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Downtown Pagosa Gets Cheaper, Part One |
Bill Hudson | 7/7/09
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I was sitting at the coffee shop on Sunday, talking with a local real estate investor about this and that — impact fees, over-sized reservoirs, failing businesses — the usual stuff.
“So did you hear?” he asked me. “David Brown has dropped the price on the Alley House? I think it’s down to $585,000. That’s a really good deal for somebody.” Continued...
The Alley House in downtown Pagosa: bargain priced? |
The historic Alley House is currently the home of the Alley House Grille — one of Pagosa’s few upscale restaurants, and one of the very few dining establishments with an impressive “4.5” rating on the popular TripAdvisor.com website. The restaurant is operated by Todd and Kellie Stevens, who also run the more-affordable Farrago Market Café — just a few doors down the street from the Alley House — and the recently-opened Diggs Restaurant in Three Springs, the new “live and work” community growing up around the new Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango.
The Alley House sits in the heart of the “East Village” — a three-block stretch of downtown Pagosa that was exclusively residential homes 25 years ago but which has slowly seen those older homes converted into commercial uses.
Developer David Brown — a multi-millionaire who made his fortune converting San Jose, California fruit orchards into the fabled Silicon Valley — began moving his family to the Pagosa Springs area about ten years ago after purchasing one of the most scenic ranches in Mineral County, and then investing million of dollars building the elegant BootJack Ranch.
Starting in 2005, Brown began buying up much of downtown Pagosa — paying top dollar for properties that weren’t even actively on the real estate market. His publicly stated purpose was to help “revitalize” the ever-tentative Pagosa Springs economy.
 We ought to just mention that Pagosa began its life in the late 1880s as a lumber town and as sheep- and cattle-ranching community. Unlike some Colorado towns like nearby Durango and Silverton — towns that grew up around high-dollar mining operations — Pagosa Springs has always had a modest economy, and that modest economy has always been reflected in a modest-looking town with modest-looking buildings.
Oh, what the heck, let’s just go ahead and say it: the downtown area never has looked terribly attractive, architecturally speaking.
Brown apparently had dreams of changing that modest appearance, and his development company, BootJack Management, began tearing down some of the less attractive buildings he had purchased — with apparent plans to build Pagosa into something of a “theme park” based on a “National Park” motif: lots of log and stone buildings that would reflect the architecture used in various National Parks beginning in the 1930s.
The architectural style would also seemingly match the style of the Brown’s personal home at Bootjack Ranch.
By paying top dollar for the downtown properties, some observers say, Brown raised the property values in the downtown corridor, and other real estate investors jumped aboard the band wagon and bought downtown property based on the “revitalized” future Brown was envisioning for Pagosa Springs.
But for various reasons — including David’s valiant struggles with cancer, some confusing and erratic Town regulations, and a downtown population not entirely happy with seeing their historic little town being remodeled according to some millionaire’s vision — Brown’s development ideas never got off the ground.
Acres of empty lots and empty commercial spaces still sit waiting throughout the downtown area.
Now Brown and his family have moved to Scottsdale, AZ and have put much of their downtown commercial property back on the real estate market. The prices on those properties dropped significantly recently, I understand — although as of this morning I do not have a clear picture of exactly how drastic the price drop has been. Hopefully, by the time I write Part Two, tomorrow, I will have a better picture of how affordable downtown Pagosa has become.
What we do know is that Brown has also dropped the price on his BootJack Ranch, just over the county line in Mineral County. On April 9, the New York Times announced that Brown had dropped that price by $20 million.
“For an example of how the high-end market has changed, consider this: A year after a 3,100-acre (1,254 hectare) ranch in Colorado went on the market for $88 million, the owners have slashed the asking price to $68 million,” wrote New York Times columnist Kevin Brass.
“BootJack Ranch is an upscale ranch and family compound in the San Juan Mountains near Pagosa Springs. The property, which is bordered on three sides by protected park land, includes several lakes and rivers popular with fly-fishing fans, as well as 14 guest cabins, a commercial lodge, an aquatic center, helicopter pad and a 13,825-square-foot (1,284-square-meter) log-cabin main house.”
Brass noted that the Browns had accepted an offer last year from “the scion of a very wealthy San Francisco family” at the full $88 million asking price, according to Bill Fandel, managing broker of Peaks Real Estate Sotheby’s International Realty in Telluride, the listing agent. But the deal fell through. Three other potential buyers signed letters of intent, but they couldn’t reach agreements, Mr. Fandel said.
But the price drop to $68 million has apparently sparked new interest. A “high net worth individual” from Dallas has made a “substantial offer” and two other “qualified partners” have scheduled tours, Brass reported.
You can view the property at the Sotheby’s website.
According to a blog entry by local realtor Chris Liverett, the $68 million price tag on the BootJack Ranch had placed Brown’s home at #7 on a Forbes Magazine list of the “World’s Most Expensive Home.”
If you are in the market for downtown Pagosa property instead of a $68 million ranch, however, Brown has several pieces of real estate available. More about those properties tomorrow — and some thoughts about what the new pricing may mean for Pagosa’s future.
Read Part Two... |
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