See Forever Update, Aug. 2023

See Forever Owners:

I want to provide a quick update on a number of topics:

1.   Lot 109-R.   Despite our efforts, the Town Council approved the development by a 4-3 vote. We did everything we could to combat this, and one of the council members who voted against the development did mention that over 20 See Forever owners were opposed to this development. Unfortunately, we did not prevail.   

Our focus now shifts to ensuring we have continued safe and convenient access to the Village Core throughout the construction period, as well as following up with Council to ensure that the developer has sufficient funding to see the project through, understand the proposed timeline and # of years we will be inconvenienced, etc.   There are still a number of issues that the developer must resolve, but the project is approved.  You can see the follow up letter I sent in the attachment.

2. Roof is on track. The cabins have all been roofed, and we are now awaiting the electrical part of the project....heat tape, snow fences, etc.  Our roofing consulting was on premise two weeks ago to inspect progress, and assures us we are on track to have everything ready for early October.  So far, we are on budget.  

We are also finalizing the reroof bid package for the Wilson and Sophia buildings that will be completed next year.   We expect to select a company by September 30. This is a big project, so we really need to get an expert roofer hired. 

3. Staffing Changes.  Alberto is moving on to focus full time on his cart/catering business.  He is a terrific person, and has been a welcome addition to our team, but we understand his entrepreneurial itch and wish him the best.....and we will be frequent visitors to his food carts in the core!

Telluride Consulting is now evaluating how they will provide us with enhanced maintenance capabilities by better leveraging their other maintenance resources as well as hiring a maintenance engineer to focus on our property. More to come on this, but getting the proper mechanical support is critical to all of us. Our building is aging and we need someone who can fix many of the day to day issues. 

4. Building improvements.   Now that Telluride Consulting is familiar with the property we are undertaking several projects

 - CO monitors in the garage are not functioning.  This is a safety issue, so we are replacing them 

 - Cameras will be installed in garage entrance and trash entrances by end of summer, and we will then evaluate lobby area security systems.   We have not had theft issues on our property, but have had issues with people damaging the garage door, and with unpermitted trash being dumped in our bins.  The immediate focus is to address these issues, and then determine budget impact  and appropriate actions for additional cameras in lobby access areas. 

 - Potential foundation issues.  Those of you who have walked the back staircase in Wilson have noticed the large cracks in the walls. This is of significant concern, and we hired a structural engineer to assess the situation. The implications and required actions of the preliminary inspections are inconclusive, but there is definitely a foundation settling issue.  We do not yet know if the cracks are increasing in size or have stabilized, and additional work is required in order to understand that and determine the appropriate remediation actions. We also discovered some foundation issues in the Sophia building as well. This is not a positive outcome, but we need to protect the safety of our owners so will do additional work to determine the severity of the issue and the extent and cost of remediation plans. 

 - Fire mitigation on hill leading up to our buildings.   We are evaluating thinning the trees  in order to minimize the potential of fire moving up the hill from the Valley Floor to our units.   There are several dead trees and many spruce that are prone to spreading fire, so we are evaluating options to create a better fire barrier by selectively reducing the number of trees.   Mountain Village has a forestry expert who will lead this evaluation, but it is something we will evaluate in order to better protect our property.....and ideally receive an insurance benefit. 

 - Boilers.    Telluride Consulting has spent a lot of time evaluating our boilers, and we have spent a lot of HOA money replacing mis sized pumps, gaskets, etc. to ensure every unit has hot water. We might end up hiring a 3rd party to do a thorough investigation of our boilers, but the normal useful life is 25+ years, so we should not need to replace them. Of course, that is predicated upon proper preventative maintenance, which was not always been done. 

 - Water Leak detectors.   All of us owners have water leak detectors in our units,    and these should be linked to your cell phone, to your property manager if    appropriate, and to Telluride Consulting so that in the event of a leak they can quickly respond.   Please add 970-729-3633  (Telluride Consulting resource #) to your Flo Logic device notifications if you already have the app set up. Telluride Consulting will be reaching out to owners with further instructions on setup and linking the appropriate phone numbers for emergency response.

 - Manifold inspections have been completed in each unit.  There are several units that have issues, and Telluride Consulting will be contacting those owners to schedule repairs during the fall offseason.  This is an owner expense, but the HOA will coordinate the repairs, as a problem in one unit can leak to others. 

4. Budget. Telluride Consulting has finally completed the analysis of our finances. It was a challenge, as the books they inherited were not well organized. Key points:

 - We are overspent on our operating budget by approximately $20K for the year.  This is due primarily to a significant overspend in snow removal due to the far above average snowfall, repairs on boiler, and extra trash service pickup. This spending shortfall is not a crisis, but something we will need to address next year. 

 - There was a small mistake in all of our invoices that we have received this year.    Bottom line is that all of us owners were not charged the dues we were told we would be charged and that was communicated in the documents we reviewed during our Owners meeting.  They undercharged by 15 cents/ft on the operating dues, and 10 cents/ft on the capital reserve.  It was a mistake. We are not going to retroactively charge for this, but in your next invoice, please note that the per ft assessment will be slightly increased....to match exactly the per ft numbers presented at our spring owners meeting when we all approved the budget.  That is $8.00/ft for operating dues, and  $4.29/ft for reserves.   Note that had we properly charged, the operating budget would be closer to on plan. 

