On Monday, Oct. 3, Vail Resorts responded to the town’s $12 million offer for the contested East Vail property with a resounding “no.”
“For Vail Resorts, this is not, and has never been about money. This is about building affordable housing that the town desperately needs now to support the hundreds of employees who are the town’s lifeblood and who make both Vail Mountain and the town of Vail a world-class destination,” wrote Bill Rock, Vail Resorts’ executive vice president and chief operating officer of its mountain division, in a letter to the town of Vail on Monday.
The $12 million offer was sent via a letter from Vail Town Manager Stan Zemler to Rock and Vail Resorts on Wednesday, Sept. 21.
Rock’s five-page letter in response to the town’s offer not only “declines to accept that offer,” but also details the ways that “despite recent council comments to the contrary, Vail Resorts has, for years, sought to work collaboratively with the Town to provide affordable employee housing while preserving the bighorn sheep habitat.”
Vail Mountain Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Beth Howard emphasized the workforce challenges that Vail Resorts has, specifically with regard to affordable housing in a statement provided to the Vail Daily. Hiring a team, Howard wrote in the statement, is “increasingly difficult for me and my fellow business leaders in the community due to the lack of affordable housing in and around Vail. I’ve lived here for decades, and the problem continues to get worse.”
Read the full story from our partner at vaildaily.com.
