Business & Tech
Local Lawsuit Makes Waves in Aspen
A Mill Valley couple's suit against a developer is generating debates about an Aspen lodge.
A lawsuit filed by a Mill Valley couple is shaking up the real estate world in Aspen, Colorado and prompting accusations about the potential sale of a controversial lodge.
The lawsuit, filed late last month in Pitkin County District Court, claims that the owners of the Lift One Lodge property, approved two years ago for 84 new hotel rooms at the base of Aspen Mountain, are planning to sell the land “in the next few weeks” for $24 million.
According to the Aspen Daily News, a representative of Roaring Fork Mountain Lodge-Aspen LLC, which owns the Lift One Lodge property located near the base of Lift 1A, denied that a sale was imminent.
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“That is not a factual claim,” said Bob Daniel, a local developer who shepherded the lodge project through a six-year approval process, of the lawsuit’s assertion that a sale would happen in the next few weeks.
The claim about the impending sale came from a lawsuit filed July 25 on behalf of David and Susan Cumming of Mill Valley, who alleged that Jim Chaffin and Jim Light, partners in the Lift One Lodge ownership group, owe them money from a land deal gone bad in North Carolina.
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The lawsuit complaint sought to establish the Cummings’ position to collect on what they say they are owed if and when the lodge property sells. The complaint also alleged that lawyers for the Cummings and Chaffin and Light discussed settling the North Carolina land deal with proceeds from the Lift One Lodge sale. The Cummings withdrew the lawsuit on July 26 for unknown reasons.
Daniel Williams, an attorney representing the Cummings from Faegre Baker Daniels LLP in Boulder, said he had no comment on the complaint.
According to Daniel, the property owners are currently “doing what folks do” at this stage of the process.
“We’re looking at various structures for the re-capitalization of [the lodge] in order to move forward and build it,” Daniel said, meaning the owners are seeking funds, possibly through a partnership with new investors or through debt financing, to complete the project. “We are continuing to talk to people.”
Daniel said Roaring Fork Mountain Lodge’s goal remains to develop the Lift One Lodge, considering the group has spent the better part of a decade working on the project.
