Developers have submitted plans with the city seeking
to build a Four Seasons Hotel comprising four buildings that would include 118
lodging units, 22 fractional-ownership residents, four free-market residences
and affordable housing for as many as 80 tenants.
The city alerted
Aspen media outlets Thursday about the land-use application, which was filed
Monday by Florida-based Cisneros Real Estate with the Community Development
Department. The application has yet to be certified by Community Development,
said department head Jessica Garrow.
The three-parcel,
6.6-acre property eyed for a Four Seasons is located at the foot of Shadow
Mountain on the 700 block of West Hopkins Avenue. In September, the City
Council ruled that the residential-zoned property, which is part of a 19.6-acre
swath of land, is eligible to be
annexed from Pitkin County
into city limits. If the annexation comes to fruition, the developers plan to
ask that the land be zoned for lodging, affordable housing and planned
development.
The application says
allowing a hotel in a residential area would continue a “historic development
pattern” that has seen other lodges — Aspen Meadows Resort, The Gant, St.
Moritz Lodge and the new Aspen Club fractional project — built in residential
areas.
The cumulative floor
area for the Four Seasons’ lodge, free-market units, fractional units,
restaurant and spa would encompass 181,974 square feet, according to the
application. The affordable-housing component’s floor area would span 24,018
square feet.
By contrast, the
Hotel Jerome has a total area of 113,282 square feet, while the St. Regis Aspen
covers 242,040 square feet, according to county property records.
The application comes
at a time when the City Council has implemented
a ban on development in Aspen’s commercial districts. However, the
moratorium, which was passed through emergency legislation in March, doesn’t
apply to lodges.
The land-use
application also includes an introductory letter from Patrick S. Freeman,
president of Cisneros Real Estate, to Garrow.
“From the moment this
project was contemplated, we have challenged ourselves to ensure that our
vision is one that contributes to the community fabric of Aspen both in the
short and long term,” Freeman wrote. “Our organization has a strong history of
community engagement and that will continue throughout our efforts in Aspen.
The challenges facing this community are ones that we are committed in helping
to solve through an acknowledgment of the project’s impacts and thoughtful
collaboration.”
Freeman did not
return a telephone message, and Sunny Vann, the project’s lead planner,
declined comment because the application is awaiting certification from
Community Development before it can move forward.
“It is the right
position to wait until the submission is deemed complete to respond to
inquiries by the applicant,” said R.J. Gallagher, spokesman for the project, in
an email. “It is a position of respect by the applicant for the city staff not
to get ahead of the process.”
If Aspen gets a Four
Seasons, it will be the third one in Colorado, joining Denver and Vail. Other
ski resorts with a Four Seasons include Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Whistler,
British Columbia.
THE
HOTEL
Of the 118 lodging
units, 99 of them would be standard units, 13 of them so-called executive lodge
units and six of them one-bedroom lodge suites.
“The standard lodge
units will each contain a net livable area of approximately 530 square feet,
while the executive units will contain an average of approximately 730 square
feet,” the application states. “The one-bedroom lodge suites will average
approximately 1,100 square feet.”
The hotel rooms would
be located in what the application refers to as Building A, on a lot currently
occupied by a Victorian-style home that was built in 1989.
Building A also would
include six of the fractional residences, which would cover 1,500 to 2,500
square feet of net livable space, according to the application.
The remaining 16
fractionals would be in Buildings B and C. Fifteen of the fractionals would be
two-bedrooms versions, two would have three bedrooms, and five would have four
bedrooms.
FREE-MARKET
AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING
The free-market
aspect calls for four 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom units, “which will be
condominiumized and sold,” the application says. The units would be located in
Building C.
The affordable
housing would go in Building D. There would be 19 dormitory-style units, each
with four bedrooms and one bathroom and covering 720 square feet. Also proposed
are four studio units, each having 500 square feet. Tenants would have access
to three separate “communal kitchen/dining areas,” the application says.
PARKING
AND TRAFFIC
A two-level subground
parking garage would have 133 spaces, with 80 earmarked for hotel and
fractional guests, 12 for commercial uses, four for free-market owners and 37
for the affordable-housing tenants.
The application says
the hotel would coordinate a high-frequency shuttle service to downtown Aspen
with the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority.
The hotel would fund
the seasonal service, which would offer a clockwise loop using Hopkins Avenue,
Spring Street, Durant Avenue and Monarch Street. The service would be open to
the public.
“Given the low
traffic volumes on West Hopkins Avenue, passengers could simply flag down the
vehicle at any location,” the application says.
West Hopkins also is
a popular route for cyclists who use it to access a network of trails and
popular roadways west of Aspen.
The application
addresses that, saying “the service vehicles could be limited to a specific
speed limit to ensure compatibility with bicycle and pedestrian traffic along
Hopkins Avenue.”
Hopkins Avenue runs
parallel to and is one block south of Main Street. Because of an increase in
traffic using Sixth and Seventh streets to access the Four Seasons, the
application suggests reconfiguring Main Street’s median striping between Sixth
and Seventh streets “to provide a two-way left turn lane.”
“This would allow northbound
drivers turning left from Sixth Street onto Main Street to make a two-stage
left turn movement,” the application states.
WHAT
ABOUT THE TREES?
All told, some 562
trees on the three lots would have to be removed for the development, according
to the application. That cost, based on a preliminary evaluation, would total
$790,833, according to the city’s mitigation fees.
“Many of the
ornamental trees appear to have been planted sporadically and randomly over
time, resulting in a varied density and appearance,” the application says. “The
majority of the trees appear to have been irrigated but to have received
minimal care over the years resulting in the presence of dead limbs, poor
overall structure, and indicators of secondary type pathogens.”
The application adds:
“While there are pockets of more valuable trees in certain areas, the overall
loss of significant trees will not be considerable, especially in relation to
size of the project site and the proposed development’s construction
footprint.”