New Projects
Ginn “Icon” Building near Vail Colorado could become sky high
By

Bobby Ginn one of the most successful resort developers in the county may end up with the tallest building in Eagle County. Colorado.  The Ginn Development Company bought an  old mining operation that is just next door to Vail, Colorado. The master plan is to make a private ski resort that will offer an alternative to Vail and create the first private ski area in Colorado. Ginn is proposing to build 500 homes, 1200 condominiums, a private golf course and a private ski resort near the small mining town of Minturn Colorado. Minturn is about 10 minutes west of Vail Colorado.  In April of this year, the Town Council will vote on annexing Ginn’s property into Minturn.

One proposal is to create a resort with a building which could be as high as 195 feet tall.  This would be 60 feet higher than the tallest building in all of Eagle County, Colorado.  That would make the tallest buildings in Vail, Colorado, which had to go through lengthy design review. Originally Ginn said the tallest he would go would be 150 feet.  The building which would be near Bolts Lake would get its architectural inspiration from the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta Canada. Beaver Creek and Bachelor Gulch the other two well known ski resorts in the Vail Valley modeled their buildings after European architecture and the great lodges found in various parks.

 It would house no more than 702 condominiums, ranging from studios to four bedrooms, offices, restaurants, retail shops and a gondola which would take you to the private ski resort.  13 buildings have been proposed to be built near Bolts Lake; this would be the tallest and is currently being called “The Icon”.

The reason the building needs to be so high, according to the Ginn Development Co, is to reduce the impact on the environment by conserving land.  Better to build up than out.  Also, given the 10,484 foot Battle Mountain surrounding the building, they feel that in comparison, it would not appear large. To ease some of the concerns of what the building would look like from the nearby U.S. Highway 24, Ginn has done laser imaging and digital mapping to show where the building could be seen from.  The building would be seen on a 1.5 mile portion of the Highway, but could not be seen from the town of Minturn or the nearby town of Red Cliff.

Some locals are comparing the proposed “Icon” to the 135 foot Westin project being built in nearby Avon Colorado, a small town at the entrance to the famous Beaver Creek Ski Resort.  This seems not a fair comparison, given that the town of Avon already had some large structures which have developed slowly over the last 30 years whereas the “Icon” is going from virtually no buildings to the tallest in the county.

Ginn appears to want this project to be a win for the environment.  He has given two Town Councilors control over the design of the buildings, something that is very unusual for a developer to do.  Also, Ginn wants to dig up arsenic, cadmium and lead in the Battle Mountain and Bolts Lake area, a result of the towns mining past, and move it under the golf course and across the Eagle River.  He is also assuring the town that the buildings will be built to LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).  Many feel that this will be an excellent use of land which is currently unusable.