Frontgate, Fox Hollow flourish

Originally published in the Vail Daily on June 26, 2023

BGV builders hard at work on Fox Hollow, Frontgate and the Vail area’s largest hot tub

Breckenridge Grand Vacations has been hard at work this summer on two major development projects in Eagle County, Frontgate Avon and Fox Hollow in Edwards.

The Frontgate Avon project is on track to open the first phase of 45 condominiums by November, and a second phase of 30 condominiums is expected to reach completion one year later. The project will also contain two workforce housing units and nine townhomes.

Fox Hollow, which will consist of 87 workforce units containing 217 bedrooms, is also expected to open this winter.

BGV Avon Managing Member Graham Frank said it was important for the company to be developing both projects at the same time, so that the company was adding more workforce housing to Eagle County while simultaneously building a large, free-market luxury project.

“There’s a total crisis up here with housing,” Frank said during a recent tour of Frontgate Avon. “We said we’re going to do something about it, and that’s why we’re doing Fox Hollow.”

Fox Hollow is privately funded by BGV, and the entire project will be used for employee housing for Vail Health employees, with Vail Health purchasing 28 of the units and master leasing the remaining 59 units from BGV.

“(Fox Hollow) is the first and only mountain project that we know that is 100% employee housing and 100% privately funded,” Frank said.

Fox Hollow is expected to be complete in late 2023. Craig Cohen, the chief real estate development officer for Vail Health, said the timing of Fox Hollow’s completion will coincide nicely with the development of Vail Health’s Precourt Healing Center, which is also currently being constructed in Edwards.

“These 218 beds are going to go a long way in helping us staff our facility,” Cohen said in a recent video touting the project. “Fox Hollow will house staff ranging from cleaning and security staff to high-skilled nursing and physicians.”

Rescue project

At any given time, some 150 to 250 workers have been on site at the Frontgate project in Avon. The building’s structure was pre-cast in large blocks, trucked into the valley and assembled “like Legos,” Frank said, allowing BGV to take on an accelerated construction schedule.

BGV began construction in April 2022 after Denver-based lenders Pinetree Financial foreclosed on the property in September 2020. Site work had already begun on the project by the previous developer, Colorado World Resorts, which was adamant about creating a free-market project with no deed-restricted properties.

One of the first changes BGV brought to the project was to add deed-restricted units for worker housing.

“We went back and said we wanted to add two units, six bedrooms, so families that live and work in Eagle County can buy those units and live here,” Frank said. “One of the reasons this project has gone so well to date is it has been a total partnership with the town of Avon, whether it be inspections or approvals or staging or storage, they’ve been amazing to work with.”

The original owners, Colorado World Resorts, had already partially excavated the site and poured concrete in 2019. Those developers were based out of the Front Range and were using their own laborers to perform the site work.

BGV, on the other hand, is using mostly local contractors, Frank said.

“Every contractor on this project has worked for us on another project,” Frank said.

Hard at work

Construction of Frontgate will continue into 2024, but the building’s first residents will be able to occupy their units starting in November, Frank said. Those residents will be able to rent out their units at any time, and guests staying at the building will find many of the same amenities as a luxury hotel.

Frontgate will contain theater rooms, golf simulators, a family adventure zone with virtual reality pods and an arcade, and shared office-workspace area for professionals working remotely. The building also contains a large ski locker room modeled after the Vail Mountain Club, and Frontgate will run regular shuttle services to Vail and Beaver Creek mountains.

The building’s 3,600 square-foot fitness center has a row of north-facing windows allowing the building to be naturally lit, something Frank said is hard to find in Eagle County.

“Almost every fitness center in the valley is below grade and doesn’t have windows,” Frank said. “It’s more energy efficient and it’s a way more pleasant experience, especially in the winter. To have it day-lit, especially when you’re working out, is a big differentiator.”

The parking garage, like the fitness center, will also be window-lit during the day and, with 10 feet of clearance, will be tall enough for a full-size sprinter van with roof rack to enter.

Frontgate will also contain a nearly 10,000 square-foot outdoor aquatics area with a pool, a water slide and two hot tubs. One of those hot tubs will be about the size of a school bus — big enough for 40 people — which Frank says will be the largest in the Vail Valley when complete.

Frank is the former vice president of Vail Resorts’ real estate development division, and he says he took a lot of his learnings from Vail Resorts’ projects to Frontgate Avon. Frank also managed the Arrabelle Project and the Ritz-Carlton residences in Vail, along with One Ski Hill Place in Breckenridge. Some of his key learnings on those projects involved home owner associations — he said by using amenities that require minimal staffing, Frontgate will be able to keep HOA fees low.

“The front desk also services the ski locker room and the coffee room upstairs, and we have a little grab-and-go market but no restaurant,” he said.

East-West Hospitality’s property management division will manage the building, and will be able to flex the amount of housekeeping staff on-site at Frontgate depending on how many owners are renting out their units at any time.

The project will also contain a large solar energy garden to help keep electricity costs low.

“The entire roof is a solar installation that the homeowners benefit from,” Frank said.