New Project - St. Cloud Resort & Spa (Entrance to Ski Time Square)

Builders want to acquire garage
St. Cloud plans to change intersection
By Tom Ross - Steambaot Pilot & Today
Sunday, March 9, 2008

Steamboat Springs — The founding partner and former president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is partnering with Steamboat Springs developer Jamie Temple to propose a 781,339-square-foot development that would redefine the entrance to Ski Time Square.

The project is called St. Cloud Resort & Spa. It would add 201 residential units in multiple buildings. The formal name of the development company is Momentum Steamboat LLC, Temple said.

He was the developer of Storm Mountain Ranch in Steamboat with his brother Jeff as well as Water Dance in Frisco and Uptown Broadway in Boulder.

Partner Colgate Holmes’ background includes operation and development of resorts and hotels including the Grand Wailea Resort and Spa, the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Wigwam Resort and Country Club in Phoenix, and the Palace of the Golden Horses in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A statement prepared by the St. Cloud developers says they intend to enhance the Steamboat hotel experience with services including day care, a full service spa, restaurants, ballroom and conference facilities, a ski shop and related commercial space.

The Steamboat Ski Area has written a letter of permission giving the developers the ability to enter the city of Steamboat Springs planning process with a plan that would replace the existing Ski Corp. parking garage with new buildings and underground parking.

“We’re aware that they have contemplated that parking structure in the pre-application and have acknowledged that we have no objection,” Ski Corp. Vice President of Development Doug Beall said. “We haven’t consummated a deal.”

They also have stated their intention to develop a green project and pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation, something that has not been pursued with so large a project in Steamboat.

Temple said the goal of Momentum Steamboat is to own the parking garage site.

The nearly 4-acre site of the St. Cloud would occupy parcels including the existing Clocktower Square Penthouse Condominiums, Xanadu Condo­miniums, the site of the old octagon buildings as well as the industrial-looking concrete parking garage.

St. Cloud has been through the city’s technical analysis process, and the developers are scheduled to deliver a re-worked plan next week in time for a public hearing before Planning Commission on March 27.

The public and private sector are in the midst of investing in the redevelopment of Ski Time Square and the proposed development of the St. Cloud represents a significant opportunity to make the entrance of the longstanding commercial strip at the base of the ski area more prominent and inviting.

“Certainly (planning) staff feels that the intersection of Mount Werner Circle and Ski Time Square Drive calls for a special level of treatment,” senior city planner Jonathan Spence said.

The developers say in their prepared statement that they intend to redefine the intersection as a “portal that provides a grand entry to the new base village experience at Steamboat.”

Spence said tentative plans for the St. Cloud call for 91 units to be devoted to a “condo-tel,” another 50 units would be marketed on a fractional basis, and 60 would be marketed as whole ownership units where owners would be encouraged to rent them out on a short-term basis.

Of the gross square footage in the project, 377,820 would be devoted to residential space and 48,649 to commercial uses.

Momentum Steamboat’s submittal to city planning is in the form of a pre-application. Public hearings are scheduled before Planning Commission on March 27 and City Council on April 15. No formal votes will be taken during those hearings.