diff --git a/nant-common.xml b/nant-common.xml
index bf7a6ae..1f3e3d3 100644
--- a/nant-common.xml
+++ b/nant-common.xml
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
     <property name="build.noskip"            value="false" />
     <property name="build.skip"              value="false" />
     <property name="build.skip.release"      value="false" unless="${property::exists('build.skip.release')}" />
+    <property name="download.skip"           value="false" unless="${property::exists('download.skip')}"/>
     <property name="compile.skip"            value="false" unless="${property::exists('compile.skip')}" />
     <property name="current.build.config"    value="${if(project.release.type == 'release', 'release', 'debug')}" overwrite="false" />
     <property name="current.build.framework" value="${framework::get-target-framework()}" overwrite="false" />
@@ -416,7 +417,7 @@
     <target name="download-vendor" depends="vendor-init, conditional-download"
                 description="Download the vendor artifacts from the nant repo" />
 
-    <target name="conditional-download" unless="${build.skip}"
+    <target name="conditional-download" unless="${build.skip or download.skip}"
                 description="Download the artifacts from the nant repo">
         <!-- Iterate over the defined vendor filesets. -->
         <foreach item="String" in="${vendor.fileset.names}" delim="," property="current.vendor">