DENVER (AP) — The owner of Granby Ranch is surrendering the ski and golf community in northern Colorado to avoid foreclosure.
Marise Cipriani hand-delivered a letter to the Town of Granby’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday night at the town’s deadline for her to pay for about $3 million worth of road repairs to her resort community, The Colorado Sun reported.
“My family, the Granby Ranch employees and I have given over 20 years of our lives, through many ups and downs, to the realization of the vision for Granby Ranch,” she wrote. “It is now time for a new chapter to be written under new ownership.”
Cipriani’s Granby Ranch Holdings is surrendering the property to lender Granby Prentice LLC, a Delaware-based company that loaned the resort nearly $56 million in 2016, a month after the company formed. Granby Prentice plans to team up with a California-based real estate investment firm to manage the nearly 8-square-mile (21-square-kilometer) property.
“I think in the big picture, this is good for the development and it’s the right thing for the project. This is a multi-billion-dollar company that will own it, and they have more resources if they choose to develop it or if they find a development partner,” Granby Mayor Paul Chavoustie said. “In the end, this is a positive for the community.”
Cipriani wrote in her letter to the town board that she was finalizing a sale to a Denver-based development firm when Granby Prentice declined to proceed.
Cipriani and her husband paid $12 million in 1995 for what was then known as the Silver Creek ski area. She developed a golf course and a small ski village but never realized her vision for a 5,500-unit mountain resort.
Marise Cipriani also owned the Berthoud Pass ski area but shut it down in 2001, citing financial losses.