Estes Park CO Ski Area & Historic 4 Season Resort Project

by Lori on March 1, 2011

A couple weeks back I went to the Ski and Recreation area presentation to the Estes Park Town Board. Here is my brief description: This project would involve a redevelopment of the Elkhorn Lodge and Guest Ranch property on the West end of Elkhorn Ave in Estes Park turning it into a small scale ski area and 4 season recreation area. This historic property is one of the oldest continuously run historic properties in the country and unfortunately one of the most endangered. This is an exciting opportunity to renovate the old lodge, offer a year-round adventure and ski park for people of all ages.
The snow would obviously be man-made, with a chair lift to take you up the ski run, and an alpine coaster that could be used year-round. In the winter there would be skiing and snowboarding for beginners to intermediate levels, lessons for skiing and snow boarding, tubing, the alpine coaster, snow shoeing and ski biking.

Summer activities would include the alpine coaster, canopy tour or zip lines, mountain biking, hiking, fishing, horseback riding and mountain boarding. Pinch me please, can you believe this? The final, also very exciting, aspect would be an arts district with possibly a performing arts center.

The project developers are seeking the Town’s cooperation to be the applicant for state regional tourism funding via state sales tax incremental funds. The application must be completed by mid March so the presentation was made in a hasty manner and with apparently not enough details for the Town Trustees who varied from supporting the project to combative. The short time line is unfortunate because the town is only able to support it in name only not with any financial backing for the research. Frank Theis and Todd Jirsa made the presentation and have done an outstanding job researching and putting this together. I do want to thank the Trustees who are open to this concept and voted to support it. Continue to contact town board members and let them know your thoughts. Many many questions to consider but it’s nice to see people open to dialogue that will bring us closer to a clear concept of this project. We can’t know if this might work here if no one is willing to take a risk. Being a real estate professional here and also recently sitting on the Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies board I can see huge benefits for the entire town. We may not get a performing arts center built otherwise. I personally would really like to see it done soon so I can enjoy it.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this so please leave me comments here.

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