Mike Dudick, chief executive officer of Breckenridge Grand Vacations, led a presentation to the Breckenridge Town Council on Tuesday regarding options for redevelopment of the North Gondola and Gold Rush lots and land.
The redevelopment of these parcels — which Breckenridge Grand Vacations is under contract to purchase from Vail Resorts — would be part of a reconfiguration of the Breckenridge Station transit area on Watson Avenue that is a hub for recreationists in the downtown area using the BreckConnect Gondola to get to Breckenridge Ski Resort. The company’s plans would be part of a greater redevelopment of land at the gondola’s base.
On Tuesday, Dudick presented to council multiple ideas for the redevelopment.
The difference between the options, he said, is the direction of bus traffic, number of lanes of bus traffic and ingress and egress from proposed roundabouts. Breckenridge Grand Vacations and the town would need to come to an agreement specific to the company’s redevelopment plans for the North Gondola Lot and Gold Rush land.
“I’m here to work together with the town to figure out what’s best for the community,” Dudick said. “… Option 1 is going to have the multidirection movement of the buses. Option 2 is going to have the two (bus) islands with one direction of movement of buses. Option 3 is going to have one movement of buses and one lane of bus traffic.”
In all the options, the existing Breckenridge Station building would be removed and replaced by smaller structures that would provide a covered waiting area without the large indoor spaces that town engineer Shannon Smith and Public Works Director James Phelps wrote “are currently problematic.” Smith and Phelps added that restrooms and skier services displaced by the plan would “be fulfilled elsewhere in the development.”
Whatever option the board selects, Dudick said the company intends to build multiple pedestrian bridges, one from the Gold Rush parcel over Park Avenue to the North Gondola Lot parcel and two over the Blue River Recreation Path to the Main Street area. The developments also would include workforce housing, a public park in the parcel of wetlands south of the Gold Rush Lot and mixed-use buildings on the North Gondola site.
“There is a pretty strong assumption that (Dudick) will end up owning this land, but nobody in this town knows what is going to happen in November of this year right now,” Breckenridge Mayor Mamula said. “So to make any decisions on anything based on what little we know about the economy of our community into this winter, I got to tell you, I think is a little premature.”
