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Retail rents high in Vail

Staff Report
Daily file photo"Oz and Kim" dance during the Beaver Creek Oktoberfest to the tunes of Helmut Fricker and his German Band.
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Max Alexander, a purveyor of T-shirts and other Vail memorabilia for 13 years, saw good times from the heart of Vail Village.

But at $165 per square foot per year, a bad year can be the end of the line for a retailer. That’s $20,000 a month ” that’s a lot of T-shirts.

Kaye Ferry has long ben an outspoken critic of landlords who “do not use any logic” in setting rates for commercial space within their properties.



“It’s the same old story, another tragedy of the rent structure here,” said Ferry, former owner and operator of the Daily Grind. “You know how many T-shirts you’d have to sell to make a profit? … The numbers simply don’t support it, with the exception of those who own their buildings themselves.”

Meanwhile, competition gets tougher. As Copper Mountain expanded its base village, Vancouver-based Intrawest was offering introductory rents at $17.50 per square foot.


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