The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Construction on the three-level structure should start in August
Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) got a preliminary nod of approval on Wednesday, June 20 from the Mt. Crested Butte Planning Commission for plans to build a parking facility near Manor Lodge. Construction begins later this summer and will include at least 127 parking spaces. It’s all part of the envisioned Town Center, where the Mt. Crested Butte Performing Arts Center could someday be located.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort Vice President for Planning and Development Michael Kraatz asked the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council on Tuesday, June 19 if they would act as a third party in an agreement between CB Commercial Properties and the Grand Lodge Crested Butte Commercial Condominium Association, both of which are CBMR companies, to get the project rolling by August.
If all goes as planned, the below-grade work will be done by the time the USA Pro Cycling Challenge rolls into town on August 21. “Then, as you know, [race organizers] come in late, they mobilize for one day then they demobilize that night and they’re gone the next day. So we’ll get started with construction in earnest right after that,” Kraatz said.
The first phase of the project would be 300 feet long and about 110 feet wide and include all of the below-ground engineering, a main level and a ramp leading to a second level. Eventually, when the full facility is needed, a third deck will be added to make room for a total of 317 parking spaces. “It’s going to be pretty low profile to begin with, which is a pretty good way to start the project,” Kraatz said. The first phase of construction would take about three or three-and-a-half months.
The project, Kraatz said, was being funded with money from an escrow account that was created when CBMR purchased the commercial space in the Grand Lodge back in 2006. And while there isn’t much need for additional parking spaces this summer, the future may hold something different and the escrow account has a six-year life. “We had a six-year window to use those funds or lose them [to the property’s previous owner],” he said. “So we’re in year six.”
One of the provisions in the escrow agreement is for a parking license agreement that provides for a minimum of 110 parking spaces for the Grand Lodge. The new parking garage has been designed to have at least 120 spaces.
Requiring the resort to create the additional parking was a provision in the agreement that looked to provide space for the future, when parking is displaced by development in the planned Town Center.
The resort had crafted a parking license agreement “to ensure that will happen down the road,” Kraatz told the council, “as a check and balance because the agreement is between two CBMR entities.”
CBMR attorney Michael Dawson told the council the resort needs a letter before September from the town certifying that construction on the parking garage has started, which will trigger the release of the escrow money. “So we’re on a pretty fast track with this.”
The plan for the new parking space, once it’s completed, Dawson said, is to “be integrated into the overall parking plan for the Town Center. This gives them the ability to do that going forward.”
The council voted to approve the parking license agreement and CBMR will go back to the Planning Commission for a final meeting on July 11. Construction on the parking garage should start sometime in August.
