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The man behind a pair of landmark Steamboat real estate developments was raised hunting rabbits in a "two-steeple town" in the Mad River Valley of Vermont.

"I grew up a little country boy," Whitney Ward said. "I was carrying a .22-rifle by the time I was 8. It was just so remote. People hunted for food."

Ward, 53, launched plans for the base area condominium project, One Steamboat Place, and the multi-phase Wildhorse Meadows residential subdivision in 2004. The two developments would effectively expand Steamboat's base area from the foot of Mount Werner almost to U.S. Highway 40.

He learned his early life lessons in Moretown, Vt., where three generations of Wards operated their own timbering and lumber mill company founded in 1848.

There is an old black and white photo on the wall behind Ward's desk in his office set among the luxury hotels of Beaver Creek. The photo reminds him of more humble beginnings. In the photo, three men are standing on a load of logs stacked on an ancient International log truck. The men are leaning on long-handled tools called Peaveys, which were used to turn the logs. The words "Ward Lumber Company" are painted on the driver's side door.

For Ward, the photo is emblematic of his family's work ethic.

"My dad rose at 4:30 or 5 every morning to go to work. There wasn't a job he didn't do," he said.

Vision for Steamboat

Ward saw opportunity in January 2004 when American Skiing Co. sought to tame its heavy debt load by selling off parcels of undeveloped land at the base of Steamboat Ski Area. Ward purchased a 4.2-acre site near the gondola and a 44-acre site near the ski area's remote parking lot for $9 million.

A former founding partner of Invesco Realty Advisors, Ward was already in the process of developing the Wildhorse Marketplace commercial center. Next, he enlisted the help of partners to win approval from the city of Steamboat Springs for a luxury condominium tower and a residential subdivision that have helped to spark interest in a thorough redevelopment of the base of the ski area.

Construction crews began moving dirt in September in a former hayfield where Wildhorse Meadows is expected to unfold over the coming six to 10 years.

Ward promises that Wildhorse Meadows and One Steamboat Place will be linked by a gondola that will ferry owners and guests, and possibly the public, from the elevation of U.S. Highway 40 to the ski area. It's an ambitious plan for a boy who spent his childhood in a "two-steeple town."

Business background

Ward's family acquired a number of farms in the Mad River Valley during the Great Depression and transformed them into wood lots that supplied their timber mill. They produced maple for furniture factories in the Southeast and clapboards for home siding.

When Ward was still in high school, his father and mother, Owen and Jean, sold the land holdings and moved to Florida in 1968.

Ward wasn't ready to leave New England and, beginning with his sophomore year, enrolled in a boarding school in New Hampshire. He played soccer and lacrosse and competed on the ski team. When he enrolled at Ithaca College in upstate New York, he wasn't ready. Dropping out after the first quarter, he returned to his home grounds to become a ski instructor for a couple of winters at Sugarbush.

Ward resumed his college career at Stetson College in Central Florida. Later, he transferred to the University of Florida to study business.

The job Ward held down while in graduate school did much to shape his career. He sold real estate - tract homes to be more precise. But there was more to it. Ward was selling Federal Housing Authority homes to minority families. Typically, the work involved helping low-income families envision how they could qualify for a home of their own.

Ward went on to build a career in real estate development in Denver where he found what he enjoyed most was the financial analysis of commercial developments.

His success won him an invitation to become one of the founding partners of Invesco Realty Advisors. During his tenure there from 1993 to 2000, Ward founded a program designed to guide large institutional investors in the allocation of assets.

"I'm really more of a finance person," Ward said. "I worked with the financial structure of large real estate transactions. The financial side is where I feel I can be more creative. It's what I understand."

Talking the talk

Today, Ward's business life includes Resort Ventures West, based in Steamboat, which is developing Wildhorse Meadows. He also is on the board of two Canadian companies.

Ward has "talked the talk" of a developer who is committed to work force housing in Steamboat. Eagle County Housing Director K.T. Gazunis said Ward has a track record in the Vail Valley and in neighboring Lake County that backs him up.

Gazunis said the Eagle and Lake County Habitat for Humanity chapters sought Ward out to re-energize a local chapter of the not-for-profit that was floundering.

"They couldn't find land (to build low-income housing on) and they could not raise money," Gazunis said.

She said Ward insisted on hiring an executive director, that the organization be run like a business and that it return to its Christian roots.

Ward's philosophy, Gazunis said, was that the Vail Valley chapter of Habitat should build homes for people no matter where they were located.

In keeping with that outlook, Habitat's first project involved acquiring three lots in Leadville on the other side of Fremont Pass from Vail.

She said he took the counterintuitive step of down-zoning the three building lots to just two. And he repeated the down-zoning process the next year, acquiring 7 building lots in Leadville for Habitat, only to down-zone them to five.

The reason? He was unwilling to sacrifice an adequate play yard for the children of the families destined to move into the homes.

"That tells you as much as you need to know about Whitney Ward," Gazunis said.

Before he moved on from his role in Habitat, Gazunis said, Ward used his familiarity with some of the most influential people in Vail to secure a financial future for Habitat in the valley. He hosted a barbecue and persuaded 17 couples to pledge to support an annual "Carpenters Ball" and a golf tournament. Together they netted $225,000 in the first year.

"It's evidence of Whitney's organizational skills, his personal charisma and the fact that he is truly committed to the project," Gazunis said.

Gravitating to Florida

Ward and his wife, Vicki, love their home in Beaver Creek and the convenient access to the ski slopes. Ward's office is in Vicki's interior design business, immediately across the street from the Vilar Center for the Performing Arts. Vicki grew up barrel racing in Hotchkiss.

"I don't think we missed a powder day last winter," Ward said with an unabashed grin. "I snowshoe to work some days in winter. We keep our skis and bikes in the foyer."

He's an avid cyclist who has completed the ride the Rockies tour, and the Wards have recently taken up golf.

He has three adult children. Christopher is back in college after studying in Honduras and running a cigar factory in Mexico for two years. Whit, a cordon bleu chef, is currently employed on a private yacht.

Jill has her doctorate in marine biology and works with dolphins in Key Largo. She just gave birth to Ward's first grandchild.

"We want to spend a lot more time in Florida," he said.

A 'Wild' ride

Ward is frank in saying his work on Wildhorse Meadows has taken his career into fresh territory and that it has been difficult for him at times. Some of the ups and downs that come with the public approval process he has taken personally.

"The truth is, I wonder sometimes if I'm cut out for it," he said.

Ward said the cost of ski resort housing leads community members to assume that developers are making larger profits than they are.

"It's riskier than people believe," Ward said. "You have to show institutional investors why they should bring their dollars to Steamboat. That's a hard sell."

Money managers look at Steamboat and weigh the opportunity and risk against opportunities elsewhere, he said.

"The risks are in the form of both equity and debt," Ward said. "The more risk involved, the more expensive the equity (undeveloped ground) is."

Ward said the experience of watching his father and grandfathers work hard in a family business shaped his way of looking at the world. He said he watched the impact of environmental regulations adopted by Vermont in the 1960s and 1970s and the impact they had on employment in rural towns.

"I really feel like there's a balance (that needs to be struck) there," he said. "If you have unrestrained growth, you end up ruining your economy. But when I hear people say, 'We need to shut down growth,' to me it means the multidimensional dream ends.

"A community lives by capital - peoples' willingness to invest in the community."