Project Summary
In the late 2000s, Winter Park Resort decided to relocate its Village Center to the base of the resort property. The project transformed a dirt parking lot into a new gateway to the resort – a memorable “main street” for every skier and visitor to enjoy as an introduction to one of the country’s top ski resorts. Milender White (MW) was the general contractor for this major hospitality project. The project scope included:
- Building a three-story cast in place parking garage, which required the installation of a major dewatering system.
- Constructing 14 high-end custom condo units over the top of the retail spaces and adjacent to the parking garage; each unit was custom.
- Creating spaces for 16 retail stores, with a phased turnover required to allow for build-out in time for the start of ski season.
- Installing a new chair lift from the remote parking lot into the center of the new village core; we constructed the drop-off station and performed all chair lift coordination.
- Installing and routing a new snow melt paver system walk from the base of the chair lift through all of the retail area, dropping to the base of the resort.
- Building a pond that does double duty as a resort amenity – it is a storm water detention pond during part of the year and a skating pond in winter.
- Constructing a new vehicle bridge for buses to drop skiers off at the Village.
- MW and its trade partners also managed to reroute the Fraser River without disturbing its flow rates or wildlife.
In constructing this project, MW self-performed the vertical concrete and the fabrication of the light gauge steel framing. Winter Park typically gets more than 300 inches of snow per year, and the brutal winter climate proved challenging. Through diligent planning and coordination, the field team managed the constraints of inclement weather and the short Rocky Mountains construction season to deliver the project on time and on budget.
