For the week of  October 24 - 30, 2001

Thunder Spring 
nears completion

Developer shares his thoughts 
about the massive project

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

As developer Rich Robbins scuttles about the massive Thunder Spring project on the north side of Ketchum, he talks a lot about the "spiritual" nature of the property he’s building on.

Scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2002, Thunder Spring will boast about 70 high-end condominiums and many amenities. Express photo by Willy Cook

"This is a very special piece of land," he says. "You do this once in a lifetime. If you just stand here and float a little bit, your 360 (view) is better than any mountain town anywhere."

Scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2002, Thunder Spring will boast about 70 high-end condominiums, indoor clay tennis courts, a massive fitness center, ponds, a waterfall, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, Nordic skiing, restaurants, retail stores, office space and employee housing, to name a few. All of its accommodations and amenities will be housed in 11 separate buildings.

Since its groundbreaking four years ago, the resort has been the largest commercial contraction project in Idaho. However, the final product won’t be a resort, but a community with resort amenities, Robbins points out.

The project includes about 300,000 square feet of new buildings on seven acres. Most condominiums will boast panoramic views of Bald Mountain, Warm Springs Canyon, Griffin Butte and the Boulder Mountains.

Construction continues on the Thunder Spring project, which will span 11 separate buildings. Express photo by Willy Cook

Robbins says 34 of the project’s units are sold, with 14 of those sales closed. Prices range from $400,000 to $3.5 million for units measuring between 1,100 and 5,000 square feet.

Robbins, 52, has been a developer for 25 years, and he’s lived in the Wood River Valley part-time for 15 years. He began his career as a developer by rehabilitating old buildings in the Bay Area.

"I have a strong, spiritual view about making things successful and beautiful," he says. "But beauty and cost is always a juggle."

Originally a Holiday Inn from the mid-1970s through the early-1980s, an old hotel on the property was renamed "The Alpenrose" by the owner, who was unable to complete redevelopment before the property was taken over by the Idaho Bankruptcy Courts. Robbins purchased the property in 1996 through the courts and initiated the entitlement process in September, 1996. The Alpenrose has since been torn down.

Robbins and his team of architects, lawyers and construction managers participated in more than 45 public hearings at Ketchum City Hall to "ensure that the development responded fully to city and community issues and ordinances, as well as addressing all environmental concerns," according to a Thunder Spring advertisement.

Even so, valley residents were skeptical about the project’s size and potential impacts.

"It’s a small town and a big project," Robbins says. "We don’t fit under any ordinance. You add all that up, and you have distrust. It makes sense that people were distrustful of us in the beginning."

But he said he thinks the community’s distrust is beginning to wane, and his vision for the site is finally coming together.

"My vision, you’re seeing. I’m not trying to play it down. It’s a huge project and a huge undertaking. This one has been an evolution."

Thunder Spring is taller than Ketchum’s ordinances allow, but through the city’s planned unit development ordinance, in which the city can offer lenience to its ordinances in exchange for community benefits, the resort’s buildings were permitted to be higher than the city’s 35-foot height limit.

In exchange for the added height and narrower-than-code-allows access roads, the city will get not-for-profit office space, employee housing and recreation benefits. Thunder Spring is also providing community swimming times and has set aside time for the valley’s 5-B Swim Team to practice.

"That stuff is cool," Robbins said, "because that’s the energy you need on a site like this."

Architecturally, Robbins said he’s pleased with the way the buildings are "interconnected on an outside and an inside basis."

The buildings boast plenty of log and stone, which are common staples of mountain town architecture.

"It’s a successful theme that’s been popular in the past decade," said Ketchum Councilman Peter Ripsom, who reviewed Thunder Spring as chairman of the city’s planning and zoning commission.

Also, Thunder Spring has built a new 6,300-square-foot clubhouse for the Big Wood Golf Course. The clubhouse will be converted to a Nordic skiing center, including an after-school program for children, in the winter.

The golf course will be converted to Thunder Spring’s control when a 200-year ground lease commences with the retirement of the golf course’s current owner, David Selgren.

Ripsom agreed that the project appears to be a success.

"I think they did a good job concealing the scale of the project," he said. "What it took place of was a horrible eye sore. It’s a miraculous recovery of a blight on the Ketchum landscape.

"I’m pleased with the way it’s progressed, and that (Robbins has) done what he said he was going to do. I think the city is fortunate to have a project of this quality."

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.