support the district, expanding the annual amount generated from about $4 million to about $8 million. If passed, the tax would be in effect until Dec. 31, 2031. The existing 0.3% constitutes a portion of the total 9.3% tax on Aspen goods. The decision comes as the Aspen School District faces financial challenges posed by the state. Colorado redistributed its school funds from healthier school districts to those with less funds in its New Public School Finance Formula, which officials estimate will result in about a $5 million budget loss in years to come.
Aspen has historically supported the school district with its 0.3% sales tax, contributing $31 million since the tax was first approved by voters in 2012.
$100 Million Mountain Chalet Renovation Begins
PCL Construction, a global firm with its U.S. headquarters in Denver, started its redevelopment of the historic Mountain Chalet property in downtown Aspen in July, the Aspen Daily News reported. The $100 million project to renovate the European-style lodge, built and opened in 1954 by Ralph Melville and operated for 70 years by Aspen’s Melville family, probably won’t be finished until the summer of 2027.
The project involves a complete teardown and replacement of the east wing, modernization of the hotel’s electrical and plumbing systems, changes to rooms and balconies, installation of a larger hot tub, the creation of two public restaurants, revamping of the spa area and more.
There will be some exterior design changes, but the goal is to maintain the look and feel of a European-style ski lodge throughout the property. When completed, the newly named Aspen Mountain Chalet will still consist of 59 rooms.
Public Radio Stations Face Looming Crunches
Local public radio stations in the Roaring Fork Valley are set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual federal funding next year and they’re bracing for impact, the Aspen Daily News reported. Aspen Public Radio will lose $210,000 annually from the $1.1 billion cut to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and KDNK will lose $174,000 annually starting in 2026. The two public radio stations, often lifelines during emergencies in the valley, plan to lean on community donations to make up for the coming budget shortfalls.
Gravity Haus Shutting Doors
Gravity Haus and its Aspen location affiliates will close at the end of the summer, less than three years after the hospitality chain took the place of several longtime local establishments, the Aspen Daily News reported. According to an email blast, its membership club — which opened less than seven months ago — Unravel Coffee and Boat Tow will close after “careful consideration of what’s best for the long-term health of our community, our team, and the overall Gravity Haus experience.” The membership club, coffee shop and restaurant will remain operational with full membership access until Aug. 31.
The Gravity Haus clubhouse, a membership-only wing of the building that included a lounge, dining room, ski lockers, fitness center and co-working space, opened to members last December. An individual membership was $200 per month. Members gained access to services across the suite of Gravity Haus locations, including discounts at Gravity Haus Hotels or its partner hotels that were part of the larger Gravity Haus portfolio.
STR Permit Updates Being Considered
Aspen City Council approved updates to the city’s short-term rental program in June, streamlining some administrative processes that hadn’t been updated since the regulations were first approved in 2022, the Aspen Daily News reported. The city council agreed to allow exemptions from tax-filing requirements for properties that are under construction, eliminate annual homeowner association affidavits for existing permits and take other actions to ease the administrative burden on city staff and streamline existing regulations. Another amendment eliminates the requirement for an annual homeowners association affidavit for permit renewal applications. City council also approved implementing a new “run out” period — and new temporary permit type — that would honor bookings made for an STR that take place after the sale of a property.
Kids First Considering Expanding Childcare Funding
Kids First wants to work with the Aspen City Council to determine how to increase financial support for families needing early childhood education and financial incentives for early childhood educators, the Aspen Daily News reported. Average child care costs in Aspen make up about 23% of the average monthly income in the area or about $1,900 per month. It is higher than cities in Colorado with similar average median incomes, and significantly higher than what the federal government defines as affordable child care, defined as 7% of a family’s income.
But many of the decisions about increasing funding will likely depend on the outcome of the Coalition of Early Childhood Education’s formation of a special tax district to support early childhood education. CECE received approval from Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties to place a question on the counties’ ballots that would levy a 0.25% sales tax to go toward early childhood learning costs.
Snowmass Village
Snowmass Housing Director Headed for Retirement
After overseeing the planning for Snowmass Village’s largest affordable housing project in over 25 years, Housing Director Betsy Crum has announced her retirement plan, the Aspen Daily News reported. Crum’s last day will be in early November — after working in housing for 45 years. Her decision to retire comes from her desire to fully step into being a grandmother and prioritize spending time with her grandchildren.
