"We've been waiting 40 years for this," said Bob Montgomery,
owner of the Killington Group, after Monday's Special EDTC Meeting
held in the Killington Grand Ballroom. It was a (somewhat
unexpected) compliment that raised cheers from the audience after
Killington Resort presented its summer plans, which include a
substantial investment over the next 3-5 years and a goal of
attracting 45,000+ additional visitors by summer 2019.
The meeting was a collaborative presentation by the resort, Killington Chamber of Commerse, and Town Economic Development and Tourism Commission on each of their plans to grow summer business.
Over 150 community members attended the meeting Monday afternoon, June 9.
The chamber and EDTC presented first, highlighting the 90 events scheduled this summer between the town, chamber, resort and individual businesses.
The resort then outlined its investment plans for this summer, next summer and its short-term goals for summer business in the next three to five years.
This summer the resort plans to "seed" larger projects, by bringing a critical mass of activity to Snowshed pond. This includes: enhancing mountain bike trails with access to easier terrain off Snowshed and retrofitting the Snowshed Quad for bikes, offering guided ATV/UTV tours as well as Action Sports Youth Camps in partnership with Killington Mountain School, and installing a Soaring Eagle Zipline (September 2014) - a mechanical zipline that does not require harnesses, making the experience accessible to all. Plans are for it to be installed near the Snowshed Quad, permits pending.
Mountain Biking build-out
Tracy Taylor, director of operations for Pico Mountain, spoke on the large opportunity for Killington to expand mountain bike operations. Last year, he said, there were 800 million mountain bike rider visits nationwide (compared to about 56 million skier visits.) And the sport is growing.
Taylor said the resort will be adopting Whistler Blackcomb's model for success. They have hired Gravity Logic, a consulting group that formed out of the management team attributed with the success at WB. (In just over a decade, the rider visits at WB skyrocketed from 10,000 in 1999 to 140,000 in 2013, bringing in about $36 million in the summer of 2013 alone.)
"Four consultants from Gravity Logic came to Killington three weeks ago," Taylor continued. "They said to us, 'we think you have the best product on the planet for mountain biking and we think you could own the northeaster market' and that's our plan... We're invested in doing it right."
Future plans
As soon as next summer, the resort hopes to build an Alpine Mountain Coaster and a Big Zip/Aerial Park (a high ropes course with a six-stage zipline, located 3,000 feet up the mountain from Snowshed), in addition to expanding mountain biking operations to include park features.
In three to five years, the resort could expand its activities to include a "Beast of the East Zipline," which could run from from Peak Lodge down to Snowshed - a span of 8,000 feet over three stages, with a total of 1,700 vertical and speeds reaching 65 mph!
Other plans include building an indoor arena to be used as a music venue and for summer camps, to relocate one umbrella bar to the Snowshed Base Area, to unite the mountain bike trail system with the town, and to carry out Gravity Logic's suggested 5-10 year plan to create a world-class mountain biking venue.
Funding
These plans require a significant capital investment and, while the resort plans to carry them out regardless, they could happen "a lot quicker" if the town would repeal the 1 percent Sales & Use option tax, resort officials said.
(Editor's note: Killington currently has a 1 percent option tax assessed on Sales & Use as well as a 1 percent option tax assessed on Rooms and Meals. The resort is only requesting the 1 percent Sales & Use option tax be removed. Since 2007, when the town voted in the option taxes, the resort estimates it has paid $2.6 million in Sales and Use option tax and $1.3 million in Rooms and Meals option tax for a total of $3.9 million on the goods and services it provides. Of that, 30 percent goes to the state, 70 percent to the town.)
Repealing the tax would mean about $350,000/year savings to the resort, as well as an estimated $130-$140,000 savings to other businesses and residences collectively, but it would create a correlating deficit that the town would have to make up by either cuts or increased revenues (possibly property taxes.)
Town Manager Seth Webb presented three criteria by which to assess any future plans to change the option tax in order to serve the best interests of the town. They included: a solid plan/commitment to summer improvements, the ability to maintain a semi-independent third party entity, and a limited increase on property taxes.
"The question is would this be a better use [of the option tax] than what is happening now?" said Mike Solimano, referring to economic development.
The afternoon presentation was lively, not only due to the buzz of excitement, but because it also included some "Beastly" surprises: free beer was served to the audience; a parade of geared-up mountain bikers, at one point, rode around the perimeter of the ballroom; and a voucher to try out the new mountain bike trails at Killington this summer was taped to the bottom of each chair in the ballroom.
Next week, look for more details on the option tax proposal, community feedback and specific summer initiatives the resort, town and chamber have planned for this year and for the years to come.
The meeting was a collaborative presentation by the resort, Killington Chamber of Commerse, and Town Economic Development and Tourism Commission on each of their plans to grow summer business.
Over 150 community members attended the meeting Monday afternoon, June 9.
The chamber and EDTC presented first, highlighting the 90 events scheduled this summer between the town, chamber, resort and individual businesses.
The resort then outlined its investment plans for this summer, next summer and its short-term goals for summer business in the next three to five years.
This summer the resort plans to "seed" larger projects, by bringing a critical mass of activity to Snowshed pond. This includes: enhancing mountain bike trails with access to easier terrain off Snowshed and retrofitting the Snowshed Quad for bikes, offering guided ATV/UTV tours as well as Action Sports Youth Camps in partnership with Killington Mountain School, and installing a Soaring Eagle Zipline (September 2014) - a mechanical zipline that does not require harnesses, making the experience accessible to all. Plans are for it to be installed near the Snowshed Quad, permits pending.
