ODDS and ENDS

Monday, January 17, 2011

1.  RECORDS SET AT LOCAL AIRPORT IN EAGLE:  Two record flight days marked the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, both surpassing the previous record which was set before the economy went in the tank.  December 26th, 2010 saw 291 incoming and outgoing flights in one day breaking the previous record of 261 flights.  That new record fell eight days later when 299 flights flew in and out of Eagle County Regional Airport ... representing a landing or takeoff just about every two minutes.  Good weather, the new extended runway, and the airport's new instrument landing system helped achieve those numbers.  The Vail Valley Jet Center next door which fuels and services private jets reports business was up about 10 % over the same period last year.

2.  EXCLUSIVE RESORTS FOUNDERS TRY SOMETHING NEW:  Tough economic times are the mother of invention and "Inspirato" is ER co-founder Brent Handler's newest invention.  Membership in "Inspirato" provides access to high-end destinations in a variety of locales coupled with personalized services usually afforded the very rich, but without the high upfront membership cost of destination club memberships which can run in the six and seven figures.  Members can join "Inspirato" for a one-time iniation fee of $9,500.  Then they pay nightly market rates to reserve stays in any of the more than 40 luxury residences in Inspirato's portfolio of  beach, mountain and European vacation destinations ... among them Vail and Beaver Creek.  Other destinations include Tuscany, Maui and the Big Island, Aspen, Snowmass, Los Cabos, and Deer Valley.  There's an annual membership renewal fee of $2,500.  Their website is http://www.inspirato.com/.

3.  PLANS TO CAPTURE THE MEDICAL TOURISM MARKET:  The land near The Gashouse Restaurant in Edwards, site of the old B&B Excavating gravel pit, has been approved ... in very preliminary, sketch-plan form ... for the creation of Eagle River Meadows, a combination of 180 housing units and up to 260,000 square feet of medical campus space.  For now, originally-proposed plans to build an additional 240 homes north of the Eagle River have been scrapped.  It's the possibility of creating new jobs and diversifying the local economy, which currently relies almost totally on recreational tourism, that most attracted the interest of the Eagle County Commissioners who approved the plan last week.