Aspen Members Aspen Colorado Aspen Club Living

 by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Thursday, May 8, 2008

A plan to build 20 timeshare units at the Aspen Club and Spa received a preliminary approval from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission this week.

The 4-1 vote, which came at the end of the fifth two-hour session before the P&Z in recent months, laid blessing to the project’s design and massing. Lingering concerns about traffic and open space will be addressed when the plan goes before City Council.

“The project is moving in the right direction,” Jessica Garrow, long-range planner with the Community Development Department, said Wednesday. “It’s not all the way there, but (remaining issues) can be addressed through the final review.”

The ownership of the Aspen Club and Spa, represented by Michael Fox, a co-owner who manages the day-to-day operations of the club, seeks to build 53,900 square feet of timeshare lodging units, divided into 20 three- and four-bedroom units, a 34,630-square-foot expansion to the club athletic facilities, and 12,330 square feet of affordable housing divided into 12 two-bedroom units. The plan also includes a 53-space underground parking garage and 45 surface parking spaces.

The 20 timeshares, which would be allocated into one-sixteenth interests, would be sold as a health and wellness retreat under a concept being called Aspen Club Living. When the timeshare members aren’t there, and in the shoulder seasons, the units would be made available to the general public. The sale of the timeshare units would finance millions of dollars of improvements to the club’s facilities, many of which betray their 1970s origins.

In the coming months, the project will go before City Council, which will give a conceptual review to the overall development plan. If it passes the council’s conceptual review, it will go back to P&Z, and then again to City Council for final review.

The original design considered by the P&Z included 19 timeshare units, but 3,000 more total square feet of timeshares. City planning staff and P&Z did not approve of the layout of buildings on the site, which put two buildings with four and seven units along the “lower bench” of the site, where the outdoor tennis courts sit. The design did not address sufficiently the river and bike path, which are directly below the “lower bench” and created a wall of building between the main club building and riparian area, city planning staff said.

The design has since been reworked, removing a unit from the lower bench and dividing the two buildings into three smaller buildings with more open space between. All of the units were made smaller, but planners added a unit onto the upper portion of the site, bringing the total up to 20 units while reducing the total square footage by 3,000 square feet.

“I commend you for the changes you have made,” Commissioner Stan Gibbs said. “They make the project much better.”

Gibbs noted that he still has questions related to how the club will reduce the amount of traffic the new lodging would generate, but he can support the project conceptually.

The Aspen Club is proposing measures such as increasing shuttle service and implementing a car share program that it said would eliminate the additional traffic the timeshare development would create on Ute Avenue.

The club is are seeking a specially planned area — or SPA — designation, which applies to projects with unique site constraints in which the public interest would be served if underlying zoning regulations were scrapped.

About 15 community members and club employees came to the meeting to support the proposed project. Allowing the club to expand its programming and improve its facilities would be a benefit to the entire valley, supporters said.

The timeshare units will add to Aspen’s shrunken pool of short-term rental units and will bring “high quality” customers for Aspen’s business community, said Warren Klug, general manager of the Aspen Square condo hotel. He added that an amenity like the Aspen Club is crucial to the satisfaction of Aspen’s visitors.

“The club has a huge value to our economy,” Klug said.

But Richard Nieley, an attorney working for neighbors opposed to the project, cautioned that all the good things the club does today should not be argued as a basis for approving the new development. Everything could change overnight should the club, with its new timeshare units, be sold.

“The only guarantee is that you will get 20 new free market units,” Neiley said. “You have to separate the good things they do now from what could happen in the future.”

Commissioner Michael Wampler said he has no qualms with the massing and density on the site, and that the traffic issue could be dealt with.

But he noted that he is still struggling with questions about the development’s public benefits and whether the east end of Ute Avenue is an appropriate area for lodging. He also said he would like to see a condition of approval requiring a deed restriction ensuring that the club continues indefinitely as an athletic club.

