Venerable Vail condo complex set for re-do

Scott Miller
December 25, 2004

VAIL - Vail's continuing facelift will continue next year at one of the town's first condominium complexes.

Manor Vail, near Golden Peak, will start an extensive renovation as early as next spring. Upgrades will include a new facade for the six-building complex, installing a fire sprinkler system in every condo, and replacing all the wood-burning fireplaces with gas-powered units.

The plan also includes underground parking to replace the existing parking lots, which will be turned into landscaped parks.

The plan also includes a new top floor over all or part of five of the six buildings in the complex, which will create 16 new, large condominiums. The building closest to Golden Peak will get a facelift, but no new top floor, project architect Brian Sipes said.

Sales of the condos and the extra parking spaces created in the underground structures will fund a big part of the improvements to the rest of the complex.

While the project has been working its way through Vail's approval process for several months, it actually started a couple of years ago.

"We started assessing the needs and wants of the owners a couple of years ago," said Bob McCleary, manager of the Manor Vail homeowners association. The homeowners then formed a task force to find a way to pay for improvements.

The task force recommended adding the new penthouse condos, and the plan passed muster with the homeowners, gaining "significantly more" than the required two-thirds vote required for approval, McCleary said.

East West Partners was then brought in as the developer of the project.

Units at Manor Vail don't sell very often - McCleary said only 15 or 16 of the 123 condos at Manor Vail have changed hands in the past few years. Those that do command premium prices, even though the complex was built in the 1960s.

The condos will probably be worth even more once the facelift is done, said one Vail real estate broker.

"People don't mind paying fair market prices if the product meets today's standards," said Alida Zwaan, who listed a Manor Vail unit this year.

And, Zwaan said, the new condos will probably sell quickly.

"There's a real pent-up demand for new product," Zwaan said. "We don't have a lot now."



Staff Writer Scott N. Miller can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 613, or smiller@vaildaily.com.