Investor Daniel Kaufman Says the Vail Board Fight Comes Down to Housing the People Who Run the Mountain
As Oasis Management seeks four seats on the Vail Resorts board and cites staffing shortfalls, the Kaufman & Company founder says value in mountain towns now depends on where the workforce can live
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LOS ANGELES (Oct. 27, 2026) Daniel Kaufman, founder and CEO of the permanent capital holding company Kaufman & Company, said the contested board fight at Vail Resorts is putting a spotlight on a constraint that investors in ski towns can no longer treat as someone else's problem: housing for the people who run the mountain.
Activist investor Oasis Management, which holds about 9.6% of Vail Resorts shares, filed a preliminary proxy statement on Oct. 13 seeking four seats on the company's nine member board, and Vail filed its own preliminary proxy on Oct. 19 recommending its nine nominees, according to SnowBrains and The Ski Guru. Oasis's criticisms include declining skier visits, guest experience problems and staffing shortfalls, while Vail has pointed to marketing changes, new pass and lift ticket products and its multiyear Epic Experience strategy. The annual meeting is typically held in December, as resorts finish hiring for the season.
"Shareholders will settle the questions about the board, pass pricing and the guest experience, and those are fair questions," Kaufman said. "But a resort cannot run its lifts, staff its restaurants or keep guests coming back without people, and in most mountain towns those people cannot find a place to live. Staffing is a housing problem before it is a management problem."
The same pressure is showing up in new resort development. Deer Valley East Village in Wasatch County, Utah, will need about 6,000 workers, KPCW reported in August. The largest planned workforce housing project there, Marina West, is expected to include up to 600 units, with a site plan due in early 2027 and an opening targeted for the 2028 to 2029 ski season.
"Whoever wins these board seats inherits the same math every operator in a mountain town faces," Kaufman said. "The lift line and the ticket price get the attention, but the asset that decides whether a resort can deliver what it promises is housing for its workforce. When we look at a mountain project, the first question we ask is where the people who run it will live, and the projects that answer it early are the ones that hold their value."
DEK Builds, a Kaufman & Company operating company headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, designs, builds and develops custom homes, mountain resorts, hotels and commercial projects. Kaufman & Company works alongside Oldivai, an aligned, independently led workforce housing partner focused on employer anchored communities, and LandBriefing, a Kaufman Ventures platform, tracks land and housing fundamentals across U.S. markets, including mountain resort and gateway towns through its Mountain Watch tool. Kaufman & Company invests only its own capital and does not raise outside funds.
About Kaufman & Company
Kaufman & Company (thekaufmanco.com) is a permanent capital holding company founded by Daniel Kaufman and the trade name of Kaufman Family Office LLC and Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting LLC. Its 10 operating companies are Convivium Living, DanReDev, DEK Builds, Design Build Affordable, DK Homes, Forge Development Partners, Kaufman Development, Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, LoneStar Kaufman and Kaufman Ventures, whose portfolio includes BridgeStar, Meridian, LandBriefing, SpreadSight, FoundCheck, ServerDomes and Mr Good Container Homes. Oldivai is an aligned, independently led workforce housing partner. The platform represents more than $2 billion in project value and more than 10,000 housing units across more than 25 years of building, lending and investing.
Media Contact
Kaufman & Company
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(341) 217-2580
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