The Next 30 Years

The Aspen Club recognizes that healthy living extends beyond the traditional practices of exercise and nutrition. The Aspen Club believes that a healthy lifestyle encompasses the external environment, the buildings we live in, and our relationship with our neighbors. We have accordingly extended out our concept for Aspen Club Living.

Aspen Club Living is an integrated approach to sustainable healthy living development. We are excited to have just been accepted to be part of the prestigious new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED – ND) pilot program, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in partnership with the Congress for New Urbanism and the National Resources Defense Council. LEED for Neighborhood Development is a rigorous, third party reviewed, rating system that integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building in to the first national standard for neighborhood design.

The redevelopment of the Aspen Club aims to demonstrate what defines a healthy neighborhood and a healthy lifestyle. In this regard, it is an ideal fit with the goals of LEED for Neighborhood Development and for Aspen. In changing from a day use health club into an integrated healthy neighborhood with the Aspen Club, residential units and other mixed use opportunities, our goal is to provide a sustainable environment for a healthy life. Like the Duke Center for Living, Canyon Ranch, and the Cooper Clinic, the Aspen Club can and will become a nationally renowned community responsible for defining the concept of total wellness.

We have devoted the past six months to talking to neighbors, to members and to employees to better understand how they view the Club and how this project can be a benefit for our entire community. We feel we now have the support of the majority of our neighbors in addition to the existing support of our employees and members. Through this process our goal is to design an exceptional plan that will better serve our community, our members and our employees. This project does just that.

This project will be a leader in renewable energy usage

The Aspen Club proposes to make several significant improvements in energy usage, both in the Club’s functions and in the new Aspen Club Living facilities. All residential units will be built to LEED standards, with all facilities’ interiors finished with renewable materials with low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emitting finishes. We propose to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the carbon footprint of the project with the following energy-efficient technology:

• Geothermal exchange/ground source heat pumps. The Aspen Club sits on five acres and is able to utilize either vertical or horizontal geothermal fields for heating and cooling.
• Solar photovoltaic panels. The Aspen Club has an acre of roof top space available to accommodate Solar panels able to generate a good portion of the Club’s electrical needs.

Insulation, improved HVAC systems. We propose to reduce base energy consumption by reducing heating and cooling loads in the current and new buildings with more efficient insulation, green roofs, better HVAC systems, heat recovery through a simultaneous heating and cooling process, using pools for thermal storage and heat exchange.

This project will reduce traffic and improve our neighborhood.

The Aspen Club, located on Ute Avenue, is part of a vibrant and diverse neighborhood. Ute Avenue is a key corridor for foot and bike traffic and is home to the Aspen Alps Condominiums (83 condo units), the Gant (120 condo units), the Benedict Office Building, the Ute Park subdivision, 1010 Ute subdivision and a handful of single family homes.

One of the main goals of the Aspen Club Living project is to reduce traffic on Ute Avenue and Crystal Lake Road from their current levels, even with the addition of the new living units at the Club. The Aspen Club plans on monitoring traffic on Ute after the project is completed to ensure traffic remains at or below current levels. If traffic levels do begin to increase, we can adjust the program outlined below to bring traffic back down. In order to accomplish this aggressive goal, we plan to do the following:

• Installing paid parking at the Aspen Club as an auto disincentive.
• Increasing the shuttle service to and from the Club, with environmentally friendly shuttles.
• Maintaining regular Aspen Club shuttle pickups from Ruby Park and the Rio Grande parking lot to make commuting easier for our employees, members and guests.
• Purchasing electric or air powered (innovative cars powered by compressed air) vehicles that would be available to our employees and guests to drive to and from town.
• For owners and guests staying at the property, picking them up at the Airport and having electric or air powered vehicles available for their use.
• Mandating our employees either carpool, use our shuttle or take public transportation to the Club in order to get their cars off of Ute Avenue and Crystal Lake Road.
• Creating a bicycle sharing program for errands in town.
• Creating an auto sharing program for longer trips made by employees living in employee housing.

Profits from the paid parking program would be put towards:

• Safety improvements on Ute Avenue including speed reducing measures.
• Overall improvements in conditions of road and shoulders on Ute Avenue and Crystal Lake Road.
• Ongoing landscaping projects in our neighborhood.

This project will create unique lodging opportunities and onsite employee housing

The Aspen Club would like to offer a unique lodging opportunity for visitors to Aspen. We propose Aspen Club Living, a new community of nineteen residential units and twelve affordable housing units designed specifically around the amenities of the Club and the theme of healthy living. The two, three and four bedroom residences will each have lock-off rooms and will provide the flexibility to accommodate a range of guest options. We envision Aspen Club Living as a health and wellness retreat for families, providing them with a vibrant healthy living community.

There is an increasing demand for three and four bedrooms in fractional lodges throughout the lodging industry. The primary appetite for more bedrooms comes from families that travel with more than four people, whether it’s families and friends, or couples travelling together. Some use the extra space for family reunions and other to entice older children back to the fold for at least a week of family vacation. This is the exact market we are targeting with our Aspen Club Living residences.