In voting no, Commissioner LJ Erspamer said he would like to see fewer timeshare units on the site. By adding one unit from the original total, the project will introduce more people, traffic and impacts to the site, Erspamer said.

curtis@aspendailynews.com

Dear Aspen Club Family,

Michael

Thanks to everyone who came out last night or to any of the previous meetings and spoke in favor of the Aspen Club. Last night we got conceptual approval from the Planning and Zoning board with a 4-1 vote.

The next step will be to present to the City Council. We will let you know that date and time when we find out. We appreciate all of your support throughout this process. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Michael at mfox@aspenclub.com or click here to see the Aspen Club Living website

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The city of Aspen will have some weighty factors to sift through with the proposed Aspen Club residential expansion project.

The owners of the Aspen Club and Spa, located east of downtown Aspen, are proposing to build 19 condominiums through a building expansion and on what is now the club’s tennis courts.

In a concept called Aspen Club Living, owners of the units would buy two weeks each year to come for a healthy retreat, taking advantage of Aspen’s amenities and expanded wellness programs at the club.

The proceeds from the sales of the 304 timeshare interests, which if sold at $2,000 per square foot would top $94 million in sales, would finance a renovation of existing club facilities, including a new outdoor pool and new locker rooms. The timeshare owners would not have access to their units in the shoulder seasons, when the club would offer weeklong wellness retreats to the general public.

The project would also include 12 affordable housing units that would house about 27 employees. All this is proposed to be built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, and would include an array of solar panels and a ground-source heat-pump system.

In a two-hour meeting with Aspen’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, a wide range of issues were touched upon, but no vote was taken. The P&Z must recommend approval or denial to Aspen City Council.

Town staff supports the concept of a wellness-themed timeshare development, but has issues with its design, architecture and mass, and how it relates to the nearby Roaring Fork River. The design of the residential buildings, particularly one long building that will house seven of the 19 units, cuts off the view from the entrance of the club to the nearby riparian area, city planner Jessica Garrow told the commissioners. The planning office would like to see the structure more broken up, Garrow said, and finds the architecture itself uninspiring.

“I don’t think the architecture represents the mission that has been stated,” Garrow said.

An architect from Poss Architecture and Planning, which designed the units, said perhaps the planning office had not been able to “pull out of the drawings” the project’s unique features. The architect cautioned that pulling the mass of the building apart would create dark, U-shaped dead spaces between the buildings.

Some of the club’s 200 employees showed up to praise their workplace, saying the club’s expansion would further professional opportunities for its personal trainers, massage therapists and physical therapists. The club was presented as an organization that does right by its community through its existing wellness programs and the dozens of local nonprofits it supports.

“This is exactly what you would want to see for the next level for the club,” said Mindy Nagle, a local physician who said the club is a major source of referrals to her office.

“We could all grow in a direction that we wouldn’t normally be able to do,” said Morgan Walsh, a massage therapist at the club.

The most clear opposition came from a lawyer representing neighbors, who said it’s “just another real estate development” with questionable benefits to the community.

Rick Nieley pointed out that for Aspen Club owner Michael Fox to get approval to build a timeshare lodge, he must be approved under a provision of the land-use code known as a specially planned area, or SPA. According to the code language, an SPA is reserved for areas where because of the “unique historic, natural, physical or locational characteristics of the site” the public interest would be better served if different zoning was granted.

Nieley argued that the Aspen Club Living project meets none of these criteria.

Happiness with the way club is run is not reason enough to approve essentially a hotel surrounded by residential zoning, Nieley said, adding that Fox would have to demonstrate the new growth would add something more to the community than continuing existing services.

Time constraints prevented Fox from being able to respond to Neiley’s statement. But prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Fox denied that Aspen Club Living is another real estate development; rather, it’s a unique opportunity to create a sustainable, holistic amenity that will secure the Aspen Club’s future for generations.

“If it’s done right, the Aspen Club could be an icon throughout the world,” Fox said.

The traffic debate

Opponents of the project say that club-generated traffic on Ute Avenue is already bad enough, and that this project would make it worse. But Fox said steps can be taken to reduce traffic currently generated by the club’s 1,900 members (up from 400 just five years ago).

