{"id":43111,"date":"2021-12-20T19:06:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T02:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/developer-of-denvers-larimer-square-and-union-station-is-investing-big-in-crested-butte\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:11:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:11:32","slug":"developer-of-denvers-larimer-square-and-union-station-is-investing-big-in-crested-butte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/developer-of-denvers-larimer-square-and-union-station-is-investing-big-in-crested-butte\/","title":{"rendered":"Developer of Denver\u2019s Larimer Square and Union Station is investing big in Crested Butte"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A view of Crested Butte's main street, Elk Avenue, on Dec. 12. Longtime Crested Butte resident and former owner of Denver\u2019s Larimer Square, Jeff Hermanson has bought several Crested Butte businesses and buildings with the intention of bringing his vision of revitalization to the heart of downtown Crested Butte's Elk Avenue. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new heavyweight investor buying up properties on Crested Butte\u2019s historic Elk Avenue.<\/p>\n

But this time it\u2019s not a reclusive billionaire from afar. Jeff Hermanson, who transformed Denver\u2019s Larimer Square and Union Station, has lived in Crested Butte<\/a> for 48 years. And he\u2019s buying commercial properties on what he calls \u201cone of the greatest streets in all of Colorado\u201d because \u201cthere is an opportunity to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Mark Walter, the Chicago-based owner of the L.A. Dodgers who has had a vacation home in Crested Butte since 2009, started buying historic buildings on Elk Avenue. He\u2019s got at least six properties in downtown Crested Butte, not including the 60-acre Almont Resort down the road. In recent months Hermanson, a renowned restaurateur who shepherded Larimer Square from squalor to one of Denver\u2019s top attractions, bought three Elk Avenue properties.<\/p>\n

Hermanson has spent nearly half a century living in Crested Butte. For the last chunk of those he\u2019s been in Denver and dashing down to Crested Butte on weekends. Now he\u2019s full-time in the end-of-the-road town.<\/p>\n

He laughs when he starts describing the changes since he arrived in town in 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even close to the same as it was in 1993,\u201d he says. \u201cThe lesson I\u2019ve learned is that change is constant in our lives. For Crested Butte, it feels like a tsunami. Maybe it\u2019s the same for many other ski towns. The world has changed. Sure it\u2019s different. For some people it\u2019s not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hermanson doesn\u2019t have firm plans for what he hopes to see at the three buildings. One is home to the Breadery bakery, another the beloved Last Steep restaurant. One, until recently, housed the Montanya Distillery tasting room, which this month relocated to a newer building on Elk Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is most meaningful, in my mind, is that this is a community and it\u2019s really about the community,\u201d Hermanson says. \u201cIt will continue to go through changes, but if we can still talk about protecting the community, it\u2019s going to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hermanson actually worked in the kitchen in one of the buildings he just bought when he first arrived in town in the early 1970s, but back then it had a different name. Sean and Sarah Hartigan opened the Last Steep in 2000. Last week they celebrated their 21st anniversary as owners and operators of the local\u2019s favorite, which is named after a run on the ski hill.<\/p>\n

\"Sean
Sean Hartigan, co-owner of The Last Steep Bar & Grill in Crested Butte, visits with friends on Dec. 16. The Last Steep by rolling back prices to what they were in 2000. The Last Steep was purchased by longtime Crested Butte resident and former owner of Denver\u2019s Larimer Square. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

They won\u2019t be celebrating another anniversary there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very bittersweet and I\u2019m sad, but it\u2019s time to move on,\u201d says Sarah Hartigan, who will run the restaurant through the winter. \u201cIt\u2019s time for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Colorado\u2019s resort towns, longtime business owners are weary after an exceptionally busy summer and a pandemic winter. On top of record-setting crowds this summer are the rippling impacts of the pandemic, which includes a sudden influx of new residents who are buying and moving into homes once rented by locals. The lack of affordable housing in mountain towns has triggered a shortage of workers. Add it all up and the stress of running a restaurant or store in a busy ski town has, for a growing number of business owners like the Hartigans, eclipsed the upside of life in the mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe summer is the reason we sold, not the winter. The summer is just too busy and we are short-staffed and no one can find housing. We just can\u2019t keep up anymore,\u201d Hartigan says. \u201cAnd Hermanson is such a great person to sell to, because he really does care about our town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Customers
Customers wait for tables and service at Secret Stash Pizza on July 28. On busy days the wait can be over an hour long. Like many restaurants in Crested Butte, Secret Stash has been overwhelmed by the number of visitors coming to the area. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Why now?<\/div>\n

