Eagle County real estate; best start in 3 years Eagle County real estate is off to it’s best start since 2008 in both transactions (181 compared with 235 in 2008) and dollar volume ($196,919,288 compared with $331,335,000 in 2008). February had 91 transactions, the majority of which were sales in Eagle and Gypsum, cumulatively accounting for 26% of all sales. Ten of the 22 bank sales for February took place in Eagle and Gypsum with an average sales price of $178,000. These sales contributed to the total of sales in the county under $500,000, accounting for more than half of all transactions. Vail Village continues to see a lot of activity with 8 transactions closing in February, accounting for nearly 22% of the county’s dollar volume. Four of the five transactions in February were over $4 million and took place in Vail, the highest being sold at Solaris for $6.4 million. This sale also accounts for the highest price per square foot for February at $2,218. February Highlights: - Residential sales had a PPSF of $472. - Multi-family homes accounted for 43 of the 91 transactions in the county - The average sales price was $1,042,343 Click here for Land Title’s: February 2012 Market Analysis

Vail, CO – Vail Resorts has agreed to buy Kirkwood Mountain Resort at Lake Tahoe, Calif., for about $18 million.

The deal includes residential and commercial property at the base. Kirkwood will continue to be involved in the property development.

If the deal goes through, Vail Resorts would operate three world-class mountain resorts in the Lake Tahoe region, including Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe, Northstar California on the north shore and Kirkwood Mountain Resort.

Vail Resorts said Heavenly and Northstar pass holders will have access to Kirkwood and Kirkwood pass holders will be able to ski and ride Heavenly and Northstar.

Vail Resorts expects to close the deal next month, contingent on transfer of the U.S. Forest Service permit.

- Vail Daily

 

VAIL, Colorado — World Cup ski racer Sarah Schleper spent the first 16 years of her life preparing for World Cup ski racing, and another 16 years later, she is retiring.

Vail native Schleper, 32, raced her last race Thursday in Lienz, Austria. She didn’t qualify for a second run Thursday but did score World Cup points with a 23rd-place finish in Wednesday’s giant slalom.

The four-time Olympian and oldest woman on the U.S. Ski Team had thought about retiring and felt that now was the right time.

She knows that she and her family are moving back to the Vail Valley. Her husband will work in Beaver Creek at Sotheby’s, and she hopes to find a job at Vail or Beaver Creek doing what she’s so good and experienced at — skiing.

VAIL, Colorado — Vail Mountain has already begun making plans for its 50th anniversary in December 2012 by announcing the planned installation of a new, state-of-the art gondola to replace the Vista Bahn Express Lift (No. 16) inVailVillage.

The new gondola, which will have the number “1” to commemorate Vail’s original gondola in that location, will provide a 40 percent improvement in uphill capacity over the existing Vista Bahn Express Lift – the highest of any gondola in North America. The state-of-the-art gondola, the first installation of its kind in North America, will offer new features, such as free Wi-Fi access for guests.

EAGLE, Colorado — Tebowmania has brought national attention to little Bonfire Brewing in Eagle.

The brewers at Bonfire a few months ago cooked up a barley wine — a high-alcohol, heavy-drinking concoction — with the intent of selling it at the brewery and putting it into the commercial tasting event at the Jan. 7 Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines festival in Vail. The brew is ready, and last Sunday the Bonfire team was tasting and trying to think up a good name for the stuff.

Like many people who enjoy beer, the team was also watching football while they tasted, and watched the Denver Broncos pull out another in a series of improbable wins since Tim Tebow has become the team’s starting quarterback.

That’s when Ken Hoeve, Bonfire’s “Ale Ambassador” said, “Let’s call it Tebrew!”

The name stuck, a logo was created — a beer-holding man kneeling in the now-familiar “Tebow” pose — and the company put up the name on its Facebook page.

At that point, automatic Internet thingies trained to search for anything with the word “Tebow” in it went to work. The name soon hit beer blogs and newspaper websites, and the Tebow tsunami soon engulfed Bonfire.

“We’ve been getting calls from all over the country,” brewery co-founder Andy Jessen said. “It’s been great for the brewery, great for Eagle and great for the state.”

Jessen acknowledged that he doesn’t know whether Tebow drinks beer or not — but said the brew is more about fans and football than the player.

“It’s just a good time to be in Colorado and be a football fan here,” Jessen said.

BEAVER CREEK — A guy like Ted Ligety isn’t going to stop pushing hard after a practically flawless first run in Sunday’s Birds of Prey giant slalom, but a few little bobbles in the second run were enough to put the defending Birds of Prey giant slalom champion in second place at the final finish.

Austrian Marcel Hirscher got the win Sunday. Hirscher finished third in giant slalom at last year’s Birds of Prey and said he has previously struggled at Beaver Creek to even qualify for the second run, so this win was especially sweet, he said.

