GM Updates

Dear Antlers Homeowners,

How is it that May is almost gone? “Time flies when you are having fun” they say.  We are having a lot of fun in this beautiful part of the country.

With the 24-25 ski season behind us, we had time to debrief and learn from a good winter season, and evaluate what worked well, and what needed improvement. You may enjoy the summary below.

Our Thursday evening “Wine and Cheese” social gatherings are still our owners’ and guests’ favorite weekly event! Thank you so much to all of you who made it a success and participated in it.  Liana Moore, our Marketing Director, brilliantly connected with several of our guests who have stayed with us for 25+ years! Those patrons loved to be interviewed, and we enjoyed learning the reasons why they keep coming back. If you want to read more about them, visit our blog.

We had an increased participation in our complimentary Yoga classes which are offered twice a week during the wintertime.

Our Ski Valet service program ran smoothly.  Our guests and owners enjoyed this service; we are very grateful for our partnership with Vail Resorts, which allows us to have this luxurious amenity for our property.

Another alliance that brought us many compliments was the complimentary luxury shuttle vehicle.  More than ever, our patrons used the service for grocery runs or for evening town visits.

We saw an up sale in the delicious homemade foods that Chef Barry prepares for our guests. In this area, our guests used the kitchens more often than in previous years.

The Bellman service was much appreciated. We know it is difficult to navigate our building; we were happy to provide a solution (guest commented about it).

As you can see, this year we really focus on increasing the value of the Antlers’ guest stay because we believe that this is what people are looking for in a Vail vacation.

As always, there were opportunities for improvement, mostly scheduling the staff longer hours, but we did have budgetary limitations.

Your guests love your condos! Travelers are paying attention to the small details, and they like how the Antlers condos feel refreshed.  The Residence Quality Management team (Jane and Hannah) are doing a fabulous job in this department.

We have just finished our 25-26 Annual Budget and are excited to share the information with our Board of Directors. The meeting is scheduled for this coming June 7th at 1:00 pm (MDT).

Save the Date! Our 2025 Annual Homeowners’ Meeting will take place on Saturday, September 6th at 4:00 pm.  We will have festivities throughout the weekend. We so look forward to welcoming each one of you.

Finally, a note of gratitude for all these 18 years working for you, Antlers Homeowners (June 4th is my work anniversary). I don’t know what I did to deserve landing in such wonderful job, but I am thankful to each of you, for accepting me, for working with me, and for caring for the staff and I.

I hope to see you often this summer.

Fond Regards, Magda King, GM

Kindlness Matters

Yes. We read this headline time and time again. It is printed on shirts, mugs, notebooks, art walls and any last-minute, must-have novelty schwag out there.

But what happens when, even though we know that kindness is one of the main core teachings of every society, we live in a world that -would appear to- celebrate the opposite. Whether that is creating controversy through actions, words, or political strategies, all points out to divide our society paying a very high price for the sake of being right.

Some of you have asked me about the immigration climate in the Vail Valley. It’s not good.   When you are bombarded by media that shows kids taken away from families, youth taken all together to be interrogated.  The anxiety of knowing we may be next, moves into our hearts.  And that is a very difficult tenant to evict. I’m making the point to meet with our Latino Staff daily and analyze what is true and not in the news, and how we don’t have anything to fear in today’s reality (or do we?).

Last Monday (Feb 3), it was “Solidarity Latino Monday”, Latino members of our Vail community were asked to stay home in protest for how poorly we are treated in our society, and how we should “teach a lesson” letting everyone know how important we are.  I was deeply grateful that the Antlers Staff didn’t join such harmful behavior and came to work.  Someone must stop this nonsense of “us against them”.  At the Antlers, we feel welcome, respected, and we know the importance each of our jobs has to our stakeholders. We are proud to serve others! And we are good citizens who are not in trouble with the law outside work. With that, we are confident that there is nothing to fear.

Some of you have also asked me what you can do to support our Latino Staff members.  Just practice the basics.  Show appreciation by your words (thank you, and please go a long way). Learn something from the staff who serves you (they all have wonderful families and, have accomplished meaningful things). Send them a written note (we have a bulletin board in the housekeeping department, and they hang wonderful appreciation notes in there).  Let them know they are not alone and thank them for working for you.

So many of you already do this, thank you! In these vulnerable times, an extra gesture of kindness may go a long way.  I leave you with some Local news about immigration so you can learn what is happening in this topic here in the Vail Valley.

Warmest Regards,

Magda King, Antlers, GM

Dear Antlers Homeowners,

This time of the year, it warms my heart to receive emails from everywhere expressing sentiments of gratitude.

I am not sure if it’s because I have been with the Antlers for 17 years or simply because I am getting older, but as time passes, I’m learning to appreciate things differently. Things that make me ever so grateful.

I’m thankful to share with selfless people who decide to work in an industry in which happiness comes from making other people happy. Isn’t that a miracle in itself? It takes people with a heart full of gratitude to serve in this way. I recognize their care, passion, and charisma. When a staff member happily remembers a guest (or vice versa), I know that communities are being made, and our humanity shines at its noblest peak.

Whether we are making sure that you receive your monthly statements before the 5^th, or we are making sure your room is decorated nicely and in great shape. Ensuring that your homes are filled with bookings, and showcasing the property through marketing efforts, our daily tasks at the Antlers give us meaning and purpose, and we’re most proud of that.

It puts a smile on my face when, from my office window, I see families taking a picture in front of our “Elk Battle” statue in the courtyard to remember their happy time in Vail. Or when a bride walks out from our courtyard to be married.  Children throwing snowballs among themselves or cannonballing at the pool.  These memories make us all so thankful to be here.

