SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. -- Related Cos. has built signature buildings that helped to transform neighborhoods in Manhattan, Phoenix and South Florida. Now, the big-market developer is attempting a $3 billion redevelopment to transform this prosperous Colorado ski town.

Related's efforts to revamp the core of Snowmass Village, seven miles west of Aspen, is among the latest and most ambitious of many projects designed to overhaul Western America's aging ski towns -- many of which were built in the 1960s and 1970s.

Kris Hudson for The Wall Street Journal Crews work on the $1 billion first phase of Related Cos.' redevelopment of Snowmass Village, one of a number of ski-resort projects.

In Vail, Colo., more than $1 billion in redevelopment will add a Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts condo-hotel and Ritz-Carlton Co. condos, among others. In Park City, Utah, developers at the Canyons, the state's largest ski resort by acreage, are spending $1 billion to double its number of condos and hotel rooms and to expand its retail space by a third by the end of 2010. At Colorado's smaller Steamboat resort, Developer Atira Group is overseeing most of nearly $1 billion in redevelopment work.

"The [development] activity has gone from zilch to pervasive across the country," said Adam Ducker, a managing director specializing in resort development at real-estate adviser Robert Charles Lesser & Co. Among current projects, Related's Snowmass redevelopment is "one of the two or three most ambitious plans around -- and it's the largest," said Mr. Ducker.

But Related differs from several other ski-resort developers in one critical aspect: It secured $1 billion in backing for its project's first phase early last year, before the credit crunch made 10-figure developments nearly impossible to finance. That financial support has allowed Related to proceed with construction even as some ski-area projects are faltering.

Vail Resorts Inc.'s RockResorts, Vail's resort arm, recently abandoned Lake Tahoe Development Co.'s $420 million Chateau at Heavenly Village at the California border lake, citing the project's trouble landing financing. Construction of the base village at Idaho's Tamarack Resort has halted, though the resort continues to operate after its primarily financial backers filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

Related was more fortunate in landing its first-phase financing last year from lenders led by Germany's Hypo Real Estate Group. And the company anticipates that it won't need to seek additional financing until 2010 or 2011.

The development, which will include 2.8 million square feet of condos, restaurants and shops, will have little competition, since Related and its partner, local developer Pat Smith, own nearly all of the commercial land in Snowmass.

But other hurdles remain, including selling 550 mostly high-end condos during an economic and housing downturn. So far, Related reports that it has sold more than 60% of the Snowmass condos it has made available for sale since last winter.

The two flagship condo projects in its first phase will be managed by Kor Hotel Group's Viceroy Hotels & Resorts boutique-hotel chain and Aspen Skiing Co.'s five-star Little Nell hotel. Viceroy units are selling for an average of $1,725 a square foot, and Little Nell units for $3,000. Per unit, they range from a $575,000 Viceroy studio to a $16 million Little Nell penthouse.

In Aspen's pricey Pitkin County, condo sales declined by 55% last month in comparison to July 2007, according to Land Title Guarantee Co. But, in a sign that sales of luxury properties remain strong, the cumulative value of last month's condo sales marked a 6% increase from the year-earlier total.

Still, limited competition gives Related an edge in Snowmass, which counts 2,300 permanent residents and more than 10,000 visitors daily during ski season. And, because of its proximity to Aspen, Snowmass caters to wealthy buyers -- many of them foreign -- who aren't easily deterred by a U.S. recession.

"When you have a wealthy consumer who wants to be [in Snowmass] and you are supply-constrained, those are good economics for new development," said Related President Jeff Blau, a part-time Aspen resident.

Write to Kris Hudson at kris.hudson@wsj.com

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