So why is Hermanson buying now? Well, first, he came into a good bit of money last year when he sold Larimer Square. As in the block of Larimer Street between 14th and 15th street in downtown Denver, which he\u2019d owned since 1993.<\/p>\n

Second, he\u2019s settling full-time in Crested Butte and raising his 9-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a kick-ass skier,\u201d he says. \u201cMy claim to fame is that I\u2019ve been skiing Rabbit Ears on the Headwall with her for the last two years.\u201d (That\u2019s a very steep, challenging run, by the way.)<\/p>\n

Sure, he says, he wishes he had bought the Elk Avenue properties a decade ago, but right now \u201cthere is an opportunity to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been blessed to have been involved in a couple really iconic projects in Denver that really made a difference in the community,\u201d he says of his work renovating Larimer Square and Union Station. \u201cI see a similar opportunity here in Crested Butte. Whenever there is change, there is angst, but there is also opportunity. I\u2019m going to seize this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has not set firm plans, but Hermanson says he\u2019s vying to help his community in two different ways, with a focus on both housing and food.<\/p>\n

First, the housing stuff. He\u2019s got a 25-acre lot in Gunnison where he is going through the approval process to build affordable workforce housing. He\u2019s hoping to work with the community to build more worker housing on Crested Butte-owned properties.<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s saddened to see so many locals leaving Crested Butte due to the shortage of affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can spend a lot of time talking about the missed opportunities, but the key is to move forward,\u201d he says. \u201cIt can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Longtime
Longtime Crested Butte resident and former owner of Denver\u2019s Larimer Square, takes a break from skiing with his family and poses for a portrait at Crested Butte ski area, Dec. 14, 2021. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hermanson spent a decade with the Crested Butte Land Trust, where he served as board president for three years.<\/p>\n

One of the takeaways from his tenure with the trust that leveraged $70 million to protect 6,300 acres in the last 26 years, is \u201cthe public-private partnership as a vehicle for problem solving,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Union Station, for example, would not have happened, he says, without help from the city of Denver and the Regional Transportation District. In Crested Butte, he\u2019d love to explore ways the town and Gunnison County can offer incentives to push developers toward reducing the housing deficit. Not unlike the federal and state incentives that motivate landowners to work with land trusts to protect and conserve open space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe importance of restaurants in placemaking\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Hermanson learned in developing Larimer Square and Union Station as destinations is \u201cthe importance of restaurants in placemaking,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrested Butte has one of the greatest streets in all of Colorado, if not the West,\u201d he says. \u201cI think working to activate it and enhance the sense of placemaking; that happens typically with restaurant operators and retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hermanson loved how dining spilled into streets during the pandemic. Across Colorado, as restaurants opened with requirements to keep visitors well spaced out, tables spilled into sidewalks and parking spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a positive thing and it went a long way as a great placemaking tool,\u201d he says. \u201cRecapturing space from the automobile is a great lesson from the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He loves the idea of making a street about people, not cars. But he sees a problem when that happens in small towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go anywhere fast because you are always running into someone and end up talking for hours because you can\u2019t go anywhere in a hurry,\u201d he says, laughing.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah
Sarah and Sean Hartigan celebrated the 21st birthday of The Last Steep Bar & Grill in Crested Butte, Colorado on Dec. 16, 2021. The Last Steep was purchased by longtime Crested Butte resident and former owner of Denver\u2019s Larimer Square, Jeff Hermanson (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hermanson also wants to take his work in Denver to address hunger into Crested Butte\u2019s restaurants. He spent more than a decade on the board of We Don\u2019t Waste, which distributes unused food from city restaurants, schools and grocery stores to nonprofits and food pantries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know something like 40% to 50% of the food we produce in this country is wasted?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He created the first-ever national rating system for restaurants that buy from local providers and reduce waste. The Good Food 100 celebrates restaurants and chefs that \u201cbuild a sustainable food economy,\u201d Hermanson says. (Colorado has 37 restaurants on the 2020 list.)<\/p>\n

