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Newsletters
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Title: |
Luxury hotel operator coming to MV |
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Author: |
Matthew Beaudin |
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Date: |
09/27/2006 |
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Published: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 in the Telluride Daily Planet
Mountain Village’s latest condo/resort project has a name to hang its hat on. Just two nights ago in Mountain Village, developers revealed that Rosewood Hotels and Resorts — widely regarded as one of the world’s premier resort operators — will manage the Lot 126 project.
“We want to understand Telluride. We want to get it right,” said John Scott, chief executive officer and president of Rosewood. “This is an art, not a science.”
Some other Rosewood properties include the Carlyle in New York, the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, the Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe and Las Ventanas in Los Cabos, Mexico. Rosewood also operates resorts in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia. Rosewood’s business model thrives on smaller, ultra-luxury hotels.
The Rosewood project will sandwich County Club Drive, hugging the ridgeline, and will bring 75 hotel rooms and 56 condos to Mountain Village.
The land for the project, a majority of which sold last year for $25 million, is a patchwork of lots that add up to some 5 developable acres in total, just outside the Village Core.
The project will be located on the two vacant strips of Country Club Drive near the intersection of the Boomerang and Jurassic trails.
The development will also provide five large employee housing units and 18 employee dorm units. The planning process went smoothly; the project’s conceptual to sketch review phases — which it enters in the near future — saw little variations.
The property in Mountain Village marks the company’s second endeavor into the mountain luxury market; Rosewood had previously operated a hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Scott said he isn’t worried about the intricacies of the market — like the sharp off-seasons — and that the resort will “have to build a reputation.”
“It’s kind of a niche destination,” he said of the Telluride and Mountain Village region.
Scott also said the property will offer a true luxury outlet for the discerning traveler — something he feels that the region is missing and needs.
“They’ve been to Aspen, they’ve been to Vail,” he said of mountain travelers. “Telluride is still authentic — that’s what I like about it … And our guests want luxury. Today, I don’t think they have that option.”
Mountain Village Town Council Member Rube Felicelli attended the announcement party in the village, and said the addition is a welcome change.
“I think it’s very exciting news,” he said. “It’s exciting when you have an organization like Rosewood ... pick Telluride as their first mountain resort community. It shows a lot of confidence in Telluride.”
“They are not a cookie-cutter kind of hotel [and] we’re not like everybody else.”
Felicelli added that the announcement was a boost to Mountain Village in that it could encourage other developers.
“It’s going to spur confidence with other developers and other operators,” he said.
Developers hope to break ground sometime next spring. |
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