RICO, Colo. (KDVR) — While home and rent prices soar in the Denver metro, out west, there’s an old mining town called Rico that houses the largest commercial property on the market.
According to CoStar and LoopNet, the 1,100-acre Silver Springs at Rico property is the largest mass commercial land for sale in the state. The listing price is $10 million.
The Town of Rico (which means “rich” in Spanish) is located approximately 30 miles southwest of Telluride in unincorporated Dolores County. It was settled in 1879 and still has nearly 150 mines.
The property encompasses U.S. Forest Service land that could be developed through an exchange elsewhere in any other Colorado town.
“The potential for a land-swap for conservation and development offers additional value to the buyer, as does the geothermal component, which could provide both an incredible amenity for users of the property as well as a way for the owner to achieve a net-zero energy building by tapping the renewable energy source naturally occurring on the site. We invite investors from Colorado and all over the country to take a look at the property,” Mark King of Solutions RE, who is marketing the property for the owner, said.
The site includes land in the downtown area and northeastern, southeastern and western boundaries of the town. Rico sits at 8,847 feet nestled in mountains reaching elevations of over 12,000 feet with the Dolores River running directly through the town.
Zoning allows for a resort hotel and several hundred housing units, plus there is the potential for the development of hot springs on the property.
“Sites of this scale, at this elevation, with this level of density already established are exceedingly rare. Silver Springs at Rico has the potential to be the next great mountain resort destination and residential community,” Eric Saunders of Telluride Properties, LLC, who is marketing the property on behalf of the owner said. “A hot springs resort hotel could anchor the property and by extension downtown Rico, surrounded by a combination of for-sale and rental housing.”