Phillip Supino, the city of Aspen’s former community development director, is launching a community development corporation aimed at preserving commercial properties for local businesses who increasingly say they can’t afford to operate in mountain towns.

Supino is hoping to preserve community culture in mountain towns across the state through his new nonprofit, First Light Community Development. The community development corporation will create a nonprofit bank that can offer low-interest mortgages to locals to “realign some economic power in these communities from the luxury market to the non-luxury market,” Supino said.

“I think what we’re seeing in these towns is that there really is a gap between how the real estate market, residential and commercial, is serving the needs of locals

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