Curated News
By: NewsRamp Editorial Staff
September 28, 2026
Kaufman Launches Mountain Watch, Gateway Index as Vail Proxy Fight Heats Up
TLDR
- Mountain Watch delivers free 0-100 scores for 10 resort towns, helping investors spot land opportunities before the crowd.
- Mountain Watch weights momentum at 30 percent, catalyst at 25, housing at 25, and supply at 20 to score each market.
- The platform highlights workforce housing needs in mountain towns, supporting the people who run lifts and staff local businesses.
- Park City scored 87 and leads the set, with land sales up 46 percent in units year over year in Q2 2026.
Impact - Why it Matters
This news matters because it highlights the intersection of ski resort ownership, workforce housing, and land development in mountain towns. As Vail Resorts faces pressure from activist investor Oasis Management, the possibility of resort sales raises urgent questions about the stability of gateway communities that depend on these mountains. Kaufman's Mountain Watch and The Gateway Index provide timely, free data to help developers, investors, and local stakeholders identify opportunities and risks before they become obvious. With skier visits declining and Epic Pass sales dropping, the financial health of Vail Resorts could have ripple effects on housing affordability, employment, and local economies. By focusing on workforce housing and land scarcity, these tools empower communities to plan for an uncertain future and ensure that the people who keep mountain towns running have a place to live.
Summary
Real estate developer and investor Daniel Kaufman, founder of Kaufman & Company and DEK Builds, has launched Mountain Watch, a free section of the LandBriefing land opportunity watchlist at landbriefing.com/mountain-watch. The platform scores land and housing fundamentals in ten mountain resort and gateway towns, including Park City, Jackson, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Telluride, Big Sky, Mammoth Lakes, Truckee, Stowe, and Ketchum. Each market is rated from 0 to 100 on momentum, catalyst, housing opportunity, and supply constraint, with data sourced from Census permits, Zillow, Redfin, and local records. The launch comes as Oasis Management, holding roughly 6.5% of Vail Resorts, has filed a Schedule 13D and nominated four director candidates, including Picabo Street and Robert Chapek, and may explore a sale of some of Vail's 42 resorts. Kaufman also announced The Gateway Index, a recurring data feature on his ski industry publication, Danski and Build, which will track towns around Vail's smaller mountains such as Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado; Stowe, Ludlow, Dover, and Wilmington, Vermont; Bartlett, Jackson, and Newbury, New Hampshire; and Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands. The Gateway Index will monitor land absorption, permit activity, the workforce housing gap, and price per buildable acre. Vail Resorts reported 14.8 million skier visits in 2025/26, down from 16.9 million, and early Epic Pass sales for 2026/27 fell about 10%. Kaufman emphasized that the proxy fight is fundamentally a land and housing question, noting that if Vail sheds non-core mountains, someone still must build for the workers who run the lifts and staff the hotels. Mountain Watch is free and requires no sign-in.
Source Statement
This curated news summary relied on content distributed by Keycrew.co. Read the original source here, Kaufman Launches Mountain Watch, Gateway Index as Vail Proxy Fight Heats Up
