Lodge at Cordillera buyers close purchase. Treatment center coming soon

EDWARDS — Noah Nordheimer and his partners say they want to help the addicted, and are spending $136 million to do it.

Nordheimer’s Baltimore-based Concerted Care Group and several investors finally bought the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera. The sale was recorded Wednesday.

They plan to transform the Lodge into a high-end health/wellness and addiction treatment center. When they’re done, they will have spent $136 million to convert the hotel, staff and operate their facility, Nordheimer said.

“We are building a world class facility and team. Our mission is to continue creating successful outcomes for our patients, their families and the communities that are being devastated by this epidemic,” said Noah Nordheimer, president and CEO of CCG Management. “We are committed to changing people’s lives for the better and there is no better place to do that than the Vail Valley.”

The facility will integrate addiction treatment, behavioral health, primary and preventive care as well as other aspects of health and wellness such as nutrition, fitness and mindfulness, Nordheimer said.

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Keeping the money local

As much of that $136 million as possible will stay local, Nordheimer said.

• The project is led by architect Will Hentschel with 359 Design. The firm has done extensive work in Eagle County.

• Kim Toms with Slifer Designs is the designer.

• Vail Valley firm RA Nelson is the contractor.

IFG88 Healthcare Fund, SMB Bradley & Associates and Heronwood Capital were the lead investment groups for the project, Nordheimer said.

“This will be the most innovative and exclusive treatment facility in the world. The integrated approach, the team, the property and its breathtaking setting made IFG88 jump at the opportunity to be involved,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, CEO of IFG88 Healthcare Fund.

CSMN Development is the developer, and CCG Management will handle the day-to-day operations, Nordheimer said.

The $20 million remodel is scheduled to begin this summer, Nordheimer said.

The rest of the $136 million budget is earmarked for facilities, staff and other startup and continuing expenses. Nordheimer has said they expect to employ 75 to 100 people in Cordillera, with an average salary of around $100,000.

Jeff R. Brooks will be the lodge’s chief operating officer. Brooks created the October Road program in the Carolinas, and has more than two decades in behavioral health care leader.

Cordillera’s latest chapter

The sale is the latest chapter in the Lodge’s saga.

Nordheimer was a real estate developer by vocation, creating both affordable housing and market-based projects. When he hurt his back, he became addicted to painkillers. He had a strong support system, but the addiction was still tough to overcome, he said. He said he put his addiction behind him while serving as an executive of a large national corporation.

He launched Concerted Care Group in Baltimore, where he successfully fought city hall.

When Nordheimer announced plans in 2014 to spend $8.6 million to create two treatment facilities in a low-income neighborhood, two Baltimore city council members threatened to change the zoning to block the plan. They claimed the neighborhood was already saturated with programs and facilities.

The Baltimore city attorney’s office told the two council members that abusing zoning authority flies in the face of the Americans With Disability Act and federal fair housing laws.

Nordheimer built the two facilities in 2015. They now employ 75 people, he said.

That same federal ADA law derailed efforts by some Cordillera homeowners to stop Nordheimer’s plans.

Many Cordillera residents sued Nordheimer and now-former Lodge owners Behringer Harvard, of Austin, Texas, for a $100 million in federal court in Denver.

Washington D.C. attorney and Cordillera property owner Thomas Wilner led that lawsuit as head of Cordillera’s legal committee. They personally sued Behringer Harvard owner Robert M. Behringer, and its president and CEO Michael D. Cohen.

Wilner went to war with the federal government when he represented 11 Kuwaiti prisoners held in the Guantanamo Bay detention center at the U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba.

Nordheimer won that lawsuit in federal court in Denver.

A separate lawsuit against Eagle County and the county commissioners is working its way through District Court in Eagle County.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.