By Madeleine Osberger, Special to the Aspen Daily News:

A slopeside development of luxury units for Snowmass’ Base Village will be reintroduced this summer by Aspen Skiing Co. as it revives the Fanny Hill Townhomes project in Base Village.

President and CEO Mike Kaplan confirmed this week that “an application for the townhomes will be submitted soon, sometime this summer.”

SkiCo is approved to build 10-12 units on the parcel, sandwiched between Wood Road and the Fanny Hill ski trail, that average 2,500 square-feet each. Don Schuster, vice president of hospitality, said Friday that 10 units will be proposed.

Developing this luxury ski-in, ski-out real estate could provide an “economic engine” to help finance the 102-room Limelight Hotel in Base Village, SkiCo maintains. The company has also said it’s prepared to invest $100 million in the Snowmass Village hotel’s development.

The proposals for the two projects will be contained in separate applications but may be reviewed concurrently by elected officials. The Limelight was part of Base Village master developer Related Colorado’s preliminary plan application that was submitted in May to the town of Snowmass Village. Kaplan said the Fanny Hill Townhomes application will be forthcoming later this year.

Once envisioned to be cabin-like residences, the Fanny Hill Townhomes will look different in this iteration, Schuster said.

He has also been working on developing a new hotel property in Ketchum, Idaho. Recently, SkiCo submitted for a building permit for a 98-room Limelight hotel near Sun Valley. By meeting a May 31 deadline, the company was relieved of the obligation to build 25 units of employee housing.

Market driven
It’s been 11 years since the original Base Village approvals were granted to allow 610 lodging units. Less than half of the residential units, 243, have been built, primarily in the Viceroy hotel and the Capitol Peak and Hayden lodges. The imbalance of residential to retail has created a problem for local business owners.

The Fanny Hill project would use the only buildable parcel in Base Village that SkiCo retained after selling the master development to Related WestPac in 2007 for $169 million. The company bought the undveloped Base Village property in 1999 for $11 million.

The Limelight hotel would be built on land Related now owns but would revert back to SkiCo’s hands if the project is approved by the town of Snowmass Village. The 2004 approval called for 57 condos in a 98,000 square-foot building on this lot. The town last year approved the change, to 102 lodge rooms, in slightly more square footage.

Market conditions are driving changes to the original Fanny Hill Townhomes project as well, both Schuster and Kaplan have said. The architecture will most certainly be different from 11 years ago.

Community development director Julie Ann Woods said she had not spoken with SkiCo about the Fanny Hill project in six months or so. Woods said it would be “premature to guess” if the new iteration would be considered a “major amendment.”

“Until I have an application to respond to, I can’t say how they intend to address this issue,” she said.

One reason the lucrative Fanny Hill project wasn’t developed earlier was because of the Base Village project’s phasing, which calls for its completion after the roundabout is done. While tentatively slated for a May 2016 start, the traffic circle has undergone its own evolution and some believe it’s not a done deal.

It’s not been for lack of trying that SkiCo hasn’t progressed on the Snowmass LImelight. In March 2011, stymied by the recession and receivership for most of the base area project, SkiCo asked the Snowmass Village planning commission if it could move ahead on the Fanny Hill project to break what it called “the Base Village impasse.”

Read Full Article Here: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/167015

Erik Cavarra Comments: Will the new inventory be similar to the Woodrun Place Townhomes?  These properties have been listed for over 1,000 days on market with substantial Price reductions.

Statistical Market Analysis

Status	# Listings	List Volume	Sold Volume		List Price	Sold Price	Sale/List Price	Total SqFt	List Price Per Total SqFt	Sold Price Per Total SqFt	Days On Market
Active	3	7,889,000	0	Low Avg High	2,399,000 2,629,667 2,895,000	0 0 0	0.00 0.00 0.00	2,094 2,275 2,378	1,091.25 1,155.58 1,229.82	0.00 0.00 0.00	151 765 1,072
Overall	3	7,889,000	0	Low Avg High	2,399,000 2,629,667 2,895,000	0 0 0	0.00 0.00 0.00	2,094 2,275 2,378	1,091.25 1,155.58 1,229.82	0.00 0.00 0.00	151 765 1,072