The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
It can be yours for $12.6 million
The North Village property on Snodgrass is for sale. Owned by the operators of Crested Butte Mountain Resort, the Mueller family, the property comprises about one-fifth of the privately owned land in the town of Mt. Crested Butte.
“While we are still in talks with a potential buyer for the operations and real estate of CBMR, no contract has been signed yet and we decided we wanted to move ahead with what we had been planning on doing,” explained CBMR vice president and general manager Ethan Mueller. “We have been talking for quite a while about selling some of the real estate that we control.”
In fact, Mueller said, the property has been on the market for the last year but the company recently decided to list it with a real estate broker that had a more national presence instead of just listing it out of their office.
So, the 255-acre Promontory Ranch has been listed with the Mirr Ranch Group, a real estate office based in Denver that specializes in western ranches. It is listed on the market for $12.6 million and is described as “an extremely rare opportunity to own a sizable, undeveloped property at the base of one of North America’s most renowned ski areas.”
The website touting the property extols the virtue of the ski area and explains that the zoning allows “for over 1,800 residential units and approximately 200,000 square feet of commercial development, making it the logical choice for Crested Butte’s future central ski village.”
Three years ago the Forest Service denied a request from CBMR to allow ski lifts on Snodgrass Mountain, derailing ski area expansion and development of a scaled-down North Village.
“The ranch’s development potential, combined with its scenic views and ecological significance, makes it an ideal candidate for a conservation-minded buyer seeking state tax credits and federal tax deductions,” the online website states.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” commented Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick. “We’ll work with whoever buys it. It could be an opportunity to revisit the zoning and uses. We’ll see what happens.”
“We are obviously hoping to move it,” said Mueller. “It might also attract the attention of some national developers and we would love to see some major developers come in here and perhaps bring a new infusion of energy to the area.”
Mueller said by putting the Snodgrass property on the market, CBMR is not raising a white flag of surrender to the potential for future ski expansion onto Snodgrass. “But since the Forest Service decision we have been focusing on the main mountain and especially expanding into the Teo-2 area,” he said. “We’ve definitely not taken Snodgrass off the plate for some sort of future expansion for something sometime. We have kept it in the ski area permit boundary.”
When asked about future access to the Forest Service trails on Snodgrass, Mueller said the lower portions of the mountain have always been private property. “I don’t think that would happen but whoever owns it could stop the access on either side of the mountain,” he said. “That bike trail, for example, sort of sits on a patchwork of public and private property.”
CBMR planning and development vice president Michael Kraatz said the price was determined through appraisals. “We periodically have to do appraisals for our banks and we also did one for the sale purpose so we are comfortable with that number,” he explained.
Mueller said he doesn’t anticipate more of CBMR’s property going on the market at the moment. “But we think this parcel of property could be very saleable right now and we hope it moves,” he said.
