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Last single-family lots at Keystone sell before the blessing

Reid Williams

KEYSTONE – Three million dollars in home sites sold – even before the American Indians blessed the project.

Keystone Real Estate Developments (KRED) opened Alders home sites for sale Saturday. The 23 home sites are the last of Keystone’s single-family-home properties under the resort’s current master plan.

John Kavounas, KRED director of sales and marketing, said the first phase of the Alders project was offered to preferred buyers, mostly homeowners in the Keystone area. Kavounas said the buyers picked up nine of the sites – all located south of Montezuma Road, along Independence Road.



“We’ll be opening up the second phase once an easement issue is cleared up,” Kavounas said. A building housing architects also sits on the border of some of the sites and will be torn down, he added.

The sales were a positive sign to many in attendance Saturday, allaying fears that an economic downturn might stifle high-end real estate in Summit County. The land parcels are selling for $214,000 to $599,000 and range in size from a quarter to half acre.



Later that afternoon, KRED, Vail Resorts and Intrawest employees joined a group of Lakota Sioux singers in blessing the project. Calvin Standing Bear of South Dakota led the group of more than 30 in prayer and song.

Standing Bear placed tobacco in the hands of Intrawest vice president of development Mike O’Connor, Intrawest marketing director Jill Peterson and Keystone Resort development director Thomas Davidson. The three later spread the tobacco on the earth beneath trees. Standing Bear also lit sage in a seashell and passed it around the prayer circle to purify the group.

Standing Bear had visited the area eight years ago to bless the groundbreaking for the Village at River Run.

“We think it’s good that the developers want to break ground in a conscious manner,” Standing Bear said to the prayer circle in between songs. “All things have a spirit. We must be aware that a great deal of disruption of life will take place as a result. We must make the effort to create a balance by giving back to the universe.”

Reid Williams can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 237, or rwilliams@summitdaily.com.


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