Vail Resorts announced on Monday that it would start to raise its investments in affordable housing for its employees at four properties including Park City Mountain Resort.
The effort is part of the company’s “strategic focus on investing in the employee experience,” according to a media release from Vail Resorts. The investments will take place at PCMR as well as Vail Mountain in Colorado, Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia and Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont. Together the four sites will provide new affordable housing options to more than 875 employees, or a 10% increase offered by Vail Resorts across its locations.
Locally, the company entered into a five-year lease with Columbus Pacific Development to provide 441 employees with access to affordable housing at PCMR, according to the release. The improvements at PCMR will provide the most employee housing out of the four properties.
The additional units will be in the new Canyons Village employee housing development, which is located in the Lower Village next to the cabriolet lift and the Canyons Village Transit Hub. The housing development is currently under construction with employees slated to move in just prior to the 2022-2023 ski season.The lease includes two five-year renewal options. Summit County, Canyons Village Management Association and Columbus Pacific created a public-private partnership as part of the development. The company currently provides around 7,000 employee beds across its mountain resorts.
“Park City Mountain is the largest employer in Canyons Village and one of the largest employers in Park City. We have listened closely to the community’s concerns, and to the needs of our team, and know there is a demand for our company to do more to help solve our housing problem,” Emily McDonald, communications manager for PCMR, said in a prepared statement.
McDonald said Vail Resorts was excited to raise its minimum wage next season, however, housing is also an important part of the employee experience – particularly in challenging real estate markets like Park City. She said the company has looked for master lease opportunities over the past few years but was unable to find viable options that were close enough to transit or PCMR’s bases.
“Our employees are at the core of our mission to create an Experience of a Lifetime,” Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch said in a prepared statement. “Bringing our mission to life for our guests starts by creating it for our employees, and affordable housing is an essential part of that. As our mountain communities have grown, affordable housing has become increasingly more difficult for our employees to access – addressing this must be a top priority for our company and our communities. These projects reflect progress on our commitment and we remain focused on aggressively pursuing more opportunities in our resort communities.”
The announcement comes nearly one month after Lynch penned a letter to employees publicizing the company’s goal of collaborating with different mountain communities where the firm operates to provide more employee housing opportunities. Lynch wrote that although the company wants to improve its affordable housing opportunities, it needs cooperation from mountain communities.
“While we understand that some of our mountain communities have concerns about new developments, we believe it’s time for us, and our communities, to make affordable housing a top priority and accelerate the processes to ensure we collectively make progress,” Lynch’s March letter stated.
Vail Resorts latest investment in employee housing is in addition to the incremental $175 million annual investment the company announced last month. At the time, Lynch said the company would improve employee compensation by offering a $20 per hour minimum wage for the 2022-2023 winter season at all North American resorts.
The initiative also includes providing seasonal frontline leadership development, a 40% employee discount for Vail Resorts retail merchandise, remote work opportunities for its corporate office and a $4 million investment in its human resources department in addition to affordable employee housing.
To improve guests’ experiences, Vail Resorts will also invest more than $300 million before the next winter season. The plan includes 21 new lifts across 14 resorts, including two at PCMR. A six-person chair will be replaced with a high-speed, eight-person lift that will reduce wait times and increase uphill capacity by 20% while the existing Eagle lift will be replaced with a new six-person chair, according to the company’s website.
This story was updated with additional information from Vail Resorts.