JPMorgan Provides Loan for Telluride Four Seasons

A planned Four Seasons location near Colorado’s ritzy Telluride enclave just got a nine-figure financial boost.

JPMorgan Chase & Company provided a $417 million construction loan for the development of a Four Seasons Resort and Residences outside Telluride, Bloomberg reported. Florida real estate development firms Merrimac Ventures and Fort Partners are developing the $1 billion project.

The hotel is on target to be Telluride region’s first luxury residential or hotel development in more than 15 years, according to Bloomberg.

The project will rise on a 4.4-acre site and include 26 private residences separate from the hotel, ranging from two to five bedrooms. There will be another 43 residences ranging from one to four bedrooms alongside 52 hotel rooms with views of nearby Mount Wilson, Campbell Peak and Palmyra Peak, per Bloomberg. Residents will have access to amenities like a ski valet, fitness center, spa, indoor lap pool and outdoor hot tub.

More than 30 percent of the project’s inventory has already been sold, according to Bloomberg. Pricing for the remaining units starts at approximately $4 million.

Fort Partners and Merrimac Ventures teamed up in the past for the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale. The endeavor in Telluride marks the first domestic project outside the Sunshine State for both firms.

“The idea is to create a Surf Club-style property, only a mountain version,” Dev Motwani, co-managing partner of Merrimac, told The Wall Street Journal of the project. While Motwani isn’t much of a skier, Fort Partners CEO Nadim Ashi is an avid lover of the slopes and spent winters over the past three decades in Telluride.

While high-end ski resorts in Colorado haven’t been hurting in recent years, Telluride is a unique outpost with its own set of obstacles for visitors and developers to overcome. The airport lacks nonstop flights from major cities besides nearby Denver, and the city itself deals with changing snowfall patterns and the effects of climate change. Still, Ashi envisions turning Telluride into a year-round tourist destination.

The Four Seasons’ Telluride location is expected to be completed in 2028.— Chris Malone Méndez