Porritt Group pitches master plan for redeveloping Dillon town core with 5 new structures
The plan would reportedly result in 271 new market-rate residential units, 282 workforce housing units, 4 new restaurant spaces and numerous commercial and retail spaces, if approved

Porritt Group/Courtesy illustration
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the date of the Dillon Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
The developer planning big changes in Dillon has proposed a conceptual master plan for redeveloping the town core that includes five structures, including a new town hall and workforce housing.
The Dillon Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to review the concept master plan submitted by the Porritt Group, which is owned by Developer Jake Porritt, at its meeting on Wednesday, June 5.
“Its purely conceptual,” Dillon Town Manager Nathan Johnson said of Porritt’s concept master plan. “The thought here was to bring it into a public forum to get public feedback to get some of these ideas and concepts they have out there and to really try to increase public engagement, public outreach opportunities.”
The Planning Commission’s meeting agenda includes a staff memo written by Dillon Senior Town Planner Ned West that outlines the five structures, two of which have received approval from the town but three of which are still conceptual.
The proposed redevelopment projects would result in 271 new market-rate residential units, 282 workforce housing units, four new restaurant spaces and numerous commercial and retail spaces, including a small grocery store, the staff memo states.
Porritt’s conceptual plan proposes a municipal meeting building at 149 Tenderfoot St. near the southeastern corner of Lake Dillon Drive and its intersection with U.S. Highway 6, where single-story retail shops currently stand. The municipal meeting building is proposed to be a gateway feature to the town with elevated aesthetic features, West wrote in the memo.

The stalled condominium project at 240 Lake Dillon Drive, once known as Uptown 240, is also included as part of Porritt’s conceptual redevelopment of the town core. The town has previously approved that project with 71 market-rate residential condominiums and nine workforce housing units.
After purchasing the Uptown 240 property at a bankruptcy sale earlier this year, Porritt has sought to resume construction of the project there. When completed, the former Uptown 240 project would also reportedly include a large restaurant on the corner of Lake Dillon Drive and W. Buffalo Street, additional retail spaces, a gym and an activity room for residence.

Porritt’s redevelopment concept also proposes a workforce housing project at 275 Lake Dillon Drive. The proposed project is directly adjacent to Town Park and would include 130 residential units and 289 parking spaces within a two-level parking garage, according to the staff memo, which didn’t note how it would be financed.
Further, Porritt’s concept proposes a mixed-use building at the corner of Lake Dillon Drive and East LaBonte Street — which is on a plot of land where a shopping center and Pug Ryan’s Brewery is located — with 143 workforce housing units, 445 parking spaces and over 21,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store.
The controversial “branded residence” development that Town Council approved as a planned unit development in a 4-2 vote in March is the final piece of Porritt’s proposed master plan.

The five-story structure with 200 condominium units, three restaurants and retail spaces will fund many of the public improvements associated with the other concepts in the masterplan, West wrote in the staff memo.
But some residents opposed to the development have organized a referendum effort that could force Town Council to reconsider its approval of the project or put the question of its approval to a town vote.
Without the branded residence project to generate funds through the metro districts the Dillon Town Council approved last year, many of the concepts in Porritt’s master plan cannot be realized, West said.
Porritt has previously said that more than 75% of the taxbase for the metro districts will be generated by the project at 626 Lake Dillon Drive. The 200 condo units there would be “branded residences,” meaning individuals would own their condo unit but be able to rent it out as a short-term rental through a management company like Marriot, Hyatt or Hilton.
That lakefront structure, which Porritt scaled back from his original proposal of a five-star luxury hotel and indoor amphitheater at the site, would also include a public observation tower and private pool and terrace.
Some residents opposed to the branded residence development have raised concerns about the building’s size and scale, particularly the height variance that the structure received through the planned unit development process. Other concerns from residents have focused on the lack of affordable housing that was associated with the branded residence project when it was pitched.
Porritt, when asked about the referendum petition, said that the planned unit development application the Town Council approved for the project allowed him to make certain considerations about the size and shape of the building that wouldn’t be possible with the underlying zoning.
The building that could be built under the existing zoning for the waterfront property “by right” — or without requiring approval by the Town Council — would be “more obstructive and much less attractive” Porritt said. It would be “just as large in square footage” and “spread across the entire site,” he said.
The Planning Commission is also scheduled Wednesday to have a follow-up discussion about the branded residence development and how the petition could impact what could be constructed there.

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism
As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.
Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.
Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.