When Staff Have No Place To Live

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

When Staff Have No Place To Live

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When Staff Have No Place To Live

Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot of what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce.

Today we’re tackling a conundrum facing many resort communities. It’s the stark divide between high-yield tourism accommodations and the urgent need for workforce housing to sustain them.

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On today’s show we’re talking about the shortage of workforce housing in resorts and also in the vicinity of many manufacturing plants.

Our case study today is the Campus Ryan project at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, a blueprint for how we can apply similar models in places like Vail, Breckenridge, Banff, Copper Mountain, Aspen, and countless others.

Mont-Tremblant faced a classic problem: booming tourism, escalating property values, and a workforce priced out of the local market. Campus Ryan was the answer, a targeted development integrating long-term affordable rentals for resort staff.

The key was aligning incentives. The municipality offered density bonuses and streamlined approvals to make the project viable. The developer, in turn, committed to rents tied to median wages.

Our team was directly involved in the development of this project. It’s nearing completion. It consists of 102 apartments in 6 buildings with accommodation for 253 bedrooms.

What we experienced was, as soon as a building in the campus achieved a certificate of occupancy, people started moving in. Whenever I visited the resort, I would ask staff members who I met, whether it was in a restaurant or a hotel, I would ask them, how far did you travel today to come to work?

Now, this is not a scientific study by any means, but consistently the answer was 35 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour. People were traveling far to come to work.

When we asked the 65 retail businesses at the resort whether housing for employees was an issue, they consistently said yes.

We developed a product with different size suites. All of them have their own dedicated bathrooms, whether it’s a one-bedroom, two-bedroom, or three-bedroom unit. The units are well-appointed and they’re highly amenitized. The most cost-effective, of course, are the three-bedroom units.

What we’ve seen is that businesses are signing long-term multi-unit agreements to guarantee accommodations for their staff. For example, back in December, a new restaurant which was opening at the resort had a staff of twenty people, and they all needed a place to live.

The apartments are all-inclusive, they’re fully furnished, and the owners of the restaurant are thrilled to have all of their staff together in such great accommodations.

Like any apartment project, you’ve got to provide enough parking according to the zoning rules, and that’s under the assumption that everyone has a car. But we also made an arrangement with the city for the local bus route to loop through our property, so employees could take the bus to the base of the mountain, spend the entire day at work, come back through the centre of town, stop at the grocery store, and continue on the same bus route back to their apartment.

It’s extremely rare for someone to be able to work in a resort community and truly live without owning a car.

Some people come to the resort from overseas to work for a season. For example, I’ve met residents who are coming from France, Switzerland. Creating the conditions that enable businesses to attract and retain high-quality staff is the key.

So why does this matter in premium communities? Think of Vail, Breckenridge, Banff, Whistler, Aspen. Service economies are the backbone. Without accessible housing, staff commutes become untenable, you get skyrocketing turnover, and the visitor experience suffers. Yet developers often see higher returns in luxury condos or nightly rentals, and the market gap is real.

So what would it take in some of these Rocky Mountain resorts? These communities already grapple with the labour housing gap. Vail Resorts has taken some small steps, but what if we apply the Campus Ryan model?

Municipalities in Colorado have a reputation for experiencing huge community opposition to anything that could be perceived as lowering property values. They want professionals to be at their favourite restaurants, they just don’t want the restaurant staff to be their neighbours, and the contradiction is obvious, if not even humorous.

The success of these types of projects comes down to the local municipality offering zoning flexibility. Maybe a fast-track of approval for projects that guarantee a certain percentage of workforce units. Density bonuses could allow developers more premium units if they commit a portion to workforce housing. And financing partnerships, whether with local governments, anchor businesses, or even REITs, could ensure predictable returns for developers while locking in affordability.

The Campus Ryan story shows us that these are not zero-sum games. When aligned properly, the developer gains new avenues for sustainable profits, the municipality gains a stable workforce, and the resort reputation, bolstered by improved service, continues to thrive.

The Campus Ryan product is not just a Quebec story, it’s a scalable product. It’s a product that’s designed to be replicated in its current form across many different locations.

It also turns out that many secondary markets with expanding manufacturing are facing the same problems as resort communities, and we’re in active discussion with the politicians in several manufacturing towns.

Plants are unable to expand because there’s nowhere for employees to live. The factories are competing with each other for the same small pool of workers.

Whether for manufacturing or for resorts, these communities can bridge the housing gap. But it requires thoughtful design and partnership with government.

As you think about that, have an awesome rest of your day. Go make some great things happen, and we’ll talk to you again tomorrow.

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