Dear Fellow Owners,
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. It’s hard to believe fall is right around the corner. Aspen is buzzing with end of the summer/early fall activities, and our Aspen Mountain Residences remain quite busy! I wanted to take a few minutes and give you an update on what’s been happening with our wonderful Aspen property. Claudine Grondin, our General Manager, has shared that this has been a very busy and active summer at The Aspen Mountain Residences.
• The Monday owner socials have been well attended
• The paddle boarding on Tuesdays and Wednesdays has been very popular
• Recently introduced, poolside yoga is already receiving wonderful feedback
• This is the fourth summer of our e-bike program, and it remains in high demand
• We’ve also received positive feedback on the total renovation of our two hot tubs by the pool
• We are implementing new software so that owners will be able to view their owned and float times
Board of Directors Information
Our Board of Directors met last month and had a very productive meeting. One of our highest priorities is to put in place a comprehensive updated capital reserve study. This study has been in the works since the beginning of the year and focuses on the current and future expenses related to capital projects which include everything from soft goods, appliances, mechanical systems, electrical systems and everything pertaining to structural engineering. This study, when complete, provides a roadmap to when certain projects potentially need to be completed and the projected cost associated with the materials, and ballpark timing of implementation. The more accurate the study the more accurate our budgets will be for the future.
Some of our current capital reserve projects include:
• New washers and dryers are currently being installed this week
• Refurbishing our ice rink chiller (near completion)
• Planning for the future refurbishment of the bathrooms in all units
• Roof and balcony repairs
Our new board member and treasurer Lara Rogers is doing a terrific job of working with the East West Hospitality finance team led by Vangel Yurukov.
Lara, a chartered accountant (CPA) resides in Bermuda and she and her husband are relatively new owners in Aspen. She took over from long time treasurer and board member, Tim Hall. We all continue to thank Tim for the great work that he did for The Aspen Mountain Residences throughout his tenure. Lara gave a detailed report with the bottom line that both our operating and capital reserve budgets are currently performing better than budgeted. Work is already in progress to begin the budget process for both operating and capital for 2026. We are also very close to having our audit for 2024 completed. Once again, a thank you to Lara for taking on this important role!
Joe Ferguson, our board vice president and chair of our legal committee reported on our two outstanding lawsuits. The first pertains to one of our owners who is suing TAMR so she can bring her dog to the property. Unfortunately, we must waste time and money defending this lawsuit. The second lawsuit is where we are legally trying to recover funds from the interior design firm that dropped the ball on our major refurbishment last year.
As many owners know, we own the property which is known as Lot 6 that comprises the ice skating rink, CP Burgers, and the land on the west side of the ice rink. We are required to maintain and run the ice rink as part of the deed restriction that was placed with the original developer. This requirement is to remain in place for the next 20+ years. We are in the process of retaining a consultant with planning expertise with the City of Aspen to ascertain and explore alternatives for Lot 6 that could benefit the city and TAMR prior to waiting 20 or more years.
I would like to urge all our owners to utilize our website: https://owners.aspenmountainresidences.com and especially take advantage of “time and trade” where you can rent or trade your allocated time with other owners.
If you would like to view the past board meeting, use this zoom link. When prompted, use passcode uB+dme%4
Finally, a special thank you to Claudine and her wonderful team that makes our Aspen home such a special place!
Thank you on behalf of our board,
Thomas Kaplan, Board of Directors President
The Aspen Mountain Residences
tkaplan@kkladvisors.com
Board Members and Owner Director Contact Information:
Joe Ferguson, Vice President – jferguson@rjrcapital.com
Lara Rogers, Treasurer – lara.j.rogers@gmail.com
Peter Wells, Secretary – petercwells@yahoo.com
Bruce Clay – bjc2115@gmail.com
Don Harvey – dharvey@secretariat-intl.com
Jami Champagne (HPC Contractual Appointed Member of the Board)
Claudine Grondin, General Manager – cgrondin@eastwest.com