Her retirement announcement comes amid a lengthy process of moving forward with plans for the Draw Site Affordable Housing Project in Snowmass Village. The Snowmass Village Town Council voted in May to submit the project as a 63-unit apartment complex, with the ability to add more units if possible, for a preliminary plan review.
Monastery Back on the Market
A Trappist monastery in Old Snowmass went back on the market in June on the same day that the property was slated to sell to an undisclosed buyer, the Aspen Daily News reported. The St. Benedict’s Monastery went under contract on March 13, nearly a year after the roughly 3,700-acre property was listed for $150 million by Ken and Haley Mirr of the Mirr Ranch Group in Denver and Michael Latousek of Douglas Elliman Aspen. The buyer terminated the contract.
Both the listing agents and monastic superiors were tight-lipped about the details of the offer and potential future use of the property under consideration this spring. The land is zoned RS-30 in Pitkin County, a designation that could allow over 100 dwelling units on the property — though it would require a yearslong, arduous land-use process.
Basalt
Drive-Through Coffee Coming to El Jebel
Commuters and the caffeine-dependent in El Jebel can look forward to a new coffee shop, the Aspen Daily News reported. Coffee Connections, also known as Coco’s, intends to open a new drive-thru and walk-up cafe in the El Jebel Commercial Plaza, just steps away from their previously subleased space. After subleasing since 2021, Coco’s closed their shared space in the plaza in spring 2023.
The owner, Crawford Properties LLC, plans to build a 240-square-foot structure for the cafe, plus a restroom and a plaza with some seating. The plaza would be hardscaped with crushed granite. The cafe would be located north of the existing laundromat and Napa Auto Parts store and would be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
SkiCo Proposes New Housing
Aspen One, the parent company of Aspen Skiing Co., is in early stages to develop a 111-unit housing development for its year-round employees and their families, the Aspen Daily News reported. The project is called EJ Crossing and would consist strictly of rental units. Aspen One plans to submit application materials to Eagle County in the next month. The proposed development would be on a roughly 20-acre parcel off J W Drive in El Jebel, between the Blue Lake neighborhood and a bus barn for Roaring Fork School District.
Aspen One manages 1,300 beds across its properties, including The Hub at Willits, with 150 beds across 43 units for seasonal employees, and the Tenants for Turns program, which has 200 employees housed in other people’s residences.
Cornerstone Gets Initial Expansion Nod
Cornerstone Christian Center cleared its first zoning hurdle for approval to expand operations and replace aging buildings, despite lacking compliance with affordable housing standards, the Aspen Daily News reported. In Cornerstone’s housing plan, it still maintains that it will not offer any affordable housing, asserting that it is exempt through the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and that its private school, substance abuse support group, planned daycare and other church activities offer sufficient public benefit. With 46,421 net new square feet of commercial development, the original affordable housing requirement per the code would have been 27 units, but the county works with applicants in cases in which actual employee generation would be lower than the formula suggests.
English in Action Opens New Center
The Eagle County-based nonprofit English in Action, which serves and assists in the education of the valley’s immigrant communities, opened its new center for communication in June, the Aspen Daily News reported. After raising $5.5 million, the nonprofit unveiled the new and upgraded building location in El Jebel in the grand-opening ceremony. A total of $4.5 million of the money raised in its “welcome home campaign” was donated by 437 individual donors, beginning in 2022.
The new center is 6,000 square feet, allowing English in Action to host larger scale community and volunteer events. Multiple class sessions will be able to be held concurrently to better serve participants in their programs. Expanding the building by greater than three times the size of their former building, which was a trailer of 1,800 square feet, allows for new study and volunteer training areas, private meeting rooms and offices.
Basalt Offers Rebate for e-Bikes
The town of Basalt is offering its second year of rebates for town residents looking to purchase electric bicycles, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported. The rebate, which is $500 for full-time residents, is offered as an incentive to purchase an e-bike. The town hopes that residents will consider replacing some of their vehicle commutes with e-bikes, which are less greenhouse gas intensive. In its first year, the rebate was issued 59 times. The town of Basalt has allocated $40,000 from its “Green Team” to find the rebate.
