A heads up for buyers and sellers of Keystone CO real estate:  In December 2007, Keystone Resorts, and its owning company Vail Resorts, announced Keystone gondola improvements that are certain to propel Keystone Resort into even greater popularity as a destination ski area.  By the beginning of the 2008-2009 ski and snowboard season, a new state-of-the art, eight-passenger River Run Gondola will replace the current six-passenger gondola.  Its base will move to River Run Village. 

This is important information regarding Keystone property values.  With the new gondola situated in between The Spring and Red Hawk Lodge, this River Run Village real estate in Keystone will become ski-in/ski-out property.  Prices for this prime Keystone real estate will assuredly reflect the changes.  Development and Keystone investments, including two Vail Resorts real estate sites, directly related to the new gondola will follow.  For one-stop Keystone and Breckenridge real estate investing information, contact The Walsh Group at Re/MAX at the Summit in the Expedition Station building at River Run Village.

A key component of the plan includes moving the bottom terminal of the new River Run Gondola into the Hunki Dori area of River Run Village closer to parking for guests and day visitors.  Hoping to enhance the guest experience, the Resort is shortening the walk to the new gondola from the Village or parking, improving access to the mountain, and increasing the capacity of the gondola.

With the top terminal remaining in the same location at the summit of Dercum Mountain, the upgraded River Run Gondola will also follow the route of the existing gondola.  However, halfway up Dercum Mountain, a new mid-station will load and unload in both directions, giving skiers and snowboarders an option to access the upper trails from mid-mountain and to download when they are finished skiing. Heated, level walk-in stations will accommodate wheelchairs, mountain bikes, strollers, sightseers, mountaintop tubing hill guests, and nigh-time dining guests.  The Resort plans to operate the new River Run Gondola winter and summer.

The sleek gondola from Doppelmayr features floor-to-ceiling windows and room to accommodate skis and snowboards inside the cabin.  Using the latest drive technology, the new system will transport about 2,400 people per hour, more than twice the current level and is expected to be 30 to 40 percent more energy efficient than other modern ski chairlifts or gondolas.   In less than 12 minutes, a skier will move 2,307 vertical feet. 

Construction for the gondola will begin April 2008 with a planned opening for the 2008-2009 ski and snowboard season.  During a second phase scheduled for summer 2009, a new skier bridge will replace the current pedestrian bridge, allowing guests to ski directly from the mountain into a newly enhanced skier plaza and skier-services area in the River Run Village.

The plans are Vail Resorts largest on-mountain undertakings in 2008 and represent the company's forward-thinking plans to provide guests with an exceptional experience.  The new River Run Gondola project is the most significant on-mountain project at the Resort since the 1990 opening of the Outback Mountain.


Articles © Copyright 2006 by The Walsh Group