BY ANDY BRUNER
Summit Daily News
Summit County, CO
November 2, 2007

KEYSTONE — At Tuesday night's meeting of the Keystone Citizens League, officials from Vail Resorts Development Company discussed a plan in the works to update the retail and service space at Keystone Resort's Mountain House base area, while adding residential units to the mix.

Alex Iskenderian, vice president of development for VRDC, told Keystone residents that the project plan is meant to update Mountain House largely within the guidelines of the base's current master plan. "We're staying within the parameters of the existing rules. We're just shifting some things around," he said.

"The facilities there at the base could obviously use some upgrades," Iskenderian said. "Some of them date back to the 70s and 80s."

While giving the current skier services offered at Mountain House a facelift, the resort will add about 500 residential units to the base area, including condos in upper levels above the ground-floor retail.

Brad Schaeppi, senior project manager for VRDC, said the plan is to change Mountain House's image as an entry to the resort. "We're working through, what is an identity that we can have here at the Mountain House that everyone in Keystone can be proud of?" Schaeppi said. "We've decided that a more pededstrian-friendly village is what the entry point wants and needs to be."

Iskenderian said the redeveloped Mountain House is intended to serve a different need than Keystone's River Run base, which resort officials see as the main day skier attraction. "River Run will continue to be the retail and restaurant and shopping space," he said. "This is going to be much more of a residential-feeling space."

Schaeppi and Iskenderian explained that while the plan for Mountain House is being developed now, construction most likely won't start for more than a year and will take several years to complete. "This could be without question a 10- to 15-year project," Schaeppi said.

"This is our plan: set the vision, set the overall picture, and then as the years go on we'll move forward with individual projects," Iskenderian said.

Both officials said the start date for the redevelopment depends on two factors: continued growth in area real estate prices, which Iskenderian characterized as "starting to inch upward," and how fast the project proposal gains approval from the county government. Iskenderian named May 2009 as the hoped-for start for construction, though he noted that date is "somewhat aggressive."

Other improvements at Keystone announced earlier this year, including replacing the River Run gondola and building a new restaurant, are part of a separate project with its own plans and schedule, Iskenderian said. The mountain improvements must gain Forest Service approval, while the Mountain House development must go through the County.

Still, Iskenderian said, the two projects are designed to be compatible, and resort officials hope they will work together to benefit Keystone, as the mountain improvements would likely drive up prices for the new Mountain House residential units.

The residents at the Keystone Citizens League meeting expressed support for the project. "I think it's fantastic," resident Mike Clem said of the plan.

KCL president Amir Pambechy also thanked Vail Resorts for its open communication with Keystone residents regarding their plans, saying it marked a change in relations between residents and the resort.

County senior planner Kristin Dean said Vail Resorts officials will discuss their plans with the Snake River Planning Commission at a Nov. 15 work session, which is open to the public.