11/30/06
Opening Day
 | By Jack Stout Read more of Jack's posts |
The JH Mountain Resort opens on Saturday and despite a 33″ base as of today and some snow expected Friday, the resort has chosen to only open the Apres Vous and Teewinot lifts, which in my opinion is complete bunk. I was alt Alta on Friday 11/24 and despite a 27″ base, they had they had every lift running. I've been skiing here for 16 years and I know it takes a lot of snow to cover the mountain, but I also know there are some runs off of both the Thunder and Sublette lifts that coule be open. It’s a money saving measure and that would be fine if the JHMR were just in the Ski area business. However, they are also in the lodging business and are actively marketing early season business. If I were a paying for a condominium here and found out the same company that rented me the condo was also limiting the available skiable terrain for cost saving reasons, I'd be pretty pissed off.
Speaking of the JHMR, they are now telling people that the cafeteria portion of the new Bridger Restaurant will “hopefully” be open by Christmas, but the fine dining portion will not be ready until at least Valentines Day.
The early returns on the “new” Mizu Sushi restaurant on the Village road are excellent. Not especially cheap, but very good food. Besides, when the words words “cheap” and “sushi” are used next to each other, you probably want to stay away.
Real Estate:
The Teton Club has been a less than successful fractional ownership project that is now four years old. They have gone through a bankruptcy/restructuring once and are propbably looking at another soon. This fall they held a “Liquidation Auction” but I'm not sure it was a complate success. There are currently 41 listings in the MLS for ownership packages ranging from a 2br/2ba for one floating ski week and one off season week for $50,000 to a 3br/3ba Christmas week plus 2 ski weeks for $350,000. I'm not sure what sort of Buyer this appeals to b/c historically these thing rarely appreciate in value. The one thing you must have if you want to purchase here is a lot more money than you do time. The positive’s are it’s a fantastic ski in/ski out location and you get free lift tickets and golf at Teton Pines in the summer. The downside is the dues start at about $1200 per week that you use it. I think they will try and switch some of these to full ownership condominiums pretty soon. That’s what the Four Seasons did when their fractional sales went flat. Either that or be staring at Chapter 11 again. The bottom line is, if you're interested in this project, make them an offer. A very low one.
Speaking of the Four Seasons, it was just rated the best “skiing lodging” IN THE COUNTRY by the readers on Conde Nast. Better than anything at Vail, Beaver Creek, Aspen, Sun Valley, etc. pretty impressive.
The least expensive condominium in the Aspens is $525,000. 2br/2ba 1100 sq. ft.
There are no Granite Ridge Homestead/Cabin/Lodge units actively listed for sale right now. That should change as we get closer to Christmas.
The only thing for sale in Wilson is a 1100 sq. ft. cabin (I use that word very loosely) on .10 acres for $545,000. It is a beautiful spot on Fish Creek road though.
That’s it for now. I'm out
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