Developers Plan Luxury Condo Project in Crested Butte

They now are offering residences for sale at the WestWall Lodge at Crested Butte. Construction of the first of three phases at the WestWall Lodge is set to begin June. Units will be available for occupancy in 2006. Prices will range from $400,000 to $2 million.

"It's ski-in, ski-out convenience with the quality of Beaver Creek or Bachelor Gulch," says O'Brien, a former senior vice president and chief financial officer for Vail Resorts, North America's largest ski company. "The demand for that has been proven in the Vail area, and we believe it exists in Crested Butte."

In the 1990s, O'Brien co-headed the company's effort to create, develop and finance Bachelor Gulch Village, which is now home to some of the most expensive ski resort properties in the country. He's now teaming with partners Barnes, a resort real estate development specialist; and Fitchett, who built the Elkhorn Lodge at Beaver Creek, to do the same in what is being called "Colorado's last great ski town."

"Ski resorts are of limited quantity now, and there's not going to be a whole lot more of them," says Fitchett, a former vice president of Vail Associates Real Estate. "For all intents and purposes, development in the Vail Valley is almost over. Crested Butte, by comparison, has nothing but potential."

Beyond construction of the WestWall, many new building and redevelopment plans are in the works at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. The ski company, purchased March 1 by Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of ski resorts in Vermont and New Hampshire, has revealed comprehensive preliminary plans for all of its undeveloped lands in Mt. Crested Butte, including a complete redevelopment of the village core, known as Town Center. That project will include considerable retail on the surface level with a large focus on underground service and underground parking.