Steamboat Springs, CO Real Estate and Community Blog

Ski Time Square/Thunderhead

Click here for the Ski Time Square and Thunderhead Lodge Demolition Update (April 2008)

(See 3/26/08 update at the end)

If you want one more drink at the Tug Boat Grill and Pub’s hand-carved cherrywood bar, you better schedule a ski trip to Steamboat Springs, CO soon.

The brown buildings housing Fuzziwigs, Dos Amigos, Lupos, Mother’s Deli, Jade Summit and the gray Thunderhead Lodge–are being demolished. And as fast as they can get the tower cranes in place, The Atira Group and Cafritz will construct 500,000 sq ft. of residential and commercial space.

The final project will include:

• Residential condominiums
• Fractional ownership
• A branded hotel like the Ritz or Four Seasons
• Conference Space
• Retail space and restaurants, and probably a night club
• A pedestrian promenade along Burgess Creek
• Much-needed Parking

The current plan shows seven buildings up to ten stories high. The access road may go behind the new village instead of through Ski Time Square, and the current road will become the main pedestrian walkway through the new village.

Ski Time Square Update (March 26, 2008): I was talking to the surveyors yesterday in front of the Century 21 real estate office. They were painting the lines where the new roads will go if/when they are approved by the city. (The lines go right through The Butcher Shop). Most businesses are winding down and a few, like Mothers Deli (”closed until further notice”) and Dos Amigos, have already shut their doors for good. Steamboat Trading Company is having a big “Going Out Of Business” sale. The whole environment in Ski Time Square is kind of sad. The old buildings, the shuttered doors, the end of business signs–it’s pretty depressing.

In two more weeks, those dumpy old Ski Time Square buildings will be coming down (some, like Levelz, already started coming down a year ago when enough dancers jumped at the same time and split a support beam making the whole third floor unsafe). How they are going to remove Thunderhead Lodge and an entire block of retail space through Ski Time Square Drive is an engineering project unto itself. The road is barely two lanes wide. Where will the dump trucks, industrial-sized dumpsters and wrecking balls go?

My office (Century 21) is the first building at the end of the construction zone. I’m mentally preparing myself for internet outages, power interruptions, and water shut-offs. It happened last summer when they put a round-about in beside Torian Plum, so I imagine removing hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of construction debris and re-routing a road will be worse.

Steamboat Springs is going to be an amazing ski town when all the dust settles. We’ll have a couple years where restaurant and lodging capacity will tighten up and you’ll need to eat downtown (or make reservations at La Montanya, Cave Diva, or The Cabin way in advance) or wait in a longer line at Slopeside, but the end result will be worth it.

Comments