Deer Valley won’t break ground on Snow Park Village this summer

Deer Valley Director of Communications Emily Summers told KPCW Wednesday the resort does not anticipate “any major construction activities” at Snow Park this summer.

Deer Valley officials previously indicated their five-year construction plan would begin with a groundbreaking in May 2025.

Summers only said the delay is due to the “extended timeline of the public process and status of required approvals.”

In February the Park City Planning Commission unanimously approved a permit for phase one of Snow Park Village. It involves building a transit center and underground garage on the site of the existing surface parking lot.

The second phase of the project, which has not received approval, is expected to include hotel rooms, condos, commercial space and event center that will be above the new garage.

Earlier this year the Park City Council approved Deer Valley’s request to create three public infrastructure districts, or PIDs, for Snow Park Village.

A PID can issue bonds that are repaid through property taxes or assessments on the properties within a project area, which in this case is the base area parking lot.

Deer Valley’s attorney told the council the PIDs will allow the ski resort to obtain more advantageous financing for its development.

The attorney also said March 26 that Deer Valley no longer planned to pursue a separate funding tool called a community reinvestment agency, or CRA.

CRAs are funded by tax increment financing, which is additional property tax revenue that comes from increases in property values.

In November Deer Valley proposed a CRA involving taxes from Park City, Summit County, the Park City School District and other agencies to fund Snow Park Village.

The resort later pulled the CRA proposal amid public outcry denouncing the idea.

The presentation Deer Valley had prepared for Park City officials, which was later removed from the agenda, detailed the resort’s plan to fund Snow Park Village, which was estimated to cost over $1.5 billion.

A slide in the presentation said: “Due to the significant upfront infrastructure costs, to construct the multi-modal transit center and underground public parking garage, we cannot deliver the village without a robust, multi-pronged public private partnership.”

In 2017 Deer Valley was acquired by Alterra Mountain Company, the distributor of the Ikon Pass and owner of 19 ski resorts across North America.

Alterra is jointly owned by private equity firm KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown & Company, the owners of Aspen/Snowmass.

While construction on Snow Park Village is delayed, this summer Deer Valley is building new lifts and a lodge on Park Peak as part of its East Village expansion.

Deer Valley Resort is a financial supporter of KPCW.