Copper Mountain's Center Village. Ski season starts Nov 2nd.

The Center Village at Copper Mountain is the newest base area closest to the American Flyer and the American Eagle lifts.  The majority of the Village was built in 1999 and 2000, with Passage Point built a little later, in 2001. It is a part of what was heralded as the "rennaisance" of Copper Mountain, when Intrawest bought the resort and started redeveloping the base area. 

The main cafeteria for the ski mountain is called Jack's, and it has had an awesome salad bar the last two years, even serving ahi.  I hope they have it again this season.  Jack's is right at the base of the mountain, between both lifts, and is in the Copper One Lodge building,  with retail shops, ski rental, restrooms, lockers and the Camp Hale coffee shop.  The upper floors of Copper One Lodge have 63 condominiums, from studios to one bedrdoom, one bedroom/den and two bedroom units.  The condos looking straight up the ski mountain are awesome places to stay in the spring, with the sun shining on the decks while you watch skiers coming home at the end of the day.  Access to the mountain is directly out the front door of the building, so it is truly a ski-in, ski-out building. 

The next closest building to the mountain is Mill Club.  It sits right at the base of the American Eagle lift.  On the lower level are a couple of good restaurants, the Storm King Lounge and the Incline Grill, and a retail store.  The next three floors house 31 condominiums.  These condo homes are the largest in the Center Village area, and the most expensive.  The front condos have full views straight up the mountain and ones on the back of the building overlook West Lake, a skating pond in winter and boating pond in summer. 

Behind Copper One Lodge is Tucker Mountain Lodge.  Between the two buildings is a climbing wall, for additional summer fun.  Tucker has a couple of retail stores in the lower level and the rest of the building consists of 84 condominiums.  Tucker is the only newer building with lock-off units.  They bring in considerably more income than a standard, two bedroom condo as the  second bedroom has a murphy bed and hideabed, so will sleep four comfortably.  As a rental, it can be locked off from the rest of the condo and used as a hotel room, leaving the other portion to be rented as a one bedroom condo.  The south side of the building has ski slope views, over the roof of the Copper Commons convention area, and creek views on the north. 

Taylor's Crossing sits behind Mill Club, still only about 100 yards from the lifts.  It faces West Lake on the east side and Ten Mile Creek on the north.  A restaurant, the Alpinista Mountain Bistro, and a gift shop are on the lower level and 50 condominiums make up the rest of the building.  The floor plans and furnishings are similar to Tucker, although Taylor's does not have lockoff condos.  All four buildings share a common parking garage underneath them, and elevators take guests up to the condo units above.  All buildings have fitness rooms, steam rooms and hot tubs.  Wireless internet is also available and almost all units have decks.

On the other side of the creek is Passage Point, the newest of the Center Village condo buildings.  The 134 condos are about 10% larger than the standard in the Village, which makes up for being just a bit further away from the lifts.  Starbucks has a store nearby and a bank occupies part of the ground level.  There is also an excellent restaurant, the CB Grille. Most of the front condo units have fabulous ski slope views. Many have great river views.

Other condo complexes that help to make up the Center village, even though they were built some time ago are Telemark Lodge, The Lodge at Copper, West Lake Lodge, Bridge End, Snowbridge Square, Copper Junction, Spruce Lodge, Mountain Plaza and Village Square.  One of the requirements when buying a condo in the Center Village is that a transfer fee of 1.5% of the purchase price be paid to the Village Association.  Whether it is paid by Buyer or Seller is negotiable as part of the purchase contract.   It is only required in the new buildings.  Additionally, a quarterly Village Association fee must be paid by owners of these condos, and it is not required of the older ones.  However, dues tend to be lower in the newer buildings, so the Village dues, which are fairly low, are not usually a big issue. 

I have been a homeowner at Copper for several years, and am a guide for the Over the Hill Gang.  I know Copper inside and out, so if you have any questions about anything there, whether Copper Mountain real estate or not, feel free to call me!