State’s next hot springs hot spot?
Arizona company seeks buyer for 1,156 undeveloped acres
An Arizona development company listed 1,156 acres of undeveloped commercial land in and around the town of Rico on the Western Slope for sale on Wednesday. Among the selling points listed are the potential to build Colorado’s next hot springs resort, room for future greenhouses to feed farm-to-table restaurants in the region, and 300 new homes and condos to supply a real estate market hungry for mountain properties.
“The sellers have worked on this project for a number of years to get the right density and uses. The timing was not great for this property in the past. Now the time is perfect for it,” said Mark King of Solutions RE, who along with Eric Saunders of Telluride Properties is the broker for Silver Springs at Rico.
Disposition Properties, which is owned by two Arizona developers, is listing the property for $10 million. Approaching their 90s, King said the current owners behind Disposition, who have spent more than two decades on the project, are wrapping up their estate plans and are ready to hand things off to a buyer who can move it forward.
Potential uses for the land, King said, include developing a landmark hot springs resort hotel on the Dolores River in downtown Rico, constructing up to 304 homes — either for-sale or for-rent — and tapping a geothermal reservoir known as the Rico Dome to heat greenhouses or other businesses. A buyer could also do a land exchange with the U.S. Forest
Service, trading acreage near Rico for more valuable terrain the federal government owns near ski communities like Vail or Telluride.
King said much of the groundwork for those development options has been done, with zoning approved and the proposed uses included in the town’s master plan. A buyer could step in and move quickly.
But Rico town manager Chauncey Mccarthy said such a massive project won’t be turnkey and would need to jump through several more hoops to win approval, including dealing with flood plain and wetland issues on the riverfront land proposed for the hot springs resort and securing adequate water supply and infrastructure for the homes. Residents would also need to be convinced to set aside rules designed to preserve Rico’s status as a mountain hamlet, ones designed to limit its ability to convert into a tourist resort.
“I am not sure to what extent that will all happen,” Mccarthy said. An earlier proposal to use the land for a ski resort never materialized.
About 93 acres being sold are
within the town limits. Around 1,000 acres involve mining claims. The Atlantic Richfield Co., a resource firm potentially liable if the land is sold and environmental problems emerge, has rights of first refusal, Mccarthy said.
The Montezuma Land Conservancy is interested in buying the land and putting it under a conservation easement, a path of preservation more likely to win community support than creating the next Glenwood Springs or Pagosa Springs, he said. As to whether an easement would cap Rico’s potential, he said there are plenty of lots within the town limits to accommodate future housing needs.
But he also acknowledged that homes that a few years back sold for $80,000 or $90,000 are now turning over for $400,000 as remote workers move to the area.
“They are trying to test the market to see what this land trust might be willing to buy it for,” McCarthy said about the listing. But if someone else did beat out the land trust, the town would work with that person.
Rico is about 27 miles south of Telluride at 8,847 feet in a scenic valley on the western side of the San Juan Range, not far from the Utah border. Settled in 1879 as a silver mining town, Rico once had around 5,000 residents, but now counts closer to 300.