Corporate members Naturalia Construction featured in the Travel section of the Denver Post!
Kosmos Stargazing Resort and Spa plans to open its first villa early next year
MOSCA, Colorado — A handmade sign at the start of a long dirt road in the rural San Luis Valley indicates to visitors that they’ve arrived at the future site of Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa.
The peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains barely make a dent in the big blue skies above the 40 acres purchased by founder and CEO Gamal Jadue Zalaquett. He aims to transform the land into a resort featuring 20 villas, a spa, a restaurant and a planetarium.
“It’s a place of alignment. Kosmos is a place of connection,” Jadue Zalaquett said. “Kosmos, in a way, is a place to heal, and the San Luis Valley has a lot to do with healing.”
He bought the property for $11,000 in December 2020. But with glass domes for stargazing and expensive price tags to stay the night, Jadue Zalaquett’s ambitious brainchild falls snugly into the category of “luxury ecotourism.”
His site is an ideal spot for admiring constellations and distant galaxies. According to the National Park Service, the nearby Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is considered an International Dark Sky Park. Jadue Zalaquett said the area is a class two location on the Bortle dark-sky scale, which translates to “truly dark” skies.
The resort’s planetarium will include a 1-meter telescope. In terms of getting visitors to Kosmos, “that’s gonna be the biggest attractor,” Jadue Zalaquett said.
Development is still in the early stages, but it’s already garnering attention from the public: Over 12,000 Instagram users follow the resort’s page where project renderings and updates are shared.
Kosmos plans to open its first villa early next year, said marketing operations manager Jennifer Geerlings. Although it’s still under construction, the resort has already booked over 2,000 reservations, she added.
Future plans for Kosmos
In November, director of field operations Auston Duncan stepped over sagebrush and loose hardware to outline the state of construction on the project.
An unfinished villa offered a hint of what’s to come. The rectangular building with exposed wooden rafters and newly-installed glass sliding doors will soon house a bedroom and a bathroom.
Jeremy Stephen, the founder of Steamboat Springs-based Evolve Construction, built the villa out of hempcrete, which is made of hemp, water and lime. It works as an eco-friendly insulator, helping to mitigate heating and cooling costs and lending itself to the vision of Kosmos as a resort with sustainability in mind.
On one side of the villa, a hot tub will be installed. On the other, a dome made out of glass and wood from Ekodome will cover the kitchen and loft area.
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