Photo: Elk Run Condominiums
Home-buying is also stifled by a scarcity of ‘entry level’ homes…
— from “What We Know About the State of American Housing” by Carl Smith, on Governing.com, July 2, 2026.
On June 29, a few minutes before the Pagosa Springs Town Council voted unanimously to enter into auctions to potentially purchase three condominium properties near Village Lake, local resident Nancy Rea stepped up to the microphone to offer public comment on three proposed ordinances.
Ordinance 1030 stated that the Council will serve as a “stalking horse” bidder in a bankruptcy auction for Masters Place, a 20-unit condominium.
Ordinance 1031 stated that the Council will serve as a “stalking horse” bidder in a bankruptcy auction for Village Pointe, a 32-unit condominium.
Ordinance 1032 stated that the Council will serve as a “stalking horse” bidder in a bankruptcy auction for Elk Run Townhomes, an 18-unit condominium.
Ms. Rea’s comments did not seem to influence the unanimous approval of all three ordinances.
These properties are located outside the town limits and were previously part of the Wyndham Resort. As the Council members noted, an opportunity like this, to potentially provide much-needed workforce housing in Archuleta County, doesn’t come along every day.
A few years ago, the Town Council voted to purchase three vacant parcels within the town limits, on which to build new workforce housing units, but nothing has come of those plans, for reasons that have never been fully explained. (Although we’ve made an attempt to explain them here in the Daily Post.)
Faced with the failure — over the past 20 years — to address perhaps the most serious crisis in the community, the Town Council is unanimously behind a plan to convert three condominium complexes into workforce housing, by buying properties that the Wyndham timeshare owners have walked away from.
Local resident Nancy Rea, who lives about half a mile north of the bankrupt condos, wanted to share a few thoughts with the Council.
“I don’t live within the [town limits] but I have lived in Archuleta County… we moved here in 1979, and I’m familiar with the construction and how Fairfield and Wyndham and all that area has grown…”
The condo complexes under consideration at the June 29 special meeting were originally part of ‘Fairfield Pagosa’. Fairfield declared bankruptcy back in 1990, and the timeshare collection later became Wyndham Resorts.
“I’m concerned for the Town of Pagosa, because I’m worried about what’s going to happen to these units, based on my calculations of what Wyndham has been earning from these units all these years, and what the expenses are. And how they have decided to walk away from these units.
“I’ve never really known anyone to walk away from something, if it was making money.
“And I’m thinking how they were making more money in maintenance fees than you will be making in rent.
“I want to apologize to you for even coming, because I haven’t been part of this [conversation] and I used to go to a lot of the Town Council meetings and commissioners’ meetings, and I would see these people who would walk in at the last minute, and I would think, ‘Where have you been? How can you walk in at the last minute with all your comments?’
“I know you’ve been working really hard on this for a number of months. The first I learned of it was when I saw it in the Pagosa SUN a couple of weeks ago, and I was really surprised.”
It’s no wonder that Ms. Rea was surprised. The Town Council has indeed been discussing ‘Project 102’ for a number of months, but all of the discussions have been held behind closed doors, in executive sessions. This behavior is not unusual when tax-funded governments get involved in real estate deals, but unfortunately, this behavior prevents governments from hearing from members of the public who may have critical information to share about the potential sale or purchase…
Until it’s too late.
Indeed, Ms. Rea’s comments were too late. But she offered them anyway.
“I just want to ask you if you’ve looked at the reserve studies on these buildings? I’m sure you probably have? I just did a little bit of online research, and I saw that part of the reason these things are being sold is because of the significant infrastructure upgrades that may require costly assessments? That was on the Club Wyndham website.
“I saw on another website that, over the next six years, the 13 resort buildings are estimated to require $19 million in capital improvements. Over the next six years. And that’s one of the reasons the members voted to sell.
“Those were some of my takeaways. I don’t understand what I read on the website about COP funding? I just didn’t take the time to learn that much about it…”
We’ll explore COP funding tomorrow in Part Seven.
“But my main thing that I wanted to ask you, is to protect the Town of Pagosa Springs, just in case this doesn’t work. These buildings have been sitting there… they’re old buildings. They’re going to continue to require maintenance. I think about the ongoing utility costs, water, electric. I think about a lot of the people in the community that I used to work with….”
Mayor Shari Pierce thanked Ms. Rea for her comments.
The next testimony came from another Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) member, Gary Noland, who expressed his hope that this proposed conversion of timeshare condos into workforce housing would not significantly change the character of the neighborhood.
We’ll consider that idea, as well, in Part Eight.
That was the extent of the public testimony.
To be fair to the taxpayers who did not show up and share their concerns: the Town Council has told us, basically, nothing about this multi-million-dollar project. We still know, basically, nothing about what questions were resolved, or left unasked, during numerous executive sessions. We have no details about the condition of the properties, nor about how the Council plans to fund this questionable project with money that they will they to borrow.
All we really know is: seven Council members felt confident entering into an auction for older properties that the owners have walked away from, without hearing from — or getting permission from — the actual taxpayers.
Read Part Seven… tomorrow…