If Park City, Utah is anything to go by, Whistler’s real estate market could come to grinding halt during the 2010 Olympic Games.
"We have to accept the fact that there’s a high probability we won’t do a lot of business for the period of the Olympics and the Paralympics… which is traditionally one of our busiest times," said Whistler Real Estate Company President Pat Kelly, who was in Park City six weeks ago.
"That’s important for me to know so that I can plan my cash flow. And it’s important for my agents to know."
Earlier this summer Kelly took a four-day information-gathering trip to Park City, along with real estate agent Heather Clifford.
Even though it’s been two years since Park City played host to some of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic events, the excitement of the experience has not waned.
More importantly, the people there were more than willing to share their experiences and information with the Whistler realtors.
Kelly and Clifford spent their time in the Utah resort talking to businesses, realtors, and ordinary citizens where they learned that some companies, including real estate companies, did virtually no business in the three-month period surrounding the Games.
The people in the market for lifestyle homes are simply not in the resort at that time.
Instead, it’s filled with tourists who are unprepared for a mountain resort setting and corporate clients and media who are not interested in skiing.
They’re here to work and most of them aren’t spending their time and money dining out in fancy restaurants, choosing to grab a quick hot dog or hamburger instead.
"During the event what you have is a lot of event people and they’re here for souvenirs, they’re here for a party, they’re here for a good time," said Kelly
Rather than buying resort homes, these guests are in the market for T-shirts and Olympic pins to mark the occasion.
"If Park City is an example, they did none (no real estate transactions), and I mean zero," said Kelly.
"And it wasn’t just for 17 days. It was in the order of three months.
"That’s a bit of a shocker for me."
In fact, the real estate market in Park City didn’t come to life again until roughly four months after the Games, at the beginning of the third quarter.
By the fourth quarter, however, they were having record sales and they’ve been having record quarters ever since.
"But at the same time the real estate business in North America has been at its strongest point ever," said Kelly, who has always maintained that the Olympics are not a direct contributing factor in the real estate market.
In 2002 Park City did $552 million in sales. A year later that number had jumped to $775 million, and this year they expect to hit $1 billion, which means their volume of sales have roughly doubled since the Olympics, said Clifford.
"Theirs wasn’t so much a difference in real estate value as it was a difference in the amount of transactions," she explained.
Only one small area of Park City, called the Old Town, experienced large increases, with house prices there doubling since the Olympic Games.
In addition several Park City realtors commented that the homes over 5,000 square feet have become very hard to sell. Buyers aren’t interested in buying these so-called "trophy homes" and the realtors said they wished Park City hadn’t built so many.
But that’s not to say the same experience will be repeated in Whistler.
There are numerous differences between the two resorts, not the least of which is the fact that there is no moratorium on growth in Park City compared to Whistler which is almost at build out.
The socio-political atmosphere in Park City is totally different said Kelly and that in turn will change how the marketplace reacts to things.
"That’s what happened in Park City," he said.
"There’s no guarantee that it will happen here but it’s an indication of what might happen."
In light of the fact that the real estate business was non-existent, Kelly and Clifford were told to get out of the office and get active in other things.
The Olympics, for realtors at least, is the time to volunteer.
And the time to start volunteering is now.
The Whistler Real Estate Company is now actively involved in the Whistler i-host program, where residents direct tourists through the village and provide information. Twenty realtors are now volunteering with the program.
Another nugget of information they took back from Park City was the possibility of leasing out their office space, which is in prime village location.
As real estate companies are more likely to not be doing business during the Olympics, Kelly said they could capitalize on renting out their office space to media groups or corporate sponsors during that time period.
Prudential, one of the biggest real estate companies in Park City, leased out its office to CNN for interviews during the Games.
While that’s one way to recoup the loss of business, Kelly said it still doesn’t make up for three months of lost sales.
He added that media outlets and corporate sponsors know what they should be paying for office spaces and won’t stand to be ripped off with Olympic-priced rents.
"You need to assess whether your business is something that visitors for the Olympics will want to take advantage of or not," said Kelly, listing off T-shirt shops, souvenir shops and restaurants as prime examples of good Olympic businesses.
"And if (you) don’t, then you should probably look at renting your space out."
It could also be tempting to get out of town, avoid the crowds and the madness and take a holiday catching full coverage of the Games on TV.
But after their trip to Park City, Kelly and Clifford would not advise skipping out on the Olympics.
"Most of them (the people in Park City) said that most people who did that really regretted," he said.
"They missed the event and they really regretted missing the event."
Even two years after the Games, the people of Park City are still excited and passionate about their Olympic experience.
"Whenever we talked to anybody their eyes just glazed over and they just were so excited and there was so much passion in what they were saying, that you knew they were telling you the truth – that their experience was riveting and (that) you don’t want to miss being a part of history," said Clifford.
And though Park City’s tourism numbers haven’t increased over the past two years, most people felt the Games had a positive effect on their community, said Kelly.
"Certainly they feel that the awareness of their resort is much higher today than it was," he said, adding that people now understand Utah is easy to get to and there’s great skiing there.
"I think that just as there are fabulous opportunities presented by the Olympics, there’s also challenges that need to be managed in order to be carried out properly without huge impacts," said Kelly.
The short trip to Park City was a great benefit he added. He may have come back with some more questions and concerns about Whistler’s future but now he knows how to focus those questions and concerns.
"The knowledge I gained going down there will allow me to prepare better to make the most out of the Olympics," said Kelly.
"Most importantly was this idea of planning financially for the period of time involved. That period of time when the Olympics affects your business is much longer than you think it is."
Meanwhile Whistler’s mayor and council are taking the trip to Park City in the fall and the Whistler Chamber of Commerce is exploring the idea of a trip in January with Chamber businesses that are interested in the opportunity.
