'An entrepreneurial dream': Former 1930s Colorado ski resort lists for $7 million

“What is this treasure of a mountain going to become?”

That’s the question everyone's asking concerning the 374-acre property in Colorado that operated as a ski resort from the 1930s to the 1980s. 

Formerly called St. Mary’s Glacier Ski Resort, the property was listed for sale on Sept. 19 and currently has an asking price of $7 million.

Part of Clear Creek County, the property is about 45 miles northwest of Denver and borders the Arapaho National Forest.

The listing also includes a parking lot poised to bring its buyer lots of revenue, said Kristin Michas, broker associate from LIV Sotheby’s International Realty.

She is handling the listing along with broker associates Josh Jackson and Les Pfenning. 

When asked about its size, Michas said it’s not as big as Vail Ski Resort about 75 miles away but has a lot to offer.

“It's a very iconic site,” she said. “It's beautiful. It's amazing and surrounded by forest. It's 374 acres but it goes on forever and ever after that (due to the) forests surrounding it.”

The associates are getting 6 to 12 requests per week regarding the former ski resort, including inquiries from large and small developers, entrepreneurs, hospitality companies and private equity firms.

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Previous owners ran ski resort on property for decades

A couple that owned the property previously used it to run an affordable and accessible ski resort. It lasted until the 1980s, Michas shared. 

“They sat down and just didn't have the revenue to support the operation so our clients purchased the property sometime after that with the vision of reopening a snowboarding resort or practice ski mountain kind of thing,” Michas said.

The new owners weren’t able to successfully do so and now, they want to sell it.

“It seems like it would be a great opportunity for somebody else,” Michas shared.

Jackson, another broker associate handling the sale, said the property is a former ski resort, yes, but the possibilities are endless.

Jackson said the former resort is in Clear Creek County, an area where people have spent the last decade trying to make the county “not just a flyover state.’”

“The county itself is trying to carve out its own identity as a bonafide adventure tourism location,” he shared.

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Realtors say they are selling ‘acres of pristine mountaintop’

Jackson, who is working with Michas to sell the property, said the team isn’t selling a ski resort. There’s so much more to it and what it could be.

“We’re selling … acres of pristine mountaintop at between 10,000 feet and about almost 12,000 feet that could be a ski resort,” he said. “It could be an adventure hospitality type of business. It could be a residential development. It could be a whole bunch of different things.”

He called it a unique business opportunity for whoever buys it, adding that the property allows people to access hundreds of miles of trails, glaciated lakes, mountain peaks and untouched wilderness.

And whoever buys the property will be bound to make some money due to the attached parking lot and the property’s location. St. Mary’s Glacier has snow on it year-round and is one of the most popular hikes in Colorado, he shared.

“It has a very intense following,” Jackson told USA TODAY. “We're talking to hundreds, if not in some weeks, thousands of people come up every week to park in the parking lot that we've included in our offering.”

Michas said the property is an “entrepreneurial dream” and it’ll be fun to see what the buyers do with it.

“It just has a lot of history and I think it's fun, seeing the interest that people have,” she said. “It's kind of fun to see these dreamers and people really trying to paint a picture of, in their minds, what it will be.”