Mountain Biking build-out
Tracy Taylor, director of operations for Pico Mountain, spoke on the large opportunity for Killington to expand mountain bike operations. Last year, he said, there were 800 million mountain bike rider visits nationwide (compared to about 56 million skier visits.) And the sport is growing.
Taylor said the resort will be adopting Whistler Blackcomb's model for success. They have hired Gravity Logic, a consulting group that formed out of the management team attributed with the success at WB. (In just over a decade, the rider visits at WB skyrocketed from 10,000 in 1999 to 140,000 in 2013, bringing in about $36 million in the summer of 2013 alone.)
"Four consultants from Gravity Logic came to Killington three weeks ago," Taylor continued. "They said to us, 'we think you have the best product on the planet for mountain biking and we think you could own the northeaster market' and that's our plan... We're invested in doing it right."
Future plans
As soon as next summer, the resort hopes to build an Alpine Mountain Coaster and a Big Zip/Aerial Park (a high ropes course with a six-stage zipline, located 3,000 feet up the mountain from Snowshed), in addition to expanding mountain biking operations to include park features.
In three to five years, the resort could expand its activities to include a "Beast of the East Zipline," which could run from from Peak Lodge down to Snowshed - a span of 8,000 feet over three stages, with a total of 1,700 vertical and speeds reaching 65 mph!
Other plans include building an indoor arena to be used as a music venue and for summer camps, to relocate one umbrella bar to the Snowshed Base Area, to unite the mountain bike trail system with the town, and to carry out Gravity Logic's suggested 5-10 year plan to create a world-class mountain biking venue.
Funding
These plans require a significant capital investment and, while the resort plans to carry them out regardless, they could happen "a lot quicker" if the town would repeal the 1 percent Sales & Use option tax, resort officials said.
(Editor's note: Killington currently has a 1 percent option tax assessed on Sales & Use as well as a 1 percent option tax assessed on Rooms and Meals. The resort is only requesting the 1 percent Sales & Use option tax be removed. Since 2007, when the town voted in the option taxes, the resort estimates it has paid $2.6 million in Sales and Use option tax and $1.3 million in Rooms and Meals option tax for a total of $3.9 million on the goods and services it provides. Of that, 30 percent goes to the state, 70 percent to the town.)
Repealing the tax would mean about $350,000/year savings to the resort, as well as an estimated $130-$140,000 savings to other businesses and residences collectively, but it would create a correlating deficit that the town would have to make up by either cuts or increased revenues (possibly property taxes.)
Town Manager Seth Webb presented three criteria by which to assess any future plans to change the option tax in order to serve the best interests of the town. They included: a solid plan/commitment to summer improvements, the ability to maintain a semi-independent third party entity, and a limited increase on property taxes.
"The question is would this be a better use [of the option tax] than what is happening now?" said Mike Solimano, referring to economic development.
The afternoon presentation was lively, not only due to the buzz of excitement, but because it also included some "Beastly" surprises: free beer was served to the audience; a parade of geared-up mountain bikers, at one point, rode around the perimeter of the ballroom; and a voucher to try out the new mountain bike trails at Killington this summer was taped to the bottom of each chair in the ballroom.
Next week, look for more details on the option tax proposal, community feedback and specific summer initiatives the resort, town and chamber have planned for this year and for the years to come.
The Editor's comments in this article are a little misleading.There are actually three types of Options Taxes in Killington: Sales & Use, Rooms, and Meals & Alcohol. I looked at the State's website and I am still confused regarding the combination of the last two. They show them as Sales (6% plus 1%), Rooms (9% plus 1%), and Meals and Alcohol (10% plus 1%) but in another part of the website show them as: Sales & Use, Rooms & Meals, and Alcohol. The Resort is not asking to remove the Rooms, Meals and Alcohol Options taxes, so I guess the distinction doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't agree with is this - the article states that the Resort PAYS the Sales tax. This is not true; they collect the Sales tax and remit it to the State. They MAY elect to absorb a portion of the Sales tax when they set the lift ticket price, for example. We don't really know what the price of a lift ticket vs. the tax is.
However, they do add the Sales tax on season passes and we pay for it as customers. We don't know if what they would do with the lift ticket price if the Options Tax for Sales was repealed since we don't actually know what the price of a ticket is. If repealed, they can leave the lift ticket price the same and this would be additional profit to the Resort.
They collect the Sales tax on retail sales and send it to the State. I just don't buy the argument that the Sales Options Tax "costs" the Resort the amount of money quoted in this article since a good portion of it is paid by the customer and forwarded to the State.
Statistics can be presented to justify just about any argument you want to make, depending on how you present the numbers.
I feel that the $750,000/year that the Town receives from the three Options Taxes is good for the Town budget and for our residential taxes. I am not in favor of repealing this tax. We would not save very much (personally, as a resident) to offset the increase in real estate taxes that would go on and on. Most of the Options tax is paid by tourists. I have traveled all over and have NEVER griped about the tax rates in the towns where we travel. We just accept it and pay it. For example, Vail Valley has something like a 12% tax and they even tax food purchased in a grocery store! I don't really like it, but we continue to go there year after year. It's just part of the cost of having fun! Just my two cents....
Jan