 - The prior Property management company and HOA board never charged owners for their Flo Logic leak detectors  mentioned above. The HOA paid for these, and was supposed to bill back each owner for their fair share cost.  This was communicated to owners at the time (I was an owner and remember that we were going to be charged). This bill back was not done.  It is a big miss, and since none of the current HOA Board, nor Telluride Consulting, were in place when this was done, there is no one to yell at.   This goes back 2 1/2 years ago, so the HOA (and all of us owners), will just eat the cost in our budget and we will not attempt to bill back each owner for work that was done over 2 1/2 years ago. This has NO impact on our HOA cash balance, as the cash was disbursed in 2021.  But it does impact the financial statements, as we should have billed back and collected $36,000 two years ago. This will not happen again. 

5.  Insurance.   We are starting the process to secure insurance for our property.  We just received notice last week that our current policy will not be renewed, which is very disappointing given the work we are doing on the roof and other initiatives.   Andrew has a lot of experience dealing with high end property insurance, so he is taking the lead in working with Telluride Consulting to identify better and more creative options for us.   More to come on this, but we want to keep everyone informed that insurance remains a serious challenge.......things like the  Hawaii fire  and Florida hurricanes do not help. 

To summarize, our building is getting old.....17 years means things start breaking.  Unfortunately, we have not historically done a great job of maintaining things, and for the first decade did not assess a capital reserve, so  we are now bearing the consequences.   I feel very good about our decision to move to Telluride Consulting, and they are terrific partners for us. The board is confident that we are on the right track of addressing lingering issues, and that with Garrett and Scott's help, we will maintain See Forever as a premium property in the area.

Thanks for your continued support and ideas.

Bill



Letter sent to Town Council post their decision to approve Lot 109-R

Dear Town Council

It is with regret that I watched the most recent council meeting where you approved development of Lot 109-R with the extended PUD.  On behalf of the 23 See Forever 2 owners who made our concerns known, I am disappointed that you did not listen to the neighbors most impacted, but instead listened to Telluride merchants who do not live in our community, do not  pay taxes, but have vested interests in people moving here who might buy their furniture or purchase real estate.  But so be it. We disagree, but respect your decision, and appreciate the time you spend trying to make our community better. 

Now the hard part:  making it work. We have two concerns:

1. What is access mitigation plan?  We See Forever residents.......over 38 of us between both HOA's.....must be able to safely walk from our See Forever properties - assume Mt Wilson Lobby- to the Village core. Right  now it seems that we will have to walk  down the road, then cut down a staircase to be built. I am guessing none of you have made this walk at night, or in the winter, so I want to bring up an important concern that needs to be addressed and resolved before construction begins. 

- The road we will have to traverse is narrow, especially in the winter when snow is plowed on the side.  It is very icy.  It is dark with no lighting. How are we to safely walk to the Village core?   Will you be building a heated sidewalk so that we can go from our property to the core?  If not, will you provide transportation service on an every 15 minute basis so that we can get to and from our properties?  We have safe and convenient access now, so we cannot have anything less than that during and after the construction period.  My concern, on behalf of our See Forever property owners, is that without a remediation plan such as that described above  we will be placed in an unsafe position and cause injury to our owners. We like living here, we like being safe, and want to   understand  Council's plans to ensure we remain having safe access to the gondola and core. 

2. I have written this question  before, but I do not think the Council has yet responded.  A very important issue in any development is financing.  Basic business practice calls for a financing commitment from a reputable investor and bank before a project is approved or a business is sold.   The developer may have provided Council with evidence of a firm financing commitment from reputable investors and  banks, but such document  has not been communicated in meetings or council material.  Only  the LOI from Six Senses has been discussed, and since it is non binding, that is interesting, but not worth much.

Do you have evidence that the developer has this financing commitment? A development such as that proposed will cost well in excess of $100MM.  As I am sure you are aware, interest rates are high, property defaults nationally are rising, and the availability of financing is reduced.  So I wonder if the developer has provided  a letter of commitment from a major bank and investment group that funds the hundred million dollar + investment. No one  can purchase a Mountain Village property without first providing a Proof of Funds statement along with their offer. In my business, I cannot buy a company, nor will I  sell a company, unless the other party has a financing commitment authorized by a money center bank.  It is just standard procedure. I have asked this question to Council  before but I have not seen this issue publicly  addressed.  The worst case scenario is the developer starts construction, runs out of money, and we have a hole in the ground for years.  The fact that people stated during the meeting the history of the Peaks and The Madeleine both being foreclosed upon does not inspire much confidence on developers' track records here in Mountain Village.  So I urge you to take the appropriate steps to  ensure this development does not follow a similar track record.   That is a core responsibility of council - to ensure that the developer has the means to succeed, and not ensuring appropriate financing would be a negligent.

While  I disagree with your decision, I respect it.  It is now time to make sure  that the developer does what he says, on the timeline he says he will do it, and to ensure that the quality of life and safety of See Forever owners is maintained to current standards. Is there a time we can meet to walk the See Forever property and street and understand Town's plans to provide us with safe access during the next 5+ years of construction?  On behalf of the See Forever owners who purchased in Mountain Village and pay taxes in Mountain Village, I look forward to understanding the mitigation plan, and to ensuring that the developer builds the property to specifications, and on time. 

Sincerely,

Bill Nictakis
President See Forever 2 HOA