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The town of Rico, sitting at an elevation of 9,000 feet between Dolores and Telluride, remains one of the least developed towns in the San Juans. Recently, a developer has proposed the possibilty of a new hot springs resort./ Courtesy photo
Next major resort town? Let’s put the brakes on declaring Rico the new Pagosa or Glenwood Springs by Jonathan Romeo
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ecently, you may have seen headlines in the news proclaiming that the small mountain town of Rico could become Colorado’s next major hot springs resort destination, á la Pagosa Springs or Glenwood Springs. And, like most of the people in Rico, you may have freaked out a little bit. “People were outraged when they saw that in the news,” Benn Vernadakis, a Rico town trustee, said. “We were horrified with the prospect of a development like that. Everyone was freaking out.” Vernadakis is referring to an April 6 article in The Denver Post entitled “Could spot on Dolores River be Colorado’s next hot springs destination?” after an Arizona development company listed 1,200 acres in and around Rico for sale, pitching the property as a place for a new hot springs resort. Many town officials and residents, however, say a project of that scale is not even possible, given restraints with topography, the lack of infrastructure (like sewer) in town and the biggie: water rights for all the new development. And, that’s not to men-
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tion Rico’s own master plan is very clear the town does not want to sell itself out to become a resort destination. Even the firm brokering the sale, Telluride Properties, doesn’t envision Rico becoming the next Pagosa Springs or Glenwood Springs. “Rico is a small, beautiful mountain community, and I don’t think the town would ever accommodate a large hot spring resort like Glenwood,” Eric Saunders, a broker with Telluride Properties, said. “Personally, I envision a smaller scale version of it. But that will be up to the town and the buyer.” Rico, a small community of about 300 people sandwiched between Dolores and Telluride, remains one of the last relatively undeveloped towns in the San Juan Mountains, perched at an elevation of 9,000 feet. But with development pressures on mountain towns all over the West, change is happening. So let’s take the opportunity here to put the brakes on and dive deeper. Boiled down history Dreams of a large-scale development in Rico have been in the works for decades,
ever since the decline of mining, which dropped the population from 5,000 in the late 1890s to 300 as of today. And the one potential saving grace has been the geothermal resources under Rico’s surface. In the 1980s, a group of investors by the name of “Rico Renaissance” started buying up old mining claims – not with plans to dig in the dirt for metals, but instead make way for more than 300 new homes, a riverside lodge, a light industrial park and, yes, a hot springs resort. The prospect of such a development prompted residents to develop a master plan to help guide the vision of growth, which was completed and adopted in 2004. And right there, on page 2, reads, “the Rico community will preserve its traditional authentic small town character and will not allow tourism to transform the community into a typical Colorado mountain resort area.” Rico Renaissance’s plans never came to fruition, however, after the Great Recession derailed it in 2007-08. And since then, the property sat mostly idle until it was listed for sale in April, renewed by the interest in mountain living courtesy the
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COVID pandemic. “The pandemic shifted everyone’s outlook on the work-life balance,” real estate broker Saunders said. “We think now is a nice time for Rico to take a step in a positive direction.” ‘Possibilities are endless’ Indeed, Telluride Properties came out with a splash, going so far as hiring a PR firm out of Los Angeles to get the property in headlines across the U.S. (resulting in The Denver Post story and other coverage on TV news). Branded as the “Silver Springs at Rico,” the website offering is sleek and chic – almost the antithesis when one thinks of Rico. Regardless, the listing offers a “one-ofa-kind development opportunity” for the 1,146-acre property, which could be turned into a hotel & resort, a new housing complex, a spa/wellness retreat or any combination of these things – “the possibilities are endless,” Saunders said. But Saunders said the listing simply puts out a number of development scenarios as ideas. In the past few years, Saunders said Rico Renaissance changed its name to Disposition Properties, whose owners are aging
