Excavation work has begun near Winter Park Town Hall at 50 Vasquez Road, the future downtown landing zone for an aerial gondola that will connect Winter Park Resort to a rebuilt town center, and the first physical act in what officials describe as the most consequential development period in the community’s history, Izzy Wagner reported for Sky-Hi News today.
Winter Park Town Manager Jon Peacock, speaking to Sky-Hi News, called the gondola the opening chapter of a seven-year transformation, one that will see the town nearly double its housing stock and grow its hotel room inventory by 400–500% by 2033.
“What this gondola is going to do is form a new axis to create a pedestrian downtown entertainment corridor that will add depth and connect to the resort,” Jon Peacock said.
The Winter Park Gondola That Almost Nobody Believed Would Happen
That axis has been central to Winter Park’s vision since at least 2022, when the resort submitted its Mountain Development Plan to the U.S. Forest Service. SnowBrains covered that submission extensively. The plan placed a nearly two-mile, 10-person gondola running from Cooper Creek Square to the resort base at the heart of an overarching connectivity strategy—the physical mechanism for uniting a resort and a town that have long operated in proximity without being genuinely linked. The gondola would carry up to 3,500 people at a time, with the ski train from Denver arriving at the resort end and three planned hotels positioned within walking distance of the downtown terminal.
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The transportation logic, as Peacock outlined it to Sky-Hi News, is to reduce car dependency from the moment visitors arrive. Those driving to Winter Park would be encouraged to park downtown, stay in lodging near the gondola terminal, and ride up to the mountain rather than drive to the base area. That model requires the corridor, the hotels, the commercial space, the pedestrian infrastructure, to exist alongside the gondola itself, which is precisely what the seven-year buildout is designed to deliver.
The Base Area Buildout Already Underway
The groundwork for that buildout has been advancing steadily. SnowBrains reported in June 2025 that the Winter Park Town Council rezoned the entire 177-acre resort base area, creating the legal framework for phased development across the site. The following month, the council approved the first final development plan for 15 acres within the Resort Village and Welcome Village neighborhoods. Designed by Alterra Mountain Company and the Winter Park Recreational Association, that plan calls for up to 400 multifamily units, 35,000 square feet of commercial and service space, and nearly four acres of preserved open space, with construction targeted to begin as early as summer 2026.
The gondola sits within that framework as the anchor of “Connect Winter Park,” the aerial transit initiative that resort and town planners have consistently described as the backbone of the entire connectivity vision. Funding will come through tax increment financing—a Colorado mechanism that directs the increased property tax revenue generated by redevelopment back into the public infrastructure that enabled it. Roads, utilities, the gondola itself, and the infrastructure on both sides of its landing zones are all intended to be funded through that model across an estimated five-year absorption period.
What the Winter Park Gondola Masterplan Looks Like on the Mountain
On the mountain itself, the ambitions that surround the gondola are equally significant. SnowBrains has followed Winter Park’s USFS master development plan since its 2022 submission. That plan proposes expanding terrain onto Vasquez Mountain, growing total skiable acreage from 3,095 to 3,439—enough to make Winter Park the third-largest ski area in Colorado, behind only Vail and Steamboat. Skier capacity would increase 41%, from 15,830 to 22,375. Snowmaking coverage would expand from 280 to 605 acres. The aging Gemini Express chairlift would be replaced by a high-capacity 10-passenger gondola, capable of moving 3,600 people per hour, while multiple other lifts across the mountain would be upgraded to modern detachable systems.
New dining would arrive on Vasquez Ridge, replacing the existing Sundance Chili Hut with a 10,000-square-foot facility including a 3,000-square-foot deck. New beginner and intermediate terrain would open via a six-person chairlift at Cooper Creek summit, requiring the decommissioning of the historic Looking Glass lift—one of the oldest operating chairlifts in Colorado.
More Than $100 Million Already Invested
The resort has not waited for those approvals before beginning to invest. Prior to the current phase, Winter Park committed more than $100 million to upgrades, including the Wild Spur Express, a new high-speed six-person lift that improved access to Vasquez Ridge terrain, and Conifer Commons, a workforce housing complex built to address the housing pressure that has accompanied resort growth across mountain communities throughout the West.
The Aspen Warning
Peacock, who served as Pitkin County manager before taking the Winter Park role, has watched that pressure up close. Pitkin County is home to Aspen and Snowmass Village, two communities that underwent transformations of ambition similar to what Winter Park is now proposing, and lost much of their working-community character in the process. He told Sky-Hi News that Winter Park can chart a different course, in part because the majority of its visitors come from Colorado’s Front Range rather than from distant destination markets, and in part because Grand County retains an authenticity rooted in working people who still live and operate there. He also acknowledged that the outcome is not automatic—it requires strategic management of growth, potentially including deed-restricted commercial properties to keep local businesses viable alongside the incoming development.
What Happens Next for the Winter Park Gondola
Before the gondola proceeds, the town must secure a property easement and hire a project engineer. Staff plan to bring three design options for the landing area to the town council as early as this month, followed by a public comment period.
The approvals are not all in hand. But the excavators working the site at 50 Vasquez Road have answered the question that has hung over Winter Park’s master plan for years. The gondola is no longer a slide in a presentation. It is a project under construction, and the larger transformation it was always meant to anchor has begun.
