Steamboat SpringsSteamboat Springs — Mike Kortas has found a way to resurrect a 105-year-old Steamboat Springs light industrial subdivision that has been largely forgotten where it sits in the tall grass west of Critter Court. — Mike Kortas has found a way to resurrect a 105-year-old Steamboat Springs light industrial subdivision that has been largely forgotten where it sits in the tall grass west of Critter Court.

Steamboat Springs — Mike Kortas has found a way to resurrect a 105-year-old Steamboat Springs light industrial subdivision that has been largely forgotten where it sits in the tall grass west of Critter Court.

“You could put a mixed-use building with a 970-square-foot apartment on one of the lots for less than $290,000,” Kortas said last week. “They’re ideal for someone owning a repair shop or maintenance business.”

Technically, the new Kortas Subdivision is the original Block 10 of the Miller-Frazier Addition to Steamboat Springs platted in 1905. Ironically, it wasn’t formally “added” to the city limits until 1992, when the near west side of Steamboat was annexed into the city proper.

George H. Miller and Floyd Frazier were well-known around Steamboat in the first decade of the 20th century as members of the Commercial Club, which raised funds to build the 100-room Cabin Hotel at 13th Street and Lincoln Avenue. If the hotel seems hard to place, that’s because it burned down in 1939.

Miller and Frazier also developed the Fairview Subdivision, including lots on Gilpin and Evans streets just east of Kortas’ new subdivision.

The main entrance to the revived subdivision is a ranch lane off 13th Street/Twentymile Road immediately opposite the gas pumps at Petro West Distributing. The unpaved lane leads past the historic ranch house that the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps put under contract during summer.

City Planner Jason Peasley confirmed that Kortas has development rights to the lots.

“It’s an unusual situation where he has these platted lots he could have sold yesterday,” Peasely said.

However, to make the 10 lots buildable, Kortas must extend utilities and roads to them.

Native Excavating’s crews and heavy equipment were busy Thursday extending water and sewer lines to the subdivision. Kortas said he would extend electricity into the subdivision when he sells the first lot, or reduce the lot price from $79,000 to $64,000 for a buyer or group of buyers willing to bear the cost of running electricity themselves.

Peasley confirmed that the city has paved a short emergency access link from Critter Court at Steamboat Springs Animal Shelter to the southern end of the subdivision. Kortas still must improve access to the lots, he said. Kortas said he tentatively plans to pave the lane next spring.

Eight of the 10 lots in the subdivision actually are pairs of narrow lots built to 1905 standards. In order to make them practical by today’s standards, Kortas has paired 16 original lots measuring 24 feet wide by 136 feet deep to make eight modern lots.

The most efficient utilization of the lots, Kortas said, would be for someone to buy two modern lots, or for two neighbors to cooperate to design a shared driveway on the lot line. By economizing on space that way, they could build a larger structure within the 15-foot side lot setbacks, Peasely confirmed. Kortas said that strategy would improve vehicle access to the rear of the deep lots.

The lots have views of the ski mountain to the east as well as views of the city’s snow storage facility and the Steamboat Springs School District’s bus facility.

The lots are listed by Scott Eggleston, of Prudential Steam­boat Realty.

— To reach Tom Ross, call 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com— To reach Tom Ross, call 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com— To reach Tom Ross, call 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com