With a unanimous vote at the MIDA board meeting Tuesday, Dec. 19, the military organization will undertake a new project on 2,600 acres, or a little over four square miles, which comprise the Sundance Mountain Resort in Provo Canyon.
The project will include a 63-room lodge, to be called the Sundance Inn.
In addition to hosting resort guests, Sundance partner Bill Jensen said it will feature free programs for wounded veterans and their families, including lodging and rehabilitative sports.
That project is part of the military organization’s role: it’s a public entity in charge of developing land that directly benefits members of the military.
“All costs to participating veterans and their families are covered, including transportation, lodging, meals and activities,” Jensen said. “Veteran outreach organizations have significantly declined over the past decade, and ongoing support of this veteran population remains critical.”
He said he has established relationships with several military hospitals to offer veterans access to the resort. The program will be modeled after the Vail Veterans Program, which similarly offers rehabilitative sports to vets recovering from amputations, post-traumatic stress and other serious injuries.
“Sundance Mountain Resort will be a significant annual contributor to veteran programming,” military operations director Kristin Kenney Williams said.
Williams said national organizations will also provide grant support for veteran programs.
The lodge in Utah County will cost $35 million to construct.
MIDA executive director Paul Morris said bringing the whole resort into the project area means the potential to capture more tax revenue to go toward paying for the facility, if Utah County assesses the land at a higher value in years to come.
“It’s a big area, but whatever they [Utah County] do inside there, that increases value,” he said. “We’re trying to capture that to help them do this.”
The move expands MIDA’s reach beyond its current projects in Wasatch County, where the organization is involved in the Deer Valley ski resort expansion. Utah County approached MIDA in November 2023 about a partnership, and after Tuesday’s discussion, MIDA elected to move forward, marking its second foray into projects involving Utah’s ski resorts.
MIDA will be working with both the county and Storyteller Canyon Investments to develop the new project area. Storyteller’s two parent companies bought the resort in 2020.
Work on the Sundance partnership will begin in spring 2024. A new public infrastructure district will be created and MIDA will issue Utah County a bond to construct the lodge.
The tax agreement stipulates MIDA will receive 75% of the new tax revenue generated by the lodge, with Utah County earning the remainder.
