Filling the Voids
The combination of opening day at Aspen Mountain and Snowmass, Thanksgiving and the women’s World Cup ski races made for an energetic start to the season. Some bemoaned the lack of snow, but anyone with perspective knows that the skiing was more than satisfactory for late November.
What likely surprised folks who were back in Aspen for the first time in a year wasn’t the sparse snowcover, but the abundance of empty storefronts. The blackness of the former D19 space coupled with a curiously unopened Pacifica made for a dead spot next to Wagner Park, where things are normally quite hopping, and there are many other prime retail spaces currently sitting empty. In fact, Aspen's vacancy rate is at an all time high.
Fortunately, as reported in the Aspen Daily News yesterday, Aspen landlords, who’ve seen their long run of having an excess of prospective tenants grind to a halt over the last year, are displaying some flexibility and allowing winter-only leases. Aspen Grove has moved some of its art into the former Chepita space. Hopefully more vacant retail spaces will fill before the winter tourists show up in big numbers, which is a matter of a couple of weeks away.
