Breckenridge Town Council will vote on an agreement which could grant the developer of what many consider to be the last town-built affordable housing neighborhood a near $10 million fee and units designated for its employees.

Officials and the developer discussed the agreement in detail at a March 25 meeting, where an around 7% developer’s fee for the 148-unit project slated for Airport Road was loosely agreed upon by the majority of officials, but not all. The developer also requested three units be excluded from the lottery process and be sold directly to their contractors or subcontractors as part of the agreement.

A staff memo written ahead of the vote set for an April 8 meeting states the fee will actually be closer to 6.5% net. 

While officials discussed how the developer’s fee could be in the ballpark of $10.4 million at a prior discussion, this could bring it closer to $9.75 million. The fee covers expenses necessary to manage the project and is included in the $50 million subsidy the town is pouring into the project. 

At the March 25 meeting, Suzanne Allen Sabo, representing the developer Neighborhood Crafters LLC, said the development fee largely covers employee wages, office rent and utilities, among other needed aspects for the project. She estimated the developer would have to take out a $100 million loan for vertical construction, and infrastructure could cost $28 million. 

Housing manager Melanie Leas told officials the developers were pushing for an 8% fee, but ended up settling on 7%. She said the town evaluated developer’s fees for other similar local projects and found Vail just executed an agreement featuring a 15% fee, while the fee for the Smith Ranch development in Silverthorne was around 7-8%. 

“We’ve really tried to redline a lot of this, I don’t know how much more we can squeeze it,” she said, noting there’s not much room to negotiate. 

“I think the 7% developer’s fee is in line with the best case scenario that we could expect,” council member Steve Gerard said. “It’s below market price, it’s fair and the mediation clause would allow any disputes on what that fee applies to (to) be mediated if it turns out that there’s a disagreement.”

Council members Todd Rankin and Marika Page also showed support for 7%. 

Council member Jay Beckerman wanted to see a 5% developer’s fee, pointing out the developer’s fee could account for around 20% of the town’s $50 million subsidy and a 2% lower fee could make a difference of $2 million. Council member Carol Saade said she is interested in looking further into the 7% and exactly how the fee would work in terms of what the developer is charging the town for, but favored Beckerman’s idea of paying millions less in subsidies.

“I’d love to get it to 5% too, I just don’t know that we can just magically make that happen,” Mayor Kelly Owens said. “But I do want to make sure that (what line items we are paying for) makes sense … because it is a ton of money.”

Owens said she felt a 7% developer’s fee paired with the developer’s request for three units to be set aside for their employees was “a pretty big ask.”

Allen Sabo explained her request for three units stemmed from one of her crucial employees, who she said is frequently onsite at Breckenridge developments and is in need of a home, and two employees who may also need housing. 

She said none of them would likely go into the units the town is investing the largest subsidy in, and all three would look for single-family units, like three-bedrooms and cottages. 

“(What I’m asking is) can these guys get to the front of the line, since they put in years and years of their life (into building Breckenridge housing projects)?,” she said.

Saade also wasn’t keen on granting the request. 

“I understand that these community members building the project are essential community members, but we have essential community members throughout this community … even though it’s three units out of this whole development, this is something every single community member that needs housing would really want,” she said. 

After Saade’s comment, Rankin said the three unit request gave him “a little bit of pause.” 

Owens suggested two units instead of three, which most officials agreed with. 

In a staff memo for the April 8 meeting, giving the developer two units is slated for discussion.

The Runway Neighborhood is planned to have 45 townhomes, 42 duplexes and 61 single-family homes. The town is shooting for sale prices starting at $351,000 for townhomes, $575,000 for duplexes and $620,000 for single family homes. Ground could break on the project this summer, with vertical construction starting in 2026 and the first round of units being delivered in 2027/28. How income testing and appreciations caps will work has not been solidified yet. The Airport Road free skier parking lot will be displaced because of the developments, and officials are eyeing a parcel of land near the Vista Verde housing complex as its new home. It will be a net-zero development using heat pumps and solar panels, according to town staff members.