Vail businesses already see brighter economic times
Publisher’s note: This is the second of four days of stories about issues pertaining to Vail.
By Susan Wood
VAIL – Things are looking up for businesses from markets and restaurants to ski resorts and sporting goods shops in this snowsports tourism area, following a rough recession-based year for the United States.
Overall, November sales tax revenue in the town of Vail nudged upward to $660,141, an increase of 1.2 percent compared to the same month in 2009. Plus, this figure is estimated to go up another $33,000 because of late collections, improving collections to 6.3 percent from the previous year, according to a recent memo by Vail sales tax administrator Sally Lorton.
Vail businesses are in recovery mode from the recession. Photos/Kathryn Reed
More than $14.6 million was collected for the town in sales tax revenue in 2010. In 2009, the figure was $14.3 million.
Food and beverage sales tax receipts came in with 8.8 percent more sold this past November, the town of Vail reported Jan. 7.
“It’s been a great last few months,” Stacey Gibson of Tavern on the Square said, while admitting that more Americans are saving money than they used to spend. “Everybody needs to get away and go on vacation. People save in different ways.”
Further, she acknowledged Vail the town appeals to an upscale visitor. The bar/restaurant located inside the Vail Resorts owned Arrabelle hotel is also fairly new to the Lionshead village. There’s a fine dining option called Centre V to offset the bar’s casual atmosphere – which is a short walk from the slopes for skiers and boarders.
While the lodging tax was down by 4.2 percent in November 2010, retail made up for the loss with a 4.8 percent increase in sales compared to a year ago. The villages of Vail, Lionshead and West Vail came on strong with double-digit increases in sales tax collections – anchoring Vail areas outside the villages that show a 19.2 percent dip in receipts.
“Business is bouncing back in Lionshead. We survived,” Bart & Yeti’s bartender Kevin Foley said, serving a crowd on a January weekday night. Foley was referring to the tough economy as well as his 36-year-old employer being located in the shadow of redevelopment that tore up the street for years.
“It was a war zone around here,” Foley said.
Although most everything is new around this locals’ retreat, the multi-level Arrabelle puts the outdoor area of Bart & Yetti’s in the shade.
Buoyed by La Nina conditions bringing an early winter to the West and a perceived pent-up holiday demand for fun among recession-weary consumers, sporting goods led the way in sales in November. Shops collected 36.2 percent more money than in 2009. The Vail Economic Advisory Council received the optimistic city reports on Jan. 11.
Vail Resorts, which owns Heavenly Mountain Resort on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore and Northstar-at-Tahoe in Truckee, has a high stake in these reports with more than half the town carrying the name of Vail or its lodging division RockResorts. Vail Resorts also runs the ski areas of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone.
As of a few weeks ago, the ski resort corporation reported lift ticket revenue amounting to 7.4 percent more than the previous year.
Vail’s good economic news hasn’t necessarily surprised marketing officials from the Beaver Creek ski area to the RockResorts lodging division.
“People are still traveling. They may have dinner in their condos, but they’re still doing what they want to do,” Beaver Creek spokeswoman Jen Brown told Lake Tahoe News while steps from the slopes. Beaver Creek, which appropriately operates under the advertising tag line “not exactly roughing it,” has offered specials to get on the slopes as well as discounts once skiers and riders are there. The same goes for Vail, and customers are taking advantage of it.
Events are king with both resorts. These include “Holidaze” activities at Vail and Beaver Creek’s plans to host the World Cup Championships in 2015.
“Clients were skipping their ski vacations (prior to this year). We’re seeing the repeat guests dedicated to these resorts, and now we’re seeing the economy coming back. We’re quite fortunate,” said Marcella Bettis, RockResorts regional director of marketing.
Transient occupancy rates were down this past December by 0.3 percent to 57.1 percent compared to the previous year, but lodging establishments could be cautiously optimistic by making adjustments. The average daily rate went from $407 in December to $389 this month. The drop contributed to an increase of bookings to bring occupancy up to 57.4 percent.
Then, of course, not every place is Vail – where the highest real estate sale in 2010 was a 5,631-square-foot Solaris property penthouse that went for $14.8 million, according to the Vail Board of Realtors. The lowest sale was a 695-square-foot condominium at $249,900.
The upward swing in most tax reports for everyday purchases seems to mirror national trends in terms of spending over the holidays among bargain-hunting consumers.
“We’ve seen an increase (in business) this year at Christmas,” Pepi Sports buyer Shaun Filiault said of December’s receipts for his Vail Village store. Filiault added he’s noticed that when the hotels run deals, the people show up to rent skis and boards and buy accessories. But they may be more discriminating based on the state of the economy.
