Summit Daily News
Elli Wright
The Keystone community will soon be host to a new lodging development, taking up a little over 4 acres and costing over $300 million.
Called the Kindred Resort, this lodging development will be a Keystone destination for visitors and skiers alike. While it will be new to the Keystone community, plans for this development have been around for over 25 years.
The developers
Now on its fourth developer, Kindred is in the hands of the Kindred Development Team, led by Shervin (Shevy) Rashidi, Ryan Geller and Scott Russell, who are now eight years into the project.
According to Geller, multiple different entities — including Marriott Hotels & Resorts — attempted to fulfill the vision, but to no avail.
“We’re the first developer to be able to put a shovel in the ground to build it,” Geller said.
After the last developer dropped the project, Rashidi said Vail Resorts personally reached out to ask if he could pull Kindred off.
“It is a very big project,” Rashidi said. “When we first were approached, truthfully, I thought it was maybe too much for us to take on. But nine years later, working every day for no money, I’m glad we did it.”
Rashidi said he was inspired by the beauty of Keystone Valley, a Summit County asset he believes is often overlooked. From horseback riding, to hiking, to mountain biking, and with Arapahoe Basin just down the road, Rashidi said he hopes Kindred “will remind everyone how special we are.”
Geller agreed.
“We felt like Keystone deserved to have a marquee project like this, because nothing had gone on there for 25-plus years,” Geller said. “You have this unbelievable ski resort with a ton of traffic that wasn’t being utilized in the best way, so we just looked at it as — we had that opportunity, and we felt like the time was right.”
Along with his partnership with Vail resorts and experience with other local projects like Inxspot in Keystone and Sauce on the Blue in Silverthorne, Rashidi is a Keystone resident who has lived in Keystone for about 30 years.
The process
Geller said Vail reached out to the development team because of those local ties. In addition to Rashidi in Summit Cove, Geller lives in Vail and Russell lives in Aspen.
“Vail is very particular who they work with,” Geller said. “They vetted us very thoroughly to make sure that we would be the ones that they wanted to work with to build this project, and a lot of that had to do with our relationship with the mountains and Shevy’s really long-standing relationship with Vail.”
Because of the close relationship to Keystone, Rashidi recognized the enormity of the project.
“It’s the biggest impact ever of a single project to Summit County,” Rashidi said. “So that alone just speaks great volume, at over $300 million.”
Throughout the process, Geller said they hosted three to four meetings with the Keystone Neighborhood Group to ask questions. They received strong turnout, Geller said, and also tried to incorporate some input into the final project.
As for community consideration, Geller spoke about the open-air design of Kindred.
According to Geller, an “old real estate broker” had one of the original models of the development from years ago. The model showed one long building that “totally cut off” views for the public and limited public access to the development.
Therefore, when it came time for Kindred to take over, Geller said they specifically created an open air, three-building concept. Geller said they hope it will not only preserve views, but also ensure a quick construction time and a “living room concept” that invites people in.
Instead of “seeing one construction project over 10 years,” Geller said, the buildings will be constructed all at once.
The specs
Rashidi said Kindred’s hotel is one of the most important parts of the ski resort — not only will it be one of the first ski-in ski-out hotels in Summit County, but there are also limited options for other hotels in Keystone.
In addition to the hotel, there will also be two, five-story towers of residences. The residences will consist of one- to four-bedroom condominiums with sales prices ranging from $1 million to $6 million, according to Doyle Richmond, one of the lead brokers for the sales team at Kindred.
The other lead broker, Hank Wiethake, said that about 60% of pre-sales are already accounted for.
“There’s going to be a million skiers at Keystone this winter,” Wiethake said. “And we only got 38 condoes left to sell over the next two years. So these are in very, very high demand.”
There will also be a large event venue, spa, fitness center, pool, hot tubs and much more.
“My goal was to bring us back to that point of a 4.5 star hotel and resort,” Rashidi said. “There’s nothing else like this in Summit County.” Rashidi said the closest may be the Ritz-Carlton at Bachelors Gulch in Avon, Colorado.
But even in Eagle County, Rashidi added, there’s nothing quite like the plan he has for Kindred.
“We’re delivering a high standard to Keystone,” Rashidi said.
