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MOUNTAINEER SQUARE AND NORTH VILLAGE:
Vision, not just development
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MOUNTAINEER SQUARE AND NORTH VILLAGE:
Vision, not just development
MT. CRESTED BUTTE, CO--The steel beams rising from the ground at the base of Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) represent countless hours spent not only at the drawing board, but also at the meeting table, on the land and around Tim and Diane Mueller's dining room table. For a place a special as Crested Butte, the Muellers didn't just want development; they wanted vision.
When the Muellers bought CBMR in March 2004, they realized they had some remarkable opportunities and challenges. Three miles up the road from a historic, authentic and feisty mountain town, they faced the task of revitalizing the tired old base area of a legendary ski mountain. And two miles farther up the road lay CBMR-owned land slated for the North Village, a community hub that would also be a ski village if the Forest Service approved lift-served skiing on Snodgrass Mountain.
That gave the newcomers a lot of power in a place well loved and protected by its community. How could the Muellers come up with plans that fit their own vision and character and also honored the vision and character of their new place? Luckily, those have proven remarkably similar so far.
"Crested Butte was a good cultural fit for the Muellers," said long-time friend and financial/strategic consultant George Lake. "They are authentic, hard-working, honest, good people who seek to do the right thing…for the mountain, for their employees, for themselves, for the community."
As they began planning for the base area and North Village, the Muellers kept in mind two guidelines: 1) embellish what it is, don't make it something it's not, and 2) complement the historic town instead of competing with it.
Mountaineer Square, the new base area
Soon after purchasing CBMR the Muellers began creating a new master plan for the base area village.
"There were a lot of tired old buildings, a lot of gravel parking lots," said Michael Kraatz, vice president of real estate and development. "We needed to upgrade, and to give guests a sense of place, a sense of arrival, greeting and direction."
The Muellers, consultant John Norton, SE Group and BCA Architects shaped plans for Mountaineer Square, working closely with Mt. Crested Butte's town council, planning commission and Downtown Development Authority. After plan approval last summer, crews broke ground in earnest in August 2005.
Particular attention went to a new transit center, from which buses will take people to downtown Crested Butte or to outlying condominiums. "We want to make the base area very pedestrian friendly, to keep people out of their cars," Kraatz said.
From the transit center, plans were painstakingly designed to welcome and lead guests to everything they need, from lift tickets to the children's center.
"At the base area, people should be immediately oriented," Lake said. "Guests have come a long way to vacation here and we want to make it easy for them. Many subtle elements were embedded into the plans, like convenience of guest services and a design that allows the eye to find things."
The first phase of Mountaineer Square, now in progress, will bring on line the new transit center, a conference center serving up to 500, retail and specialty restaurant facilities, 95 condo units in the Lodge at Mountaineer Square and a plaza where musicians and other performers will entertain passersby.
Phase two, now in the planning stage, will replace the Gothic Building with Cimarron, a six-story structure that will house ski rentals, cafeteria, restaurants, skier services, patio and firepit, underground parking and 95 luxury condominiums with a slope-side pool. Kraatz hopes to launch sales in early winter, with the Gothic Building deconstruction slated for April 2007.
The third phase of improvements could bring additional lodging/condominium units and a recreation/aquatic center to the land just north of the Grand Lodge. "The timeline for that phase is a function of the market," Kraatz said.
Beyond replacing the dated hodgepodge of buildings with a cohesive, attractive, user-friendly village, planners also hope to create year-round liveliness and bustle at the ski resort. "We'll have the conference center and summer activities, so beds are filled and businesses can survive on a year-round basis," Kraatz said.
The reshaped base area is designed to complement the historic town, Lake emphasized. "There will be some overlap, but we've put thought into the types of commercial uses to encourage in Mountaineer Square so that both are successful. They really represent two different entities. Mt. Crested Butte will have modern conference facilities, a warm bed base and support for recreational activities. The historic town has great restaurants, shopping, people. It's great to have two separate and distinct places."
The North Village: community from the ground up
In some ways, plans for the North Village, two miles north of the Mountaineer Square, are "180 degrees different," Kraatz said. While the Mountaineer Square incorporates relatively high density and large buildings in the core of the town, the North Village aims at a more "human scale." Both the goals and the sites are different. "Big buildings don't fit into that landscape."
As proposed, the North Village would create a community focal point for the town of Mt. Crested Butte, with year-round residents as well as vacationers, a post office, general store, town hall, bike/ski paths, and gondola access to the slopes. "It should be a place where people walk to pick up their mail, get a cup of coffee, bump into friends," said John Sale, director of planning and permitting. "We need hot beds, since it could be the base of a ski area [if the Forest Service approves lift-served skiing on Snodgrass], but we also looked at the needs of the community."
When the Muellers and resort planners began brainstorming about the North Village, they found themselves repeating some of the tenets of Smart Growth: walkability, vitality, sustainability, energy efficiency and providing housing opportunities for a broad segment of the market to maintain year-round community.
Last winter the resort hired SE Group and Wolff Lyon, planners who specialize in "traditional neighborhoods," or shaping vital communities from the ground up. The resulting plans show a North Village with two- to three-story buildings (hotels, eateries, retail, commercial and office spaces) more tightly clustered at its center, filtering out into multi-family, townhomes and eventually single-family neighborhoods. Bike/hike/ski trails, bus service and gondola access would discourage driving.
Planners worked with the Office of Resource Efficiency, county trails commission, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Nordic Council and local governments in sketching the North Village plans. As currently drawn, the North Village would include up to 1,100 housing units and 55,000 square feet of commercial space, almost a quarter of the density featured in initial plans that were approved two decades ago.
The North Village site, "like a giant sun cup," Sale said, lends itself to passive and active solar applications. Building guidelines would encourage energy efficiency, architectural harmony, appropriate structure size (e.g. less than 2,800-square-foot homes) and housing diversity. "We want to provide housing to a broad segment of the market, including people who don't qualify for affordable housing but can't afford a half-million-dollar home. We want a full-time community, so there aren't dark windows all the time."
Last spring, CBMR planners reviewed North Village plans with the public, receiving "overwhelmingly positive results," Kraatz said. After a few tweaks and adjustments in response to community input, the resort will submit a PUD amendment to the Town of Mt. Crested Butte this winter. Then the project will probably sit for four to five years, while CBMR concentrates first on Mountaineer Square and other priorities.
Kraatz applauded the resort's emphasis on shaping a community hub, not just a tourist center. "Not many ski resorts are trying to create community; most focus on skiers, visitors, second home owners. To be creating a community from scratch is a rare opportunity."
Prospect update: phase three in the works
As the base area takes shape, work also continues on Prospect, CBMR's unique, ski-in, ski-out development on the north flanks of Crested Butte Mountain. Crews this summer completed the infrastructure for the third phase of Prospect, emphasizing single-family homesites with expansive views up toward the ski slopes and down into the pristine East River Valley.
CBMR is also collaborating with the Town of Mt. Crested Butte to build 40 units of affordable housing on a dedicated segment of the Prospect land. The triplexes and duplexes encompass solar hot water, efficient building materials, passive solar orientation and access to four-season hiking/biking/skiing trails.
"We invited a lot of people to participate in all this planning," Lake said. "At the end of the day, we all have to cohabitate. When it becomes collaborative, then you build trust."
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Real Estate in the Crested Butte Valley
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