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Vail reassures lodging association about its future role

Blaise Carrig, president of the mountain division for Vail Resorts, spoke Wednesday at a special meeting of the Park City Area Lodging Association, hoping to reassure its members about the role Vail will play in town going forward in light of its acquisition of Park City Mountain Resort.

Early in the meeting, Carrig, who also is serving as interim chief operating officer of PCRM, acknowledged concerns many locals have about the presence of a large company such as Vail in Park City.

He told lodging association members that changing Park City’s small-town feel is "the last thing in our minds and hearts."

Many of those concerns, Carrig acknowledged, stem from a perception that Vail could attempt to take a big slice of the town’s lodging and retail market. However, he said, Vail only operates real estate at the base of its resorts, and its retail offerings are not designed to push out local competitors. Both attempt to fill a "niche" for Vail’s customers.

"We’re not dominant," Carrig said in the meeting. "This 800-pound gorilla thing doesn’t exist. We totally respect the appeal of diversity for our guests."

He later added that "what we value about Park City is a lot of what it is today."

In terms of Vail’s specific plans for development or retail offerings at PCMR’s base, Carrig said it was too early in the process to say and that Vail needs to "flesh out what kinds of opportunities we have there."

He did say, however, that connecting PCMR and Vail-operated Canyons Resort remains a goal for next ski season. The plan would be to market the ski area as one entity, with two resorts offering different experiences combining to make the largest ski area in the country by acreage. PCMR would be the lead brand.

A benefit of marketing PCMR and Canyons as separate resorts will be allowing Park City to continue selling itself as a town with three world-class resorts, Carrig said.

One association member who held concerns about Vail’s takeover of PCMR heading into the meeting was Jim Bizily, owner of Park City Rental Properties. But after hearing Carrig speak, he said many of his worries were laid to rest, though he will continue to closely follow the ongoing transition at PCMR.

"When you see a big company like this come in, you wonder if they’re going to try to dominate and take over all aspects of the mountain," Bizily said. "But I think it’s good, in general, for the whole community, because it sounds like they’re going to build more infrastructure. I think it’s going to bring more business to the town. It might take out a little bit of that local flair, but then again, maybe that’s not such a bad thing, to be a little bit more like a Vail destination."

Following the meeting, Carrig said he felt confident that people were hearing his message: that Vail is in town to be a true member of the community, rather than to take over. However, he also acknowledged that for many, seeing will be believing.

"I think it’s being as effective as I thought it would be, or as much as it can be," he said. "One thing is to tell people what you do, which helps a little bit — it at least answers some questions about who we are. But I think, at the end of the day, it’s going to be how we actually perform and how we actually show up. I’m totally confident that people will be happy at that point. But I think it’s not going to come until we’ve been here for a while to show what we do that there will be total comfort."

As well as addressing those topics, Carrig gave the lodging association a broad overview of Vail and how it operates. One area he spoke about was the treatment of PCMR employees, whom Vail had to retain as part of its agreement with Powdr Corp. to buy the resort. Carrig has met with PCMR employees multiple times since the resort’s sale was completed last week to assure them that Vail is a good employer.

He said those meetings have been positive, despite a bit of apprehension from the employees.

"I think there’s still anxiety, because we’ve still got to work through things and there’s a lot of change, but I just feel a lot of engagement," he said. "That’s how I gauge how we’re doing — there are a lot of people coming up, talking, engaging and with good questions."


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