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A man utilizes the pedestrian access while the Wheeler Opera House is under construction in downtown Aspen on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
The city of Aspen is forgiving nearly $200,000 in rent for two of its tenants that have been living under scaffolding at the Wheeler Opera House for months and therefore have not paid their landlord for nearly a year.
Aspen City Council agreed earlier this month to relieve Aspen Public House, a bar and restaurant, and Valley Fine Arts, an art gallery, from paying rent through at least June.
That’s when the scaffolding and the impacts of a nearly yearlong renovation of the historic building’s sandstone facade will be completed.
The owner of Aspen Brewing Co. is now wading into Willits Town Center in Basalt, where it plans to finalize its purchase of Capitol Creek Brewing Co. later this month.
High Country Brewing LLC is the name of the newly formed ownership group that’s an offshoot of Legacy Breweries, which in the fall acquired Aspen Brewing Co. after having reached a purchase agreement nearly one year earlier in October 2019.
Both acquisitions, for undisclosed amounts, include the breweries’ commercial leases, inventory, brand and label, equipment and other assets.
High Country Brewing CEO Don Bryant, who lives in Evergreen and was visiting the Capitol Creek Brewing site on Tuesday, said the breweries in Aspen and Willits will continue to produce beer under the same labels. Aspen makes about 6,000 barrels a year and Castle Creek roughly 500 to 600, Bryant said.
Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times file photo
The city of Aspen is forgiving over $73,000 in rent for two tenants in the municipally owned Wheeler Opera House due to construction impacts.
Aspen City Council on Tuesday during a work session agreed to the requests of the proprietors of Aspen Public House and Valley Fine Art for rent abatement for at least 10 months.
In July, council agreed to rent relief for both tenants for the remainder of 2020 due to the anticipated impacts of the masonry project on the Wheeler Opera House. The project, which has the entire downtown building encapsulated with scaffolding, was set to finish in the spring.