Colorado Resort to Get $11M Upgrade

The improvements, which will be in place for this ski season, include $4.5 million for a new state-of-the-art snow making machine, nine new restaurants and bars, $1 million invested in its River Run Village and the tripling of a terrain park on Dercum Mountain, formerly known as Keystone Mountain.

Roger McCarthy, COO of Keystone, explains that this is the next step for Keystone. "It's all part of our evolution," he tells GlobeSt.com.

At this time, Keystone will not be adding any more rooms to its base, he says. "We think we have an adequate bed count at this time," he tells GlobeSt.com. "But if we wanted to expand our bed base, we could do that fairly quickly."

The improvements will not add any square footage to the 80,000 sf of retail and restaurants in the ski resort, which is owned by Vail Resorts. Vail Resorts also owns Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge. It's now more of a question of moving things around and replacing existing spaces.

New restaurants and bars will include:

• SubFusion, at the Summit House and redesigned Mountain House, will offer toasted subs.

• Bite Me Pizza in the Mountain House.

• Border Burritos in the Mountain House.

• Champeaux, a mid-priced French restaurant, will replace the garden room in Rock Resort's Keystone Lodge in Lakeside Village.

• Zamboni's, overlooking Keystone Lake and the Ice Rink in Lakeside Village, is a new sports bar.

• Parrot Eyes ("say it fast," says McCarthy) is a Mexican tropical themed margarita bar.

• Paisano is a new full-service restaurant that will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast has not been available in Keystone restaurants before this.

• Bear Paw Ice Cream and Goodies features homemade ice cream, yogurt, baked cookies and mini donuts.

• The Bad Dog Night Club also is a new addition designed to bring more energy to the nightlife at Keystone, McCarthy tells GlobeSt.com.