Carbondale
The Supply Collective Opens in Carbondale
The Supply Collective, located at 655 Buggy Circle in Carbondale, recently opened and offers a rotating menu of quality takeaway meals to those looking for a quick lunch or a pre-made dinner, the Sopris Sun reported. Currently, some of the featured menu items are pastrami-braised short ribs, roasted sweet potatoes with lime yogurt, and a three-cheese mac with green chile, bacon and chives. The Supply Collective is owned by Mark Hardin, who also operates Field to Fork Kitchen — a catering company in Carbondale. A minimal-waste concept influences some of the menu items at The Supply Collective, using surplus ingredients from catering.
Carbondale Needs More Money for Pool
Pitkin County commissioners are considering contributing money garnered from its own park dedication fees toward a pool renovation project in Carbondale, which lies outside of Pitkin County boundaries, the Aspen Daily News reported. Pitkin County commissioners discussed how to use $531,695 remaining in a fund from park dedication fees. Costs to expand Carbondale’s public pool are currently exceeding an $8 million bond the town used to support the project. The ongoing construction of the pool renovation is expected to finish in fall and open in spring 2026.
The growing construction costs are primarily caused by inflating material and labor costs since the bond was approved in 2022, the Rec Center has been fundraising for an additional $2.5 million. This would bring the fund for the pool up to $10.5 million. They have a $13.4 million maximum spending cap but are hoping to complete the project for less than that.
Carbondale Debuts New Pilates Studio
Carbondale is home to a new Pilates studio, and co-owners Dale and Heidi Craig hope to bring a sense of community with it, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported. GSD XFormers Pilates Studio officially opened June 1. Located in a shopping center at 560 Highway 133, Suite 1 in Carbondale, the studio focuses on the pricey XFormers, a specialty machine that provides a full-body Pilates workout.
Glenwood Springs
Two Rivers Connect App Launches
Two Rivers Connect launched its Way to Roll pilot program, encouraging residents, commuters, employers and visitors in the Colorado River and Roaring Fork valleys to explore new ways of getting around, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported. Participants can bike, walk, ride the bus, carpool, vanpool, or work from home—and earn rewards for shifting even one trip per week.
The growing prize list, donated by local businesses and organizations, includes e-bikes, ski lift tickets, paragliding flights, hot springs passes and more. In June 2025, Glenwood Springs saw an average of 29,375 vehicles passing through the city daily — a record high. Traffic increases extend beyond Glenwood Springs: over the past decade, traffic has risen 33% on Interstate 70 west of Silt and 23% on Colorado 82 at South Glen Avenue. On average, 22,000 vehicles drove through Snowmass Canyon daily in 2024.
Bridge Work Set for July
A major bridge maintenance project along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon is set to begin in mid-July, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reported. Contractor KSK LLC of Grand Junction will lead the effort, which includes replacing 23 bridge joints and repairing damaged guardrails between mile points 116 and 133. The work is scheduled to span two construction seasons, with a pause during the winter months and final completion anticipated in fall 2026.
Drivers should expect lane closures up to 2.5 miles long in either direction throughout the duration of the project. I-70 will be reduced to one lane in each direction at times, with crews working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The speed limit through the work zone will be reduced to 35 mph.
Pitkin County
Buses to Potentially Get Priority at Lights
The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority is considering picking up a project that gives its bus rapid transit vehicles priority at certain intersections along Highway 82, the Aspen Daily News reported. The transportation signal priority system, or TSP, uses signal controllers at designated intersections that can detect when RFTA buses are approaching, triggering a request for a signal priority.
RFTA implemented the system in 2014 one year after introducing the BRT routes, which have fewer stops up and down the valley. But a failure in the system caused a vehicular crash and was ultimately deactivated. Now, the transportation authority is revisiting the project to address transit efficiency amid growing concerns about traffic congestion. RFTA is assessing the seven TSP monitors to determine whether the existing controllers can be programmed to support updated software. The TSP controllers are at the intersections of Highway 82 and 27th Street, Highway 133, Village Road, Willits Lane, Two Rivers Road, Basalt Avenue and Brush Creek Road.