We envision Aspen Club Living as a place where families will come annually for a healthy retreat. It will be the one time of the year when grandparents, their children and grandchildren can all get together under one roof. These families will stay in the same units for the same weeks as eighteen other families. They will form lasting friendships with their neighbors who come for the same annual retreat and with the local members of the Club. Eventually it will foster a community among the residents and members based around family, a love of Aspen and the desire to remain healthy. When the units are not being used by owners they will then be available for groups, families and single travelers participating in our healthy lifestyle programs. In this way, Aspen Club Living becomes more than a lodging option for visitors to Aspen; it becomes a vibrant, sustaining, healthy living community integrated back into the larger Aspen community.

The twelve, two-bedroom affordable housing units we are building represents 150% of the required employee housing mitigation for the project. With a significant portion of the Aspen Club employees commuting from down valley today, these employee housing units will allow staff the great benefit of moving back to Aspen, enjoying the Aspen community, contributing to it economically, and reducing traffic. The employees will have access to all of the transportation options discussed below ranging from our shuttles to ride share programs to incentivize them to discard their cars, further reducing the amount of automobiles in our community.

This project will enable significant improvements to the Aspen Club.

As part of the Aspen Club redevelopment, we anticipate investing over $7.0 million back into the existing Aspen Club. This money will be used for:

• New equipment
• New locker rooms
• New outdoor pool
• New outdoor fitness areas
• New programs & activities
• Better HVAC systems

This project will generate exceptional benefits for our Community

The redevelopment of the Aspen Club will not only serve to upgrade the existing facilities, but more importantly, enable us to serve our members and the Aspen Community as an international leader in the area of healthy living. Additionally our staff will have opportunities to enhance their careers and earning potential, and the owners of the residences will have the opportunity to become regular participants in all the many aspects of healthy living in Aspen. Funding from the owners of the residences is what will ensure the viability of the Aspen Club far into the future.

Aspen Club Living and the 2000 Aspen Area Community Plan.

The Aspen Club Living Project ties directly into the Aspen Area Community Plan in many of the plans key focus areas. Below are the key focus areas, the summary of the focus area laid out in the Community Plan and how Aspen Club Living addresses those ideas.

Managing Growth – “Encourage land use to occur in such a way that it protects and enhances the existing physical and natural environment of the valley. Limit the ultimate population in the Aspen Area through a Growth Management System.” The Aspen Living concept creates the first LEED – ND project in the city of Aspen. It becomes a standard bearer for sustainable development for all future projects in our city. The concepts actualized at the Aspen Club will be a part of the discussions on growth management for years to come.

Transportation – “The community seeks to provide a balanced, integrated transportation system for residents, visitors and commuters that reduces congestion and air pollution. Walking, bicycling and transit use is promoted to help us reach that goal.” The Aspen Club location is ideal for alternative transportation because of its near-town location, easy access to trails and bike paths, easy use of alternative energy vehicles and ability to access public and Club transit options.

Housing – “Create an affordable housing environment that is appropriately scaled and distributed throughout existing and new neighborhoods, is affordable, and respects our overall concerns, as expressed in the Aspen Area Community Plan.” The Aspen Club Living project includes employee housing that is exceptional. It will be LEED Certified, compatible with the neighborhood, close to public and private mass transit, contiguous to existing public facilities and infrastructure, amenable to transit, bike and pedestrian oriented design, visual compatible with surrounding area, optimize the site’s development potential, contribute to the Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Goals, support quality of life for our employees, have quality design and construction and utilize and conserve natural features. In short it will meet all of the goals of the Housing section of the Aspen Area Community Plan.

Economic Sustainability – “Maintain a healthy, vibrant and diversified year round economy that supports the Aspen area community; to maintain and enhance existing business and cultural entities; and to support and promote the “Aspen Idea” of “mind, body and spirit.” Enhance the wealth-generating capacity of the local economy while minimizing the rate at which cash flows through the local economy (“throughput”) and limiting the expansion of the physical size of the community.” This project directly enhances the Aspen Economy with a local and locally serving business. This project, more than almost any other, directly supports and promotes the Aspen Idea. Our ability to do more with the same people will also enhance the career opportunities of our team and maximize the wealth-generating capacity of our employees with minimal “throughput”.

Parks, Open Space, and the Environment – “Preserve, enhance and restore the natural beauty of the environment of the Aspen area. Provide low-impact facilities to support the sustainable use of unimproved areas. Support an environment that betters the lives of all, preserves our natural
resources and provides opportunities and access for all to enjoy. Further the growth and development of outdoor recreation through expanded partnerships among government agencies, non-profit organizations, and the general citizenry.” Through our LEED initiative we are striving to preserve, enhance and restore our environment. We are developing a low impact facility, one that will have a smaller carbon footprint when we are done, than when we started.

Historic Preservation – “Preserve Aspen’s irreplaceable historic resources.” While it may not be a historic structure, the Aspen Club is a tremendous historic resource for our town. The Club has been serving the needs of our community for over thirty years. Through this process it will be preserved.

Design Quality – “Ensure the character of the built environment in Aspen is maintained through public outreach and education about quality design, historical context, and the influence of the existing built and natural environments.” The LEED – Neighborhood Design framework will ensure a high quality, thoughtful development that uses resources wisely, ties back into our neighborhood and guarantees a superior product when we are done.

Arts, Culture and Education – “Recognize the contribution of the arts, culture and education to the quality of life in Aspen. Support the arts and the cultural community in its efforts to increase awareness of its significance to the future and quality of life in Aspen.” – The Aspen Club does contribute to our community through the numerous educational events we hold at the facility. These events range in focus from overall healthy living to specific areas of health interest, such as orthopedic or women’s health issues.