For the week of January 7 - 13, 2004

Plans submitted
for former
Elkhorn Hotel site

Developer proposes 140 residential units

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

The owners of the defunct Elkhorn Resort have submitted a formal proposal to develop 140 residential units and several public amenities on the high-profile commercial property in Elkhorn Village.

Development partnership CG-Elkhorn—the owners of the property since December 2001—has applied to the city of Sun Valley for approval to build 128 market-rate condominiums, 12 community-housing units, two commercial buildings and a sales office on the approximately 11-acre site.

Sun Valley Community Development Director Jack Cloud is reviewing the plans, which were submitted in November 2003 and updated last month. Cloud said the application might be reviewed by the Sun Valley Planning and Zoning Commission at the panel’s Feb. 10 meeting, if the application is deemed this week to include all of the required elements.

CG-Elkhorn—a company that includes Connecticut- and Chicago-based investment group Greenfield Partners and Ketchum-based partner David Hennessy—has asked the city to review a master plan for the development that would allow construction to proceed over an approximately four-year period.

Hennessy, the project manager, said Monday that CG-Elkhorn is planning to commence the first phase of project construction later this year. Three ensuing phases would proceed through the warm-weather building seasons of 2005, 2006 and 2007, he said.

CG-Elkhorn has named the project Elkhorn Springs.

If approved and completed, the development would complete the planned transformation of the one-time resort and hotel property into an upscale residential complex interspersed with recreational and commercial facilities.

In its entirety, the project calls for:

• 10 duplex buildings on the southwest side of the property, in an area that has historically been used as a parking lot.
  
   
• Six condominium buildings in the center of the property, in areas that were once the site of the 132-unit Elkhorn Hotel. The hotel and a pair of associated buildings were razed last year.
  
   
• Two commercial buildings on the east side of the property, one of which would be leased for a restaurant business and another that would be operated as a general store with an internal post office.
  
   
• A sales and administrative office on the north side of the site, adjacent to Village Way.
  
   
• A natural amphitheater in the center of the project, which could be used for small music or drama performances.
  
   
• A new, approximately 14,000-square-foot clubhouse for the Elkhorn Golf Club, which is also owned by the CG-Elkhorn group.
  
   
• Underground parking for all of the residential units, plus some surface parking for homeowner guests and patrons of the commercial facilities.
  
   
• A spring-fed, landscaped stream that would run through the center of the property and descend into a pond on the east side. The pond would be a public ice-skating venue in the winter.

Hennessy said the 128 market-rate units—which would amount to approximately 285,000 square feet of development—would range from 1,100 square feet to 2,800 square feet. The 12 community-housing units—which would be dispersed throughout the property—would range from 800 square feet to 1,200 square feet.

Hennessy said three of the central condominium buildings would include four levels and would be approximately 60 feet tall. "We tried to keep the tall buildings where they were before, in the center of the site," he said.

Hennessy noted that the proposed first phase of the project would likely include the new golf clubhouse, at least one of the two commercial buildings and several residential buildings.

Because the city of Sun Valley does not have a procedure to formally approve a master plan, CG-Elkhorn has asked the city to approve a conditional-use permit for the golf clubhouse as the first aspect of the larger plan, Hennessy noted.

The plans submitted by CG-Elkhorn are the first for a site that is governed by a new ordinance adopted by Sun Valley last year to regulate development on land in the Commercial Center zoning district. The new ordinance requires that CC-zoned land in Elkhorn Village and Sun Valley Village include set percentages of community housing and commercial space.

A previous master plan—which was submitted by CG-Elkhorn to the city in 2002 and then rescinded—called for reconfiguring the entire village core and developing 104 residential units.

 

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