Aspen Journalism

The rapid known as Snowmass Hole on the Toothache section of the Roaring Fork River is one of the highlights for local rafting customers. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

By Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Saturday, March 3, 2012

Two local men are looking to start a new whitewater rafting company that would take customers down sections of the Crystal and Roaring Fork rivers.

James Foerster and Langdon Adams, both graduates of Aspen High School and Fort Lewis College in Durango, are arranging for multiple permits and approvals to allow the operation of their new company, Elk Mountain Expeditions.

“There are a lot of different entities,” Foerster said, ticking off the permits and approvals needed from the city of Aspen, Pitkin County, the U.S. Forest Service, Division of Wildlife and private landowners.

The pair plan to start small with two or three 14-foot rafts and run the Slaughterhouse and Toothache sections on the upper Roaring Fork River and the Carbondale-to-West Bank section on the lower Fork, which also is known as the “Pink-to-Black” run. They also plan to run the Avalanche-to-BRB section on the Crystal River.

“We want to be able to take any type of clientele that we can, someone who wants to do a Class II or someone who wants to do Class IV,” Adams said. “And if we have a variety of permits, we can do those trips for them.”

The company will be based in Carbondale and will share space with Ragged Mountain Sports in the Sopris Business Center on Highway 133, across from the 7-Eleven store.

“We got great feedback from people in Carbondale who said, ‘We’d love to see some more tourism in this town,’” Foerster said. “That helped us think that Carbondale and the Crystal would be a great place to be.”

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An illustration of the Base Village project. The darker-colored buildings on the right of the diagram are the completed buildings in the core of the village. The Viceroy hotel is the darker-colored Y-shaped building on the left. The illustration also shows the partially completed buildings and the yet-to-be started buildings. The black numbers are lot numbers. The owners of the project are contesting the values placed on the commercial property in the core of the village and the value of the Viceroy hotel. In all, the owners say the property should be valued at $94 million less than the county thinks it should be. Illustration produced by Oz Architecture. Photo of illustration: Brent Gardner-Smith

By Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012

SNOWMASS VILLAGE — The Pitkin County assessor has estimated the value of the properties in Base Village, now held by four European banks in the name of Snowmass BV HoldCo, to be $190 million.

But the banks’ representatives have appealed a portion of the county’s valuation to the state and are seeking to shave $94 million off the county’s estimate.

The county’s assessment reflects its estimate of what the properties in Base Village were worth on June 30, 2010, which was the date the county was required to use to set values for the 2011 tax year.

The largest area of dispute between the county and the banks is the value of the Viceroy hotel, which includes 154 condos and hotel rooms and eight commercial spaces.

The assessor’s office valued the hotel’s condos and its commercial spaces at $111,543,000 based on sales of comparable ski-in, ski-out condos at the base of Snowmass Ski Area in 2009 and the first half of 2010.

The banks have responded, however, by saying that the Viceroy’s condos and its commercial spaces are only worth $23 million, according to their petitions filed with the Colorado State Board of Assessment Appeals.

(Two petitions have been filed with the state: one is for the commercial property in the core of Base Village and the other is for the residential and commercial property in the Viceroy hotel.)

The $88.5 million difference of opinion between the county and the banks over the value of the Viceroy hotel is primarily based on how the two sides view the condos in the hotel.

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A number of wealthy property owners in Aspen have donated big money to give Mitt Romney a lift. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

By Catherine Lutz, Aspen Business Journal and Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Monday, Feb. 27, 2012

When Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney campaigned in Colorado earlier this month, he probably ought to have swung through Aspen to thank some of his high-dollar supporters. Of the nearly $37 million raised by the super PAC supporting Romney, Restore Our Future, over $4.85 million — 13 percent of the total — came from people who own luxury homes in Pitkin County.

The vast majority of that sum came in large amounts from very wealthy second-home owners, many of them financial industry executives, according to a review of public records, online databases, and a recent New York Times feature based on Federal Election Commission data that identified funders of super PACs, a new breed of political action committee.

The analysis, by Aspen Journalism, did not necessarily capture every donation by every property owner, so it’s likely to be an even higher sum.

Two of the gifts came in $1 million chunks from hedge fund managers, another million from former Romney co-workers, and another million dollars was split between an individual and the energy company he controls.

