The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“CBMR will remain in place … as managers”
After a deal fell through at the last minute in December, the Elevation Hotel and Spa in the Crested Butte Mountain Resort Base Area has sold to Boxer Property, a Texas company that made its name buying and revitalizing commercial properties. The Elevation is Boxer’s second hotel property.
According to its website, Boxer closed on the 260-plus-room Elevation Hotel on Thursday, February 7 for an undisclosed sum.
Boxer’s involvement in the Elevation is the latest in a long line of owners. Prior to Boxer, the Elevation was owned by SunVest Properties, which defaulted on its $69.5 million obligation to Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo then tried to unload the Elevation last year to a Naples, Fla.-based real estate company.
CBMR vice president for real estate and development Michael Kraatz confirmed that deal fell through at the last minute.
CBMR has been managing the Elevation’s hotel operations for more than six years, advertising lodging at the Elevation on the resort’s website as “Slopeside Luxury Accommodations in a Relaxed, Refined Setting,” and the hotel is known to provide some of the mountain’s most luxurious rooms.
CBMR vice president and general manager Ethan Mueller said he’s happy to see Elevation in capable hands.
“We’re obviously excited that an operating business is moving it out of holding by a bank to a private holder, particularly in this situation. Receivership just isn’t a productive platform for business to move forward on,” Mueller said. “We’re also excited from the standpoint of having another large-scale sales and marketing engine in the valley. All in all, we’re very excited. We think it’s going to be a positive partnership.”
According to Boxer acquisitions manager David Kayle, “CBMR will remain in place and continue their great work as managers.”
Kayle wouldn’t say if Boxer would be pursuing franchise status for the Elevation from a large lodging chain. The company’s other hotel property is the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix.
“This is the second addition to the hospitality portfolio we are assembling,” Kayle said. “We are currently reviewing the capital needs to bring Elevation back to its five-star status, now that well-capitalized, long-term ownership is in place. Mt. Crested Butte is an iconic ski town and we feel that this property will benefit from stable ownership.”
