Teddy Errico's Telluride Tales

Its just a pile of plans and maps, but if built as designed the new Mondrian Hotel would offer more hotel rooms than any other regional hotel, built or in the planning process. At 189 rooms, the Mondrian would sit near the Westermere condominiums on the northside of the Mountain Village core. Their goal is to offer a more affordable high-end experience than Capella and skip the ultra luxurious amenities of both Rosewood and Capella. The goal is create a higher level of occupancy foir owners. Rooms are slated to be 450 sq ft each and the hotel will have a 5,000 sq ft restaurant. These hotel rooms would be put up for sale, but without kitchens and no larger sized units are designed, and there will be some pressure to put them into the rental pool.

Yesterday the Telluride Ski Resort announced the addition of Lift 15 at the top of the Ski Mountain maxing out at an incredible 12,570 feet above sea level. Accessing new terrain in the Revelation Bowl behind Gold Hill, this expansion will add open bowl expert skiing to Telluride, above treeline. Construction will begin shortly, with Poma signed up, for this 2.2 million dollar fixed grip quad slated to open for the 2008-09 season.

The Telluride Tourism Board is reporting great news from the Telluride Lodging Community. Overall, this winter December 2007 was up 8%, January 2008 was up 2%, February 2008 was up 9%, and March was even compared with the 2006-07 Winter season.

The forecast for the summer is good too, with a 4.6% gain predicted.

For more visitors services information go to www.VisitTelluride.com. To book rooms for this summer or next winter go to www.ResortQuestTelluride.com

The new projects of the Mountain Village Core continue to roll along this spring, led by Capella, Telluride’s first 5 star resort. The first building is fully enclosed, and will be ready for occupancy in early 2009, soon followed by the finishing of the remainder of the 146 room project. The boutique upscale Hotel Lumiere will open this summer as well. See Forever Village Two is in interior punchlist phase and will be complete in the next few weeks.

Currently the Peaks Hotel and Spa is under contract with Adam Hochfelder based out of Manhattan and his group, HP Hotel Partners, are planning a major remodel after closing that would return the Peaks to its original grandeur and then some.

Groundbreaking for the Rosewood Hotel, Belvedere Park Phase Three and the Silverline Condominium project have not occurred yet.

Just outside the core the Retreat at Mountain Village IV is moving along and in drywall and insulation phase and the Villas at Tristant is also moving along and each building pod is in a different phase.

In the historic town of Telluride Element 52 continues to impressively roll along and is currently pouring the foundation. The Hotel Columbia and New Sheridan Hotel and Restaurant have closed and will soon start major remodels. The Main Street location of Telluride Sports also has started a major face lift of its store. The Clarks Market expansion is expected to break ground in June.

Its always a sad day when the lifts stop turning for the season. Looking back we had a great winter with new terrain opened, and plenty of snow. Sure enough, the forecast is for snow all week. We could have used that last week. Oh well. As a destination resort we just cannot afford to stay open later as we have no big city to drive skier traffic for late season skiing. You’ll just have to go to A-Basin to get your fix. On the Real Estate side, 2007 finished as a record year and we went through a little 1st quarter hangover. All that means is that there are a few good buys out there and new projects like Element 52 and Capella are fast rising.

More important we must change our focus to summer. We have new Jazz Celebration dates in early June and ticket sales are moving fast for Bluegrass and Blues and Brews. If you want to come out for the 4th of July or Film Fest, you’d better make your reservations now. If you have never been here for the summer, come out anytime and see how special it is. Learn for yourself the locals mantra: I came for the skiing, but stayed for the summer.