“Today with my victory here — I’m pretty amused about the whole situation,” Hirscher said at a press conference after the race.

Ligety went into the second run Sunday in the lead by 0.21 seconds. His first run was clean, but Ligety knew he had to make some changes in order have a shot at winning.

“The snow is definitely super aggressive,” Ligety said after the first run. “I’m going to change my set-up a little bit for the second run just cause it was hard to really push on the ski without it bouncing around too much.”

Ligety made the changes to his equipment and said after the second run that if he hadn’t done it, he “would be out of it.” Aggressive snow means it’s grabby, Ligety said, whereas on ice the skiers can predict what their skis are going to do.

The second run was exciting as racers kept knocking each other out of the top three one after another. But with the final racers left to go — the end of the second run’s start list is made up of the fastest finishers from the first run — the spectators and athletes knew each racer had the ability to bump down the racer before him.

Germany’s Fritz Dopfer, the 26th starter out of 30 for the second run, knocked Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud, the 25th starter, out of the top position with a powerful run, but ultimately finished third. Austrian Benjamin Raich was up next and skied off-course, not finishing the race. Norwegian Kristian Leif Haugen came into 11th place at the end of his run, leaving just Hirscher and Ligety left to start.

‘Teddy will be back’

Once Hirscher put up an impressive combined time of 2:38.45, the pressure was on Ligety to make a strong, clean run.

“I was pushing hard and that snow definitely makes it easy to make mistakes,” Ligety said. “I definitely was kind of all over the place in places, but I skied well in sections and I knew exactly where I lost it when I had a little bobble on the bottom that was going to cost me some time.”

Ligety, who finished 22nd in Friday’s downhill and skied off-course in Saturday’s super-G, said he wasn’t necessarily disappointed with the second-place giant slalom finish.

“Being second place is obviously good,” he said. “But I was really wanting the win more than anything.”

The finish will motivate Ligety for Tuesday, when he will take on these World Cup racers at another Birds of Prey giant slalom race. He said he prefers the Birds of Prey course to the giant slalom course in Val D’Isere, where this week’s races were originally supposed to happen, so he’s looking forward to staying in Beaver Creek.

But after a race-filled week, beginning with Lake Louise and going into Beaver Creek, Ligety said he plans to sleep in on Monday.

For Dopfer, taking third place Sunday was almost surreal. He had finished 13th in October at Soelden, Austria, the first World Cup race of the year, and said he was not expecting a podium finish in Beaver Creek.

“It was a big surprise for me (to be on the podium),” Dopfer said. “It’s just amazing to be on the podium. To stand beside such great athletes, it’s just amazing, I can’t believe it.”

He went into the weekend confident, though, after arriving in Colorado Nov. 18 and training in Vail and Aspen. He said he has been looking forward to racing in Beaver Creek.

Hirscher had been looking forward to it, too. He had a foot injury last season and said his goal was just to ski at the level he had been skiing at before the injury. With Sunday’s win, he feels he has reached that goal, he said.

With just one day of rest between the two Birds of Prey giant slalom races, though, nothing is a sure thing for Tuesday’s race. Hirscher feels he has enough power for his next races, but he knows many of the other skiers do, too.

“We will see. I think Teddy will be also very strong, as we saw today — it was a pretty close finish between us,” Hirscher said. “…In Austria, Ted is unbreakable, so it’s pretty big success for me to beat him today, but we’ll see — I think Teddy will be back on Tuesday.”

816 Beaver Creek Blvd A4

 

Located in the Avon, CO subdivision of Lakeview at 816 Beaver Creek Blvd A4, this Condo features 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Built in 1979, this property is offered at $230,000 with 1,144 sq ft. The Condo is listed by Kim Tofferi with the Vail Real Estate MLS number V323400

4123 Little Pt A

 

Located in the Avon, CO subdivision of Wildridge at 4123 Little Pt A, this Duplex features 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Built in 2008, this property is offered at $1,550,000 with 4,357 sq ft. The Duplex is listed by Elizabeth Leeds with the Vail Real Estate MLS number V323382

94 E Foxglove Ln

 

Located in the Eagle, CO subdivision of Eagle Ranch at 94 E Foxglove Ln, this Single Family features 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Built in 2004, this property is offered at $1,249,000 with 4,837 sq ft. The Single Family is listed by Scot Webster with the Vail Real Estate MLS number V323322

1710 Beard Creek Trl

 

Located in the Edwards, CO subdivision of Cordillera Valley Club F4 at 1710 Beard Creek Trl, this Single Family features 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Built in 2007, this property is offered at $2,590,000 with 5,554 sq ft. The Single Family is listed by Yvonne Dawsey with the Vail Real Estate MLS number V323275