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Vail Valley business briefs

AVON ” Vail Capital Partners, Inc., an Avon-based private equity firm specializing in luxury, resort second-home real estate investment and management, has announced the addition of Tracey Baumgardner as project manager.

Baumgardner comes to Vail Capital Partners after working as senior escrow officer of Title Company of the Rockies, where she was responsible for real estate closings.

She held previous positions in banking and title work in the Denver area.



For Vail Capital Partners, Baumgardner will manage for current and future projects, provide investor relations support, and oversee property closings.

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“Tracey is a wonderful addition to our team,” said Vail Capital Partners founder and chairman Gary Miller. “She is very knowledgeable about the Colorado resort real estate market and will add a great deal of depth to our project management team.”

Baumgardner’s move comes at a time when Vail Capital Partners is growing quickly. The company recently acquired the River Run condominium complex in Eagle-Vail.

Vail Capital Partners, Inc. is a private equity firm that invests in and manages high-end real estate development in resort markets including Vail and throughout the Western region and the sunbelt areas. The company has managed the development of high-end single family homes in Vail, Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch and Cordillera.

For more information, call 970-476-6341.

VAIL “The National Forest Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to caring for America’s national forests, will this weekend honor Vail Resorts and Coors Brewing Company for their conservation efforts.

The foundation will present its awards Saturday at a ceremony at the Arrabelle in Vail Square.

Coors’ environmental commitment focuses on improving water quality in the communities where it has breweries. Last August, Coors teamed up with the National Forest Foundation to host a Friends of the Forest Day volunteer event on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest. More than 40 Coors employees, family members and friends came out to install erosion control structures, build fence, and plant wetland shrubs and grasses. Coors this year made a donation to support another project to continue restoring the Clear Creek watershed in Colorado.

Vail Resorts operates the largest on-mountain recycling program of any ski resort in North America. For the second year in a row, in partnership with the National Forest Foundation, Vail has included five of its mountain resorts in the foundation’s Ski Conservation Fund. Vail guests contribute $1 per season pass, online lift ticket transaction, and for each room night at Vail’s Colorado and California lodges in support of community-based conservation projects. Guest contributions have already added up to $551,000 that has been matched by $275,500 from the National Forest Foundation for projects to restore and improve national forests in Colorado and California.

National Forest Foundation Board Chairman David Bell will present the awards during Saturday evening’s reception, and U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell ” an ex officio member of the NFF Board ” will attend the event.

BROOMFIELD ” The Osprey at Beaver Creek, A RockResort, formerly known as the Inn at Beaver Creek, is undergoing a $7-million transformation this summer and will be relaunched as RockResorts’ newest addition in time for the 2008-2009 ski season. The 41-room hotel, owned by RockResorts, is situated in the heart Beaver Creek Village.

The property will undergo a complete renovation this year. It is the closest hotel to a chairlift in North America.

“The renovation of The Osprey at Beaver Creek should exceed the expectations of the most discerning traveler,” said Stan Brown, executive vice president and chief operating officer of RockResorts/Vail Resorts Hospitality. “We are proud to welcome The Osprey at Beaver Creek to the RockResorts collection.”

Once renovations are complete, The Osprey at Beaver Creek will feature 41 over-sized guest rooms, including several spacious suites. Many rooms will feature natural stone fireplaces, heated floors and steam showers. The outdoor pool will be enhanced with an apres ski deck boasting breathtaking mountain views. The hotel also will have a ski concierge to help guests with their skis, snowboards and boots, as well as store and tune them overnight.

RockResorts also announced that its management agreement at The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera has been terminated effective May 31.

MCLEAN, Va. ” Equipment sales in snow sports specialty shops increased less than 2 percent in dollars over last season with slight decreases in the number of alpine skis and in the number of snowboards sold. Chain stores sold less equipment than they did in 2005/06, but dollars spent on equipment were up slightly. Although equipment sales on the Internet are quite strong, the channel is still too narrow to make a significant difference overall.

That’s the latest market update from the Virginia-based Snowsports Industries Association, a not-for-profit trade group that represents manufacturers and distributors of snow sports products.

According to the report by Kelly Davis, the group’s director of research, the marketplace is made up of three primary sales channels: the Internet, specialty shops, and chain stores.

Specialty shops sell the largest share of equipment, apparel and accessories but the Internet and chain store channels have a significant share of the market. The Internet channel grew by nearly 50 percent this season.

For more information, go to http://www.snowsports.org.


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