Hermanson delights in watching his daughter and her classmates work in her school\u2019s garden. The kids have a summer food stand where they sell produce they grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of solutions to food and hunger can be done small and can be done locally. I\u2019m really enthusiastic about doing that in Crested Butte,\u201d he says. \u201cSome of these chefs in this state, they are provocateurs. They have really helped educate me. They want to change the world. I want to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sarah
Sarah Hartigan, co-owner of The Last Steep Bar & Grill in Crested Butte, Colorado (left) visits with bartender Melissa Geringer on Dec. 16. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The change has been coming hard and fast in ski towns. More deep-pocketed buyers \u2014 individuals and investment firms \u2014 have expanded beyond their typical purview in dense urban settings and are parking money in rural resort communities.<\/p>\n

Dana Crawford, the legendary developer who worked with Hermanson on Union Station, has purchased as many as 10 buildings in downtown Trinidad. Denver developer Kyle Zeppelin, who has reinvigorated blighted areas of the city, recently bought a historic hotel in downtown Ouray. There are other small towns in the mountains that are reporting out-of-town buyers acquiring multiple commercial properties. (Stay tuned for more on that.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s daunting what\u2019s happening right now,\u201d says Hermanson of the pressures \u2014 real estate, housing, labor \u2014 distressing his hometown. \u201cBut I truly believe we can make a difference here. Will it be the same? No, it won\u2019t. So many towns have tried to stop change and they all failed. They weren\u2019t able to freeze themselves in time. And they never will.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Norton, who directs Gunnison County\u2019s Tourism and Prosperity Partnership and once managed the ski area, has known Hermanson for 35 years and says \u201cI love the guy.\u201d He\u2019s not alone. Recently while skiing with his family at the resort, many passersby waved and shouted their hellos to Hermanson as he met with a photographer. Some came up and hugged him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he loves CB for what it is, what we are. He\u2019s got enough dough to live wherever he wants and he sticks with Crested Butte through all our ups and probably our more numerous downs,\u201d Norton says. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure whatever decisions he makes are going to include the calculus of how this place remains cool and soulful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norton isn\u2019t saying that to disparage the other big investor, he says, it\u2019s just that \u201cHermanson has the long history that makes most of us believe he\u2019s going to nail it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if he doesn\u2019t nail it on the first go, he\u2019ll nail it on his second,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s his history at Larimer Square, still my favorite place in Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the larger concerns when a new owner comes in and spends big on commercial properties is how the increased value of the property might trickle down to tenants.<\/p>\n

Historically, longtime restaurant and retail operators in mountain towns own their buildings. They aren\u2019t necessarily scrambling to pay their landlord.<\/p>\n

That dynamic shifts when a new owner comes in. Rents can climb. Margins can shrink.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat puts at risk the character that Jeff is trying to protect,\u201d says local broker Scout Walton, whose family once owned Crested Butte Mountain Resort. \u201cMaybe in his case his operators and his tenants will have an economic advantage. He has an emotional attachment and truly wants to protect the history and character of this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Walter and now Hermanson, it\u2019s likely that Crested Butte will see more investment. Heavyweights tend to draw heavyweights.<\/p>\n

And Crested Butte is not nearly as pricey as Aspen, Telluride or Vail. As more investors eye rising inflation and look to park their dollars in assets, Walton warned, \u201cthere are not a lot of places left for them to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJeff is not someone swooping in and saying the right words. He\u2019s been living it for decades and he\u2019s put his money where his mouth is before and has helped this valley in a lot of different ways. He\u2019s got the trust,\u201d Walton says. \u201cJeff is pretty open about what he hopes to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Hermanson, who helped revitalize downtown Denver, bought three buildings on the resort town’s historic Elk Avenue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85578,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43111\/revisions\/85578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43111"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}