We are grateful for you, our dear Antlers Owners! We long for your visits (or your children’s) and we are proud to serve you. Please know that when you come to Vail, you always have a family waiting to welcome, embrace, and celebrate you in a sincere and meaningful way. I guess that is what sets us apart from any other lodges in the world.

On a personal note, I want to take a minute to publicly thank my dad, Carlos, who is slowly losing his battle to cancer back home in Ecuador.  Thank you, Dad! For so much, but especially for believing in me, and loving me unconditionally. Always. No questions asked.

I hope that all of you have a very blessed Thanksgiving celebration and that you come visit us often this Ski Season which promises to be an Epic One!

With gratitude,

Magda King,

Antlers GM

Dear Antlers Homeowners,

Happy Tuesday! I trust you are enjoying a wonderful Autumn Fall Season.

Last week, we’ve had several owners asked us about the Ever Vail/West Lionshead Project, which was publicly announced on the Vail Daily on October 2^nd. Vail Daily

Some background information.

In 2007, the Town of Vail received the very first request for approval for “Ever Vail”, a Vail Resort project which was to be developed west of the Antlers (you can find the original Ever Vail project in this link).  This project included a new gondola with its own ski base, plus new shops, more lodging, 400+ parking spaces, and employee housing.  Due to a myriad of reasons, the project was delayed until it died (mostly due to funding).  However, it never left the mind of some Vail developers.

The new partnership between Vail Resorts, the Town of Vail, and East West Partners announced on October 1^st by Vail Resorts  New Base Village in Vail, is very similar to the Ever Vail project, and the town authorities are waiting to receive a new master plan for the now called “West Lionshead” project.  Back in 2007-2010 the Ever Vail project presented four revised master plans, none were approved. I believe that this new very strong partnership will make things happen.

Impact.

When this development happens, Vail will be impacted in many ways. From more lodging options to more traffic on the roads, less “small town feeling”, more fraction of an already small town, more skiers, etc.  But on the bright side, kudos to Vail Resorts and our local government for working together and understanding that investing in infrastructure and modernizing our town helps us all in the long run. We will gain more access to the mountain, the marketing dollars will continue to flow to our destination, and we will continue living by our tag line “Vail, Like Nothing on Earth”.  Small business like ours will benefit from all this publicity because more people will visit our destination.

Every year, the lodging competition seems to be more aggressive. Last year, Marriott Corporation built three new hotels in the area. The Residence Inn opened its 146 suites in the North Frontage Road (in Vail). This is a pet friendly property which includes complimentary breakfast on its rate.  They offer (limited and paid) onsite parking.  In Avon (10 minutes west from Vail), two other hotels were built, Towneplace Suites (150 rooms) and Springhill Suites (150 rooms), They all have small kitchenettes and a modern conference center, also includes breakfast.

The “West Lionshead Project” will bring its own challenges and opportunities.  We must continue doing business strategically leveraging our superb location and services.  We need to keep up with technology, continue our impeccable customer service, and nurture our local strategic alliances which provide us with access to some advantages that otherwise we couldn’t afford.

I’m always delighted to jump in a call one-on-one with you if you have any questions or wish more information about this topic.  Thank you for taking great interest in your “Home-Away-From-Home” and our local news.  We are a very strong HOA due to the support and commitment from the board, management, and our ownership to make our HOA what it is.  Let’s keep collaborating to remain that way.

Warm Regards,

Magda-

What a wonderful Annual Homeowners Meeting we had this year. With about 65% ownership participation, we felt your care, support, and interest in the Antlers endeavors and projects.

I want to thank those of you who were able to attend the meeting in-person or via Zoom. My thanks also to those who couldn’t make it but sent us your proxies. Your calls or emails with questions, suggestions, or recommendations are always welcomed and well-received.

I do apologize to the owners who joined the meeting via Zoom. I know the video was not properly focused/working as it should have been.  We learned a valuable lesson this year as to how to run a live Zoom Meeting, which is not as simple as it sounds.  We hope to present better next year.

In the following link, you will be able to access the DRAFT Annual Homeowners’ Meeting minutes.  If you have any questions or corrections, please let me know. I’m happy to work on this as the notes are fresh in your mind.

To recap, we presented you a fiscal budget based on a gross rental income of $8.3M (36/64 rental split).  This is the driving force behind our operation budget. We also presented an increase our General Assessment to reflect accurately our association expenditure. Salaries, utilities and insurance were some of the driving factors for this increase.

A part of our meeting was used to discuss further our Capital Reserve Funding Strategy and future capital projects.In the following link, you will find the presented slides which recap our strategy and last year’s expenditure. We included a comparison chart as to what we showed you last year, and what we ended up spending (and its variance). You can also see the updated Capital Reserve Fund Summary here.

In the Antlers history we’ve had very few Special Assessments, and all of them were to fund capital projects for the building.  We envision that for the next fiscal year we will have a $1M Special Assessment to proactively address some equipment that is nearing its life-end. Boilers aren’t one of those things that you “see” but we all suffer if we don’t have them working properly.  During this year, we will be sharing valuable information regarding our Capital Reserve Strategy and accomplishments plus a more formal plan about this special assessment.

As always, any questions,comments, suggestions, recommendations are welcome! Please do not hesitate to contact Chris Manning and Elena or I to share your thoughts.

I find myself often reading about strong organizations and are they made of. I repeatedly discover that a good place to work is one that values and supports its employees, and where employees feel valued and respected with a shared commitment. I know our staff is invested, and motivated to work at the Antlers because they feel your respect, they share the responsibility of having a wonderful building and guest’s satisfaction, and they enjoy working for you. Your appreciation does not go unnoticed.

I feel I have the best job in the world, and for that I am most grateful. Thank you for making me feel this way.

Warmest Regards, Magda