“I feel people buy what they need. We’re seeing more value-conscious consumers,” he said.
Either way, store results appear in-line with the national snowsports market reaching $1 billion in sales last year, an increase of 14 percent from 2009, according to a recent SnowSports Industries America report. The U.S.-based trade association also reported alpine equipment sales up 23 percent this season in comparison to last year’s.
At Kid Sport store in the Vail Village, workers have noticed a better ski season business than last year’s.
“Last year was the hardest year,” Dana Smith said, noting more locals are spending money on gear and clothes for their children. Anna Cutts mentioned the website sales are up.
The nearby market has seen a brisk business as well. Property manager Bob McNichols of Daedalus Real Estate attributes part of the success of his marketplace with the development of units to bring people into the area.
“Business is growing each year. Grocery sales are way up. I think more people are eating in, but they’re coming,” he said. “For us, these are the good old days.”
Thanks for this series, Kae. I think its important for SLT to be aware of what “healthy” resort areas are doing and how they are doing it. Thank you.
Vail is a good story. They have a few things common to most great ski resort towns. Shopping, wide selection of restaurants and bars, galleries, and most importantly, they have a town or a village where people can walk and browse for hours on end. These other ski towns like Breckinridge, Whistler, Aspen, Vail, etc. are also laid out well to allow for the walking from business to business.
We don’t have that. Bars are limited, dining is limited and shopping is virtually non-existent except for the few upscale apparel stores like North Face, Patagonia, Sidestreet, etc.
These other ski towns are also charming and have a unique feel that affluent people like. Like it or not, we need the affluent people because they are the ones who spend overnight $$.
Finally, these other towns have free transportation and better parking than us.
We will not be Vail or any of these towns in our life time unless private $$ comes in and all of the agencies have agreed what they are comfortable with in advance so that a private investor can make a plan without asking permission every few weeks.
I bet these great ski towns didn’t waste valuable space on convention centers. Upscale shopping and lodging and eating is where they spend money. Close hwy 50 by re-routing it around the “village” and turn the whole area into a real, pedestrian friendly village.
Vail and the other Colorado resorts they own there have the distinct advantage over Tahoe in that they are all within a hundred miles away from a Denver market of 3,000,000, in the Rocky Mountains, and with a serviceable airport now outside Denver to its’ northeast (the old one in the middle of town had even better access.
Visitors can go where they prefer.
Tahoe, on the other hand, is almost two hundred miles from one of its’ larger markets, competes with Whistler directly out of San Francisco, and cannot seem to “get out of their own way” in taking any advantage of that “pent-up demand”, as they are still tied up with trying to do things they don’t know how to do.
The irony is that Tahoe is actually everything it needs to be, but cannot get that message adequately conveyed due to the now morbid concentration on dealing with mistakes that should not have been made in the first place.
This is taking an immense toll in energy, finances, talent, and interest which of course has nothing to do with Lake Tahoe (it is what it is), but has everything to do with not addressing the rampant hubris that continues to destroy any possibility of correctly working towards a necessary future direction.
The immense toll is in itself ridiculous, as the community can now ill afford to deal with any new directions, even as they continue to spend inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to deal with “problems”, effectively sapping any available & necessary energy to attract what’s needed to prevail.
If any one notices, all the categories so far heralded in these two articles: business improvement, transit, customer satisfaction, market share, etc. for others, are in limbo or are “knocked out” in Tahoe.
Transit, for example, is as good as any, for perspective: while other places are noted for literally millions of passengers of ridership/days, we have a transit board being sued for a 2.5 million dollar deficit to its’ provider with over ten members that have no experience in what they’re supposed to be doing.
Tahoe seems to have a disdain for actually hiring the expertise they need, choosing instead to squander everything that might make Tahoe the place they actually think they’re planning for. . .
preferring to only procure those who agree with them – a very chancy and expensive distinction.
There is an old management axiom that says that 1st-tier people hire help better than they are (having enough confidence to do that); 2nd-tier people hire only those lesser than themselves (to retain their superiority) and 3rd- tier don’t hire anybody (preferring to hope that it will all work out somehow).
As the Executive Director of the lead agency has called for “positioning for clarity and focus”. this may end up to be for her a conundrum, in that any progress now will require 1st-tier thinking, meaning that “good enough for government” will not offer sufficient guidance for necessary economic growth.
Such is the nature of letting things deteriorate too far: it is far cheaper to maintain than to rebuild, and the only option now is to rebuild, given the inattention of the immediate past.
For Tahoe, this is truly a ‘zero-sum game’. . .
We’re not Vail in case anyone hasn’t noticed.