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The Viceroy hotel in Base Village. In the foreground is the platform for what was to be the second condo tower at the Viceroy. It was the focus of an appeal by The Related Cos. that was recently denied. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

By Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012

A panel of judges in a New York state appeals court Feb. 16 unanimously dismissed $406 million in damage claims from an entity controlled by The Related Cos. against Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp. and three other Base Village lenders.

The appeals court found in a three-page decision that the loan agreement between Related and the banks for Base Village “explicitly and unambiguously” barred Related from making claims against the lenders for monetary damages, regardless of the banks’ actions.

The court also dismissed Related’s claims for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, finding that Related had defaulted on its loan payments in April 2009 — a fact that Hypo’s lawyers did not fail to point out — and that the banks have successfully foreclosed on the project, making injunctive relief moot.

Related claimed that the banks’ failure to keep lending it money as part of a $520 million loan package prevented its entity, Base Village Owner LLC, from continuing to build, and sell, the second phase of the Viceroy condo-hotel project in Base Village at the foot of Snowmass Ski Area.

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The Base Village project in Snowmass Village is now officially out of receivership and owned by a consortium of four European banks. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012

SNOWMASS VILLAGE — A chapter in the ongoing saga of Base Village quietly ended on Jan. 28 when a local judge officially approved of the “winding up” of a court-appointed receivership.

The decision by Pitkin County District Court Judge Gail Nichols to accept a final report from the receiver marked the formal end to the foreclosure process for the ski-in, ski-out project at the base of Snowmass Ski Area.

The receiver’s report detailed the work done by the receiver since July 2010, which included cash management, resolving disputes over contracts and claims, playing a role in litigation over the sale of condos in the Viceroy hotel, leasing and managing commercial space, and closing two expensive off-site sales centers.

“The court finds that all of the receiver’s action were right and proper and in the best interest of the receivership estate,” Judge Nichols wrote in her order.

She also ordered that a $50,000 bond posted by the receiver be released.

The end of the receivership means that the entity that technically bought the project at a foreclosure sale last November — Snowmass BV HoldCo LLC — is now also in complete control of the project.

On the ground the change is slight, as the same organization that acted as the receiver, Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Services, has been retained by the new owners to keep managing the project.

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Part of the streamflow management infrastructure at the city’s existing hydropower plant on Maroon Creek. Groups in the community are calling for stream gauges to be installed below the city’s infrastructure on both Maroon and Castle creeks. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

Brent Gardner Smith, Aspen Journalism
Monday, Feb. 13, 2012

Two groups critical of the city of Aspen’s proposed hydropower plant along the banks of Castle Creek are now raising funds to install stream gauges on that stream, as well as Maroon Creek.

A stream gauge suitable for inclusion in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) system cost between $20,000 and $35,000 to install, depending on the site, and $16,000 a year to operate.

Saving Our Streams, a recently formed nonprofit that is challenging the city’s proposed hydro plant, wants at least one gauge on both Castle and Maroon creeks in order to keep an eye on how much water is left in the streams below the city’s diversion dams.

Maureen Hirsch of Saving of Streams has contacted federal officials with the USGS, who have agreed to make a site visit this winter to the Aspen area.

“If somebody is interested in a new stream gauge, we are certainly open to talking to them,” said David Brown, the director of western Colorado operations for USGS, who is based in Grand Junction.

Friends of Rivers and Renewables (FORR), a new initiative from the Aspen-based Public Counsel of the Rockies, also wants gauges on those two streams.

The group is also calling for new gauges on the Roaring Fork River in Aspen, on Hunter Creek and on the lower Crystal River.

“It’s time to get the Roaring Fork River basin properly gauged,” said Tim McFlynn of Public Counsel for the Rockies. “It’s shockingly overdue.”

But the expense of doing so can be shocking as well.

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Public information from the Federal Election Commission shows that in 2011, Aspenites made 99 donations to Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Cortez), totaling $50,322. In the same year, they made 79 donations totaling $20,585 to Sal Pace, Tipton’s Democratic challenger.

Between September 1 and Dec. 31, 2011, Tipton had 14 donations from Aspenites totaling $8,375, while Pace had 69 donations from Aspenites worth $18,855.

Information such as this can be gleaned from the searchable database above.

Aspen Journalism and the Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network worked together to compile the 2011 campaign contributions made to Colorado’s congressional candidates from donors who call the Roaring Fork River valley home.

