The Estes Park Housing Authority on Tuesday unanimously rejected an unsolicited proposal from Paul Pewterbaugh of Crescendo Development, LLC to purchase 24 residential units and the SkyView Events Center at Fall River Village, choosing instead to stick with its original plan to preserve the housing authority’s mission.
The vote came after an emotional public comment from Susan Whiteneck, a Fall River Village resident and public health dental provider, who told the board that residents at Fall River Village had been led to believe they would have time to build stability and eventually pursue homeownership.
“It doesn’t change our housing plans,” Whiteneck said. “It removes our path forward.”
Whiteneck, who said she is one of only two public health dental providers serving the Estes Valley, told the board she and her family moved to Fall River Village believing they would have about five years before the upper units would be sold.
She said the accelerated timeline now being discussed could force working families like hers out of the community and disrupt essential services, including the free dental program for children she helped create at the Salud Family Health Estes Park Clinic.
“It’s not just about property to us,” she said. “It’s about essential services for our community, and whether the people who are providing them can actually be here to do it.”
After public comments, the EPHA board entered executive session for about 10 minutes before returning to open session to discuss the proposal and the housing authority’s long-term development plan for the upper portion of the property.
The housing authority’s original business plan anticipated selling 13 of the larger, higher-value townhomes in order to reduce debt and make the overall project financially sustainable.
Pete Levine, EPHA’s director of real estate development told the board that the debt service on the property was too high to be fully supported by rental income alone. “If we don’t sell any units, the project will not be able to pay the debt,” Levine said.
Levine said the EPHA has been moving ahead with subdivision and planning work before receiving Pewterbaugh ’s letter of interest and that the organization had also received at least one additional unsolicited inquiry about the property.
The EPHA is currently reviewing broker opinions of property valuations and weighing whether to sell units individually over time or in larger chunks, noting that slower sales would increase carrying costs and interest.
Board members, however, made clear they did not support the unsolicited proposal as presented, saying it would undermine the authority’s mission and remove housing opportunities for local workers.
Several board members said the authority should stay committed to the organization’s mission and the plan residents had been given and expressed concern about expanding the number of units to be sold beyond the 13 that had originally been discussed.
Jim Jameson, former vice chair of the EPHA board, called the units “a godsend” for both the organization and the community and said preserving them as “safe, secure, well-maintained, convenient housing” for individuals, couples, and families should remain the priority.
“I wholeheartedly stand behind our initial plan and our initial thought,” said Jameson.
Board members expressed the desire to preserve opportunities for workforce residents to eventually own homes in Estes Park and questioned whether converting SkyView back into an event center made sense within a residential workforce housing development.
Board member Rut Miller, executive director of EVICS, read the EPHA’s mission statement to the board to remind the directors of the organization’s purpose, “In order to ensure a balanced and sustainable community the Estes Park Housing Authority creates and facilitates housing opportunities and services for persons of low and moderate income.”
Scott Moulton, executive director of the EPHA, said the agency plans to use SkyView, originally built as a fancy wedding venue event space, for offices for its growing staff rather than as a childcare facility, and explained that one of the four-bedroom townhouse units could be better used for an on-site childcare center.
Before the vote, the decision facing the directors was framed as a choice between reducing debt more quickly or staying aligned with the housing authority’s mission.
The motion to maintain the original plan for Fall River Village plan passed unanimously.
After the vote, an emotional Moulton, who said he wears his heart on his sleeve, thanked the board for what he described as a reaffirmation of the authority’s purpose.
“I want to thank you for considering the LOI that we received and sticking behind not only our business plan as we originally envisioned under the purchase of this property, but most importantly, our mission,” Moulton said. “Our community thanks you for that.”
Before the meeting adjourned, John Cullen, who sold Fall River Village to the EPHA, made a public comment that he was rendered speechless, “I don’t think I’ve ever been silenced by so much common sense.”
Cullen then informed the EPHA board that the Colorado Educational Cultural Facilities Authority, the state’s official issuer of tax-exempt bonds for capital projects, and its subsiderary, the Stanley Partnership for Arts, Culture and Education, discussed just last week expanding its involvement in Estes Park to include options to finance arts education, arts facilities, and employee housing.
“We will find a solution along the way that keeps the housing mission for not only Fall River, but downtown, Cleave Street, and other places to make affordable housing in a downtown environment where it belongs, where people can walk to work,” Cullen said. He went on to add that CECFA has the ability to issue tax free bonds for these types of projects.
“We will find a solution with this group that keeps that as downtown housing, because you’re not going to be able to find 24 nicer units, better units for that price. No matter what the sale price is, the cost of construction is going through the roof,” Cullen said.
Built in 2008 as an 89-unit vacation lodging by Pewterbaugh, it was then sold in 2022 to an entity connected to Cullen who then sold it to the EPHA in 2024 for conversion to workforce housing.
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