11-26-2009

The Steamboat Springs real estate market received a qualified boost Monday when the first 13 condominium sales closed at One Steamboat Place for a combined $15.25 million.

This week’s closings included 10 residence club sales totaling $4.45 million and three whole-ownership sales that combined for $10.8 million. The most expensive was a penthouse condominium that sold for $4.2 million, according to records at the Routt County Assessor’s Office.

Keith Marlow, Timbers Resorts director of sales, said it would be several weeks before the next round of sales are closed but declined to discuss the details of this week’s transactions.

“We’re very, very proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Marlow said. “When the first sale closed last week, (Timbers CEO) David Burden happened to be in town, and we drank a champagne toast in the gentleman’s unit. But we still have a lot of work to do, and we don’t want to pound our chest or report daily numbers. It’s going to take all winter to close all of these units as we work on an individual basis with the buyers.”

Project Director Chris Burden told the Steamboat Pilot & Today on Nov. 12 that his company expected to close 100 transactions within 30 days. Marlow said Wednesday that some buyers, who have been waiting for two years to close on the new condominiums, have asked for additional days to work on the details of their financing.

The news at One Steamboat Place, where the new public plaza opened Wednesday, comes near the end of a difficult year in which the third-quarter dollar volume of $227 million was just 38 percent of the $597 million recorded through the third quarter of 2008. In comparison to One Steamboat Place’s $15.25 million in closings during the first three days of the week, the entire Steamboat market saw $27.24 million in sales during the month of September this year.

If there is an asterisk next to last week’s closings at One Steamboat Place, it’s that virtually all of the whole ownership sales and the bulk of the residence club sales represent contracts were signed as of August 2007. So, they don’t represent new business.

However, Realtor Pam Vanatta, co-owner of Pruden­tial Steamboat Realty, said although this month’s closings at One Steamboat Place represent contracts written in another year, she thinks they will reflect positively on the current Steamboat market as it turns the calendar page to 2010.

Vanatta, who has clients buying at One Steamboat Place, said the sales reflect a “will to close” on the part of those buyers, which is reminiscent of the market before the noteworthy increases in the valuation of properties between 2005 and 2007 and the speculative investment that resulted.

“Historically, the Steamboat market was never just an investment,” Vanatta said. “People have always purchased property here because they wanted to be here. We’re going back to a time when people bought because they wanted to enjoy Steamboat.”

The residence club sales all ranged from $415,000 to $495,000. All 10 of them were for four-bedroom, four-bath condominiums. A round of three-bedroom residence club sales is expected to begin closing soon.

One Steamboat Place initially offered 80 condominiums including 38 whole-ownership vacation homes priced from $2.5 million to $4.7 million, plus 42 residence club condos being marketed as one-eighth shares. The first residence club shares represented 336 fractions. The initial club offerings ranged in price from $625,000 to $735,000.

In early 2008, the developers reported that they had sale agreements for 148 eight-shares in the $600,000 price range.

Later, one-twelfth ownership opportunities were introduced at $370,000 with the intent of incremental steps in price as units went under contract.

One Steamboat Place principal David Burden said the eight-shares represent Timbers’ bread and butter at its resort developments, and the 12-shares are brought on line when the market indicates a demand for a more diversified product. Burden described the development as a $200 million construction project.

Towers and cables spanning Mount Werner Circle for the new gondola linking Resort Ventures West-developed Trail­­head Lodge with One Steam­boat Place were in place this week and await cabins and testing before the anticipated February opening.

Chris Burden told the Pilot & Today this month that One Steamboat Place will open to guests Jan. 9. Timbers Resorts projects 80 percent occupancy during ski season.