Silvers Bagel Bar and Peak Provisions opened in Aspen last fall.
So far, business has been successful, even in a town where business costs are skyrocketing.
“Most businesses in town give people sticker shock,” said Jake Lansburgh, a co-owner at the bagel shop.
He recognizes that prices are high. A plain bagel with cream cheese at Silvers costs about $8. But, he said, “That is what we have to charge to survive.”
The city has tried to remedy this problem for years. Mi Chola, a locally owned Mexican restaurant, closed last September after nearly 10 years because its landlords doubled the rent.
Ann Mullins, former Aspen mayor, said Mi Chola is just one of many restaurants that haven’t been able to stay afloat amid Aspen’s high prices.
“We saw Mi Chola disappear; we’ve seen all sorts of other things disappear. Everybody knows the why,” she said.
Mullins and a group of locals think they have a new answer to the problem. They formed the Aspen Area Community Trust earlier this year.
The nonprofit aims to acquire and keep commercial properties in Aspen affordable, but its founders haven’t mapped out the specific details yet.
Land trusts have long been designed to protect open space and affordable housing. But using a land trust to protect commercial properties is a brand new idea, so Mullins expects each acquisition will look a little different.
“Whether it’s a space that you’ve managed to buy down in some way or deed-restrict in some way,” she said. “You need your first big win, and then you can show that to people, and then you should start getting some funds to expand your programs.”
Locals have tried to address the problem before. In 2016, a group of residents wanted Aspen City Council to regulate what they said was an influx of chains in town. They argued those stores catered to wealthy visitors and second homeowners, pushing out the mom-and-pop shops locals could afford.
“Aspen has changed so fundamentally; it’s hard to even comprehend,” said John Bennett, a former mayor of Aspen and part of the group that asked city council to take action 10 years ago.
City councilors heard them and adopted an ordinance banning chain stores in 2017.
But it only applied to future developments — nothing currently in the pipeline, so it hasn’t applied to a single project in downtown Aspen yet.
Bennett said the goal was to “tell the world that we won’t let Aspen become just a high-end mall with a mountain.” Nine years later, he said that was not the outcome.
“You walk down the street, and it's just one crazy expensive storefront with a window that says Milan, Paris, London, Aspen — one after another of those,” he said. “That gets boring, even to the people who shop in them.”
Many of these new high-end retail stores and restaurants can displace some of Aspen’s local spots … like Little Annie’s or Eric’s.
“I always say Aspen is a wonderful place if you wake up in the morning and suddenly realize at eight o’clock in the morning, you have a pressing need for another $15,000 handbag,” Bennett addd. “We’re the town for you.”
Bennett said Aspen is no longer a town where movie stars and ski bums can share a beer at a dive bar, and he doesn’t see Aspen returning to what it once was. However, he said a land trust could make it possible for some local shops to coexist in this new reality.
“That may be where the future lies, rather than regulation and enforcement,” he said.
The Aspen Area Community Land Trust is searching for an executive director, who will reach out to businesses, landlords and potential donors to get the project off the ground.
For Lansburgh, co-owner of the bagel shop Silvers, he imagines using any rent relief that he might get from a program like this to pay his staff fair wages.
“If it can keep more local businesses open and focused on serving the community, then it’s definitely got to be a good thing,” Lansburgh said.
The community land trust recently received its official nonprofit status in July, which allows it to receive tax-deductible donations. Its founders want to preserve their first commercial property sometime in 2027.
