Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/601986
ASPENPEAK-MAGAZINE.COM 165 T H E V I S I O N A R I E S THE LIGHTS In fall 1977, when Snowmass Village had just been incorporated as a community, a pair of young developers from the Carolinas saw opportunity. "There was a 3,000 -acre parcel that became available in Snowmass, and we thought we could do something with it," 72-year-old Jim Light recalls about his first major project in the Valley. That timing was crucial for what now exists in Snowmass and downvalley at the Roaring Fork Club. It could be argued that the projects, and the stewardship of the common community land in both ventures created by Light and his partner, Jim Chaffin (together Chaffin Light), set the standard for respon- sible development in the Roaring Fork Valley. "We both learned from Charles Fraser [the developer of Hilton Head in South Carolina, where both Jims worked] that you had to be careful about creating integrated communi- ties," Light says. "As a developer we wanted to have diversity." Chaffin Light provided land and resources to support the Snowmass Chapel and Community Center and the Snowmass Conference Center, and donated buildings to the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. In addition, the company provided Snowmass Village with significant attainable housing opportunities. "We built more affordable housing than had been built in the valley in the previous 10 years," Light says. Jim's eldest son, Andrew, 42, watched and learned as a boy growing up in Snowmass. He left for private school at 14, then went on to Duke University and Stanford Business School before a career in real estate finance in San Francisco. But the valley beckoned. Now as one of the four directors of Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty (a company formed in February 2012 by the merger of Morris & Fyrwald and Chaffin Light real estate) and the owner of Two Creeks Investments, Andrew is well posi- tioned to make a difference in the community he calls home. "It's such a wonderful place to raise a family," he says, "and I don't think people recognize what a great network there is of 30 - to 40 -year-old young professionals who choose to live here."