Club representatives presented traffic estimates that concluded the residential expansion would increase traffic volume on Ute Avenue by 15 percent. Fox said that can be mitigated by instituting paid parking for members and guests, doubling or tripling the level of its shuttle service to and from the club, and providing a fleet of electric cars for guests and affordable-housing residents to use.

Sunny Vann, the club’s planning consultant, said that the real issue is traffic capacity on Ute Avenue, which he said isn’t close to being full. Opposition to more traffic isn’t sufficient reason to deny the project when the road has more capacity, Vann said.

But the city, and neighbors to the project, are demanding more specifics on what measures the club would take to reduce traffic and how much traffic, specifically, the club thinks its mitigation measures will take off the road.

“I don’t think anyone has focused on what really will work,” said Gary Rappaport, a part-time homeowner on Ute Avenue.

Other members of the community expressed fear that if the club is not allowed redevelopment, its owners would sell to someone who would raze the community institution to build second homes.

Aspenite Steve Marolt, who acknowledged that his reputation of late has been against development, said the city must consider the alternative if the timeshare project isn’t built.

The city “wouldn’t have to give the world” to Fox to make the project work, but Fox could easily sell to another owner who wouldn’t think twice about tearing down the club and replacing it with 5,000-square-foot trophy homes, Marolt said. He termed Fox’s proposal the best alternative.

curtis@aspendailynews.com

by Andrew Kole from Aspen Exposure

February 15, 2008

A number of months back the Aspen Club & Spa had an idea. That idea was to make a series of improvements to the current facility. After much to-do about really nothing, they pulled their plans, regrouped, and have now put together a new and improved project.

On February 19th, Planning & Zoning is going to talk about the new Aspen Club & Spa plan to renovate through updating and expanding the facility, and thus creating an amenity worthy of Aspen, it visitors, and locals.

The problem facing the Aspen Club is twofold. First, to move forward they will need to build, to some degree, a new facility. Given that they are trying to work within the walls already in use as much as possible, the truth is they will still need to expand to some extent. The second hurdle, and it’s a big one, is the current city council seems to be on a NO vote track when it comes to construction impact on the citizens, which to some degree they should be. The question is “to what degree?” To put the Aspen Club in the same box as Cooper Street, or the Weinerstube is unfair.

The reason this project should go forward is also twofold. First, it is not in the middle of town, therefore the impact on the town, visitors, and locals will only be felt by those who use the facility - which seems fair to me. The second reason a YES is in order - we are losing amenities faster then presidential candidates dropped out of the 2008 race.

The Aspen Club is an amenity the community can’t afford to lose to another housing project. I am not suggesting council will not embrace the new proposal. What I am saying is that based on current actions, the Aspen Club could be doomed to a lack of understanding in respect to what it brings to the community. Not being able to relate to the business should not be the reason to vote against it.

I would suggest city council do some old fashion homework, visit the club, talk to the members and visitors, and check in with the local non-profits. The Aspen Club has been one of the best citizens in respect to supporting local charities over the years. If council does that, I think it will be difficult to vote NO – which it should be. While being a good citizen might not be a reason to vote YES - it should at the very least be considered.

Finally this thought. If character counts - the Aspen Club has plenty of it.

The Aspen Club is proposing to establish a healthy living community that will be an internationally renowned model for sustainable, healthy living development. This is a program that pays tribute to the longstanding “Aspen Idea,” as a place where people can develop in mind, body and spirit, as well as matching with and promoting Aspen’s Canary Initiative, the Aspen Area Community Plan and the Civic Master Plan. For over thirty years, the Aspen Club and Spa has been recognized as the best health facility in Aspen. Today the Club has more than 1900 members, over 200 employees, and thousands of monthly physical therapy, sports performance, spa, and salon clients. With the development of the project described below, the Aspen Club will become a model for healthy living communities around with world as well as remaining a viable business that continues to serve the needs of Aspen locals. Click here to learn more about Aspen Club Living