Dear Editor,
I want to applaud Mike Solimano and his team for the terrific job that the Resort did with the World Cup. The combined efforts of the town and the resort prove that both are in this together. The positive impacts are sure to be real. Here is where we stand today:
1. Killington is the best mountain and access road in the East that is closest to the NYC-Boston corridor.
2. Killington has the most significant potential upside of any Eastern resort (village development, Pico interconnect etc.)
3. The resort’s investment into and its ski operations product is well known, and now growth of the summer business is palpable.
One disturbing fact, however, is that our property values in the town of Killington have remained stagnant for almost 20 years. We have been caught in a vicious cycle where no growth or new development helps to promote a sense of stagnation. Stagnation encourages continued stagnation and even decline. New residential development is economically unfeasible because the cost of existing, older product is so depressed. We need a game changer to turn around this condition:
1. First and foremost, the Village should be aggressively supported by the town and its property owners. The resort should be encouraged to move as quickly and publicly as possible to promote and begin the Village development.
2. The resort should continue to improve upon and grow its summer programming and activities.
3. The resort and town should ride the World Cup wave and aggressively pursue future World Cups to return to Killington.
Look at what is happening at resorts like Park City and Big Sky. Business levels, growth and property values are doing what they are supposed to do. Granted we are not “The West” and granted that the resort has not committed to a 20 year, $2 billion development plan, but there is no excuse for continued stagnation.
I support the resort’s request for $100,000 from the 2018 option tax to be used for the next World Cup. This request is more than reasonable when considering the big picture…
Mitchell Broder, Killington property owner since 1996, developer of Winterberry and Vistas at Sunrise