The resulting table is sorted alphabetically by congressional candidate. but it can be changed to display contributions to individual candidates by amount or by the communities in the Roaring Fork River valley, including Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

Below is a list of notable local donors to both Tipton and Pace in 2011.

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The Base Village metro districts are struggling, given that many condos that were supposed to generate property taxes have not been completed. Now a legal battle is ongoing over money tied to bonds that were issued by the metro districts to finance construction of infrastructure in the village. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012

SNOWMASS VILLAGE — Attorneys for The Related Cos. have responded to charges in a lawsuit by its European lenders that it fraudulently moved $32.5 million tied to bonds issued by the Base Village metro districts from one corporate entity to another.

An attorney for Related, Mark Walfish, of Katskey Korins LLP, filed an answer on Jan. 18 to a Dec. 28 lawsuit filed by the banks over the $32.5 million, which was loaned to Related by the banks to use as collateral against bonds issued by two Base Village metro districts that effectively function as one district.

One of the banks is Hypo Real Estate Credit Corp., a subsidiary of Hypo Real Estate Group, a German bank that was nationalized by the German government after the 2008 financial crash.

“Hypo had full knowledge of, was a willing participant in, and in fact authorized in writing the very transactions about which it now complains,” Walfish wrote in his response to the court.

Hypo and other European banks had lent $520 million to entities controlled by Related, which was used to buy and develop Base Village in Snowmass Village.

Related defaulted on the Base Village loan in April 2009, leaving Hypo and three other banks to foreclose and assume ownership of the unfinished project, which they did last year.

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A streamlined process? Maroon Creek in late summer, with about 14 cfs of water flowing through it, just below the city’s diversion dam. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

By Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Monday, January 23, 2011

The city of Aspen’s request to the feds to use an expedited review process for its Castle Creek hydroelectric project has run into stiff opposition based on comments submitted to the agency that’s reviewing it.

Scott Fitzwilliams, the supervisor for the White River National Forest, sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on January 10 in response to the city’s request to use a “traditional licensing process” instead of an “integrated licensing process,” or ILP.

The Forest Service recommended that a more lengthy review process be employed for the Castle Creek hydroelectric project because it allows FERC staff to be involved from the beginning and a process similar to full-blown NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) review will occur. There also is more opportunity for back-and-forth discussions regarding study designs, dispute resolution and public participation, Fitzwilliams wrote.

For Matt Rice, the director of conservation at the Colorado chapter of the nonprofit organization American Rivers, the letter from the Forest Service to FERC is a big deal. American Rivers opposes the city’s request for an expedited process and is questioning the project’s environmental impacts.

“It’s huge,” Rice said. “We have not had very much success requesting an alternate licensing process without a request from a federal agency as well.”

City officials in December filed a pre-application document and a request to use the “traditional licensing process,” or TLP, with the federal agency.

FERC, based in Washington, D.C., issues licenses for hydro projects.

The city told FERC officials that going the TLP route would save time, money and prevent unnecessary duplication of effort when reviewing the proposed Aspen hydro project, which would use water diverted from Castle and Maroon creeks to spin a turbine to make electricity.

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It’s still all about the view, including this view of Mount Daly from the McLain Flats area, where a buyer paid $16 million for a home in 2011. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith

By Catherine Lutz, Aspen Business Journal
and Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism
Monday, January 23, 2012

ASPEN – For many watching Aspen-area real estate, 2011 will be remembered for its large volume of high-end home sales.

Twenty-two residential properties in the upper Roaring Fork Valley changed hands for $10 million or more last year — equivalent to nearly two each month.

Those sales added up to more than $325 million, roughly one-quarter of Pitkin County’s $1.27 billion worth of property transfers — on less than 3 percent of the number of transactions.

Clearly, the buyers of these luxury properties have not been too badly hurt by the Great Recession — yet they are price savvy, as many of the estates changed hands for significant discounts.

Many of the properties had also been for sale for quite some time. Still, the new owners generally paid a higher price per square foot than other segments of the market.

The buyers vary. They are self-made businessmen, heirs to ongoing concerns or international billionaires. Some have strong ties to Aspen and already own property here, while others are new to the scene.

But what binds them all — a big league sports team owner, a major grocery store chain CEO, and an investor in Vail among them — is that they chose Aspen as a place to invest in both property and lifestyle.

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