We used to just be in the condominium management and short term vacation rental business, but now we find ourselves in the construction business as well.
Like every vacation condominium property in the world, we wrestle with individual unit decorating and variance of quality. After forty plus years of non-stop pleading with some owners to “fix it up”, we have just instituted a formal Unit Quality Improvement plan. Now we are not only encouraging and rewarding those condominium owners who invest the most, but now we also have some sticks to go with those carrots.
As a result, 43 out of our 88 rental units have made, or are making, upgrades to their property. Some are big projects, some smaller, but all are meaningful improvements. And that’s in just this year … we expect to have that much and more, in the next couple years following. Which brings us to the construction business. If we’re going to become a completely Platinum rated property, as is our goal, we can’t just tell our condominium owners, “You go figure it out.”
Rather, it’s our job to facilitate everything from new furniture and soft goods, to new flooring, windows, appliances, cabinets and some major renovations.
Antlers at Vail Chief Engineer, Tom Schlader
Dave Collins, the newest addition to the Antlers engineering department
Fortunately our Chief Engineer, Tom Schlader, is an accomplished contractor in his own right. It’s a good thing, because coordinating and implementing this many simultaneous but diverse projects is way more than a handful. So much so, that we just brought on long-time local Dave Collins to help Tom in that role. Dave has worked as a project manager for projects large and small so his skills are exactly what we need.
The Antlers commitment in this regard is enormous … in both time and money. That’s okay though. Like so many others, our business model is changing and we can either embrace that change, or get run over.
Happily, we plan to be the runner, not the runee.
