Winter Park Ski Area had been open for 20 years when Dwight Miller, a development pioneer in the town of Hideaway Park, posed the question whether inexperienced skiers were getting the most from Winter Park’s terrain, or whether they might prefer a beginner-friendly hill where they could improve their skills.

Buz Koelbel, developer of Rendezvous in Winter Park, presents an original lift chair to Dwight and Jean Miller, who opened Ski Idlewild as a beginner ski area in 1960.

On Aug. 26, 2009, some 49 years after Miller opened Ski Idlewild in what is today the resort community of Rendezvous, Walter ‘Buz’ Koelbel, Jr., of Koelbel and Company presented Miller and his wife Jean with a lift chair recovered from the site. The boutique ski area where a generation of skiers, including Buz Koelbel, learned their sport is now part of Rendezvous’ 688-acre expansion area, east of the town of Winter Park. more »

While Winter Park works to shed its image as a slightly dated ski town with a bit too much chalet-gingerbread architecture, one market that hasn’t minded are vacationers from the British Isles.

An exceptionally snowy winter and the low dollar are adding to the allure of Grand County to purchasers from the British Isles, who have long favored Winter Park.

“Winter Park has always appealed to the British,” says Denise O’Connell, Broker Associate with Coldwell Banker Mountain Properties, who was part of a team of local real estate specialists who flew to London several years ago to present at a travel exhibition.

Now, O’Connell’s newest buyers for a custom home in Grand County are British. “They’ve had fabulous packages on Winter Park travel for years,” she says, adding that those opportunities have only become better as United has begun offering London-DIA non-stops in competition with British Airways; and as the dollar’s fall has made a vacation to the U.S. something akin to the way Americans view travel to Mexico.
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With every passing year, it becomes more evident that the Fraser Valley has entered a new era, attracting a caliber of development that could scarcely be imagined a decade ago. This summer, visitors to the Grand County Parade of Homes will see the latest sign of that emergence when they tour Rendezvous, the master-planned, year-round resort that’s growing along Winter Park’s northern and eastern edge.

A centerpiece of the exhibition will be BigHorn Cabins at Rendezvous, the latest designs by Colonnade Resort Communities, creator of Rendezvous’ highly successful MooseHorn Cabins and its newer ElkHorn and ProngHorn attached homes. BigHorn takes that success in a bigger, bolder direction – opulent plans designed with progressive mountain architecture that captures both the allure of Grand County’s past and the excitement of its future.
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