Average Home Price Falls
The average sale price for a single-family home in Pitkin County dropped 17.5% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, the Aspen Daily News reported. The average sale so far in 2025 was $11.7 million, according to data from the Aspen Board of Realtors. The statewide average price for a single-family home sold during the same timeframe was approximately $757,900. The disparity is notably sharp in Aspen, where the average sale price during the first half of 2025 hit $15.7 million. That’s down nearly 23.1% from a year ago but still far out of reach for the average household.
Safety Improvement Coming to Smith Way
Pitkin County gave approval of the first reading to accept a $2.6 million federal grant to construct new safety measures at the Smith Way and Lazy Glen Way intersections with Highway 82, the Aspen Daily News reported. The Smith Way intersection will be reconfigured into what is known as a “modified reduced conflict U-turn” or “Michigan left,” where a driver attempting to go upvalley on Highway 82 from Smith Way will instead turn right, travel some distance merging left, then perform a U-turn over the median. Officials estimate the new configuration will reduce the likelihood of T-bone collisions by an estimated 35%.
“Nell Bell” Proposed for Aspen Mountain
Aspen Skiing Co. plans to remove two secondary lifts, Bell Mountain and Nell, on Aspen Mountain and replace them with a new high-speed chairlift dubbed Nell Bell, the Aspen Daily News reported. The chairlift would have a design capacity of up to 1,800 passengers an hour and would replace the Little Nell and Bell Mountain chairlifts with a single quad lift. The proposed replacement chairlift would span approximately 8,300 feet, with approximately 465 feet crossing U.S. Forest Service land and approximately 7,830 feet crossing SkiCo land.
The chairlift line would include new towers and new foundations, running largely parallel to the Silver Queen Gondola, and the goal is to gain approvals for construction in 2026.
Roaring Fork Safe Passages Identifies Priorities
With high-dollar priorities identified in its mission to reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions, the organization Roaring Fork Safe Passages is looking for public feedback on underpass and overpass plans, the Aspen Daily News reported. Phase 1 of mitigation work recommendations include extending an existing wildlife fence, replacing an existing box culvert with a new underpass bridge and a new overpass bridge from milepost 32.5 to 37.3. The design and construction of the projects is estimated to cost $22.4 million to $32.5 million.
Property Tax Relief Extended a Year
With property valuations holding steady, Pitkin County is poised to extend its property tax relief program another year despite low participation in 2024, the Aspen Daily News reported. The county first launched the program in June 2024 in response to record-breaking property valuations and corresponding tax bills. The Pitkin County Assessor’s Office completed another valuation cycle this year and said that valuations remained steady following 2023’s massive increases. Property values increased by an average of 70% across the county following 2023 valuations, and property tax bills increased by 27% on average.
APCHA to Continue Repairs Grant Program
The Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority wants to continue its essential repairs grant program and update allowed repairs to meet the housing authority’s seller standards, the Aspen Daily News reported. Since the program first launched, over $600,000 in grants has been awarded to APCHA homeowners for repairs like hot water heater replacements or roof replacements. Under new changes to the program, which is in its second pilot year, the current scope of eligible repairs would narrow, but it will pivot slightly to include needed repairs identified in inspection reports for APCHA units that are preparing to be sold.
In 2025, the most common repairs were windows, furnaces or hot water heaters, and mold or leaks. APCHA and city of Aspen staff recommended limiting allowable repairs to hot water heaters, boilers, roof replacements, furnaces, plumbing and leaks, and radon mitigation or other environmental risks.
Phillips Trailer Park to Get Upgrades
In the next several years, the county plans to overhaul the Phillip Trailer Park’s wastewater treatment and water infrastructure; secure a public/private partnership for new construction to get the unit count up to 73; and facilitate the relocation of residents within the debris field and flood plain on the river side of the park, the Aspen Daily News reported. The county bought the 65-acre parcel in 2018 for $6.5 million to preserve and create affordable housing and protect the surrounding property.
There are 34 mobile homes and travel trailers on the property and the county charges $430 per month for lot rent, which includes utilities. The rough order of magnitude for the utilities capital improvement totals about $9.8 million. Funding for the projects will come out of the existing county budget over 2026 and 2027, likely to be about $13 million.