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Vail working on rent relief for small businesses in town

Program would allocate $1 million; businesses, landlords and the town would contribute to making lease payments

The Vail Town Council is ready to take quick action on a proposal to advance a commercial rent relief program.

Councilmembers Tuesday asked staff to bring a proposal to the July 21 meeting for $1 million in rent relief for small businesses.

The proposed program is intended to help address the challenges of Vail business owners in navigating current and future economic impacts associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Components of the recommended program were developed by members of the Vail Economic Advisory Council and mirror similar programs found in Breckenridge and Aspen.



The proposed program intends to achieve four key objectives to support and help sustain local storefront businesses:

  • Share the rent burden among landlord, town and tenant.
  • Offer the assistance from July 1 through Nov. 30, 2020.
  • Use a formula that determines a rent abatement amount that is based on a percentage reduction to prior year revenue collections by the business.
  • Set the funding cap per business and total town funding amount to support the program.

To qualify for relief, business owners would apply monthly for help with the previous month’s rent. Businesses would have to work with their landlords, but it’s expected applications will be available on line.

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Mayor Dave Chapin and Councilmember Jenn Bruno, both Vail Village business owners, urged the council to move quickly.

In encouraging fast action, Chapin asked for the full proposal to come to council by July 21.

“It’s important we get this done by the second meeting in July,” Bruno said.

Vail Daily Business Editor Scott Miller can be reached at smiller@vaildaily.com.


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