CRESTED BUTTE CONTRIBUTES TO OPEN SPACE FUND
Mt. Crested Butte, Colo. (press release) - On the heels of the largest single lot sales transaction in Gunnison County history, Crested Butte Mountain Resort made good on their pledge to donate 4% of Prospect's gross land sales towards open space preservation.
Two checks were presented today - one to the Crested Butte Land Trust for $191,641.62 and the other to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) for $63,880.54 equaling $255,522.16.
"I feel good about donating this money today towards open space," said Edward Callaway, CBMR's chairman of the board and the resort official who headed up the unprecedented three-way land trade. "After years of working on the land swap which enabled us to acquire "Prospect", I knew in my heart that to protect our niche, we had to keep open spaces open. I knew the trade would eventually provide significant income flow to the Land Trust and RMBL. We have one of the last unspoiled alpine valleys in the country. CBMR has always been the industry leader in open space preservation."
Because Crested Butte has grown more slowly than its crowded interstate highway-side competition, it has learned from their mistakes. One of those lessons has been the value and vulnerability of open spaces buffering the area's development. "Partly because of the Land Trust, people are more optimistic about what can be done to keep this valley from becoming like other Colorado ski areas," said Jim Starr, Land Trust secretary and Gunnison County Commissioner.
Fourteen lots closed last week at Crested Butte Mountain Resort's (CBMR) ski- in, ski-out, Prospect development. Total sales equaled almost seven million dollars. Prospect at Mt. Crested Butte has only 38 single-family homesites in its first phase offering with prices ranging from $245,000 to $695,000 and an average parcel size of just over one acre.