Grand County’s languid real estate recovery gets spur from developers

February 28, 2016
Jason Blevins, The Denver Post

Several new construction projects underway in Winter Park promise to bounce Grand County back from the recession

WINTER PARK — In the last couple of years, real estate sales in Colorado’s resort communities have enjoyed healthy rebounds from the recession, climbing close to the heyday peaks hit in 2006 and 2007. Grand County’s Granbv, Winter Park and Fraser, however, have lagged in that celebrated recovery.

Want to buffalo a broker or daze a developer in the Fraser Valley? Ask them why that is.

“That’s been an enigma a little bit,” said Walter “Buz” Koelbel Jr., whose 17-year-old, 1,100-acre mixed-use Rendezvous project wraps around both Winter Park and Fraser. “I’m a little surprised it has taken as long as it has when you look at our proximity to Denver.”

It’s a well-named place, Grand County. With a growing network of trails, relatively affordable homes, a river, lakes and Rocky Mountain National Park nearby, as well as one of the state’s most trafficked ski areas, the valley offers just about everything Colorado has to offer within 90 minutes of downtown Denver.

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