The group Friends for Responsible Development for Greater Park City (FRD) is voicing concerns after the Summit County Council unanimously voted to purchase the Skullcandy headquarters May 9.
FRD has long opposed housing on the 50 empty acres around the Skullcandy building.
Now that building could become part of a wider public-private partnership on that land. Summit County councilmembers have been negotiating for four years with Dakota Pacific Real Estate, which has applied to build housing where it is only approved to build tech offices right now.
FRD has been asking county councilmembers for more information on Dakota Pacific’s negotiations. But the county’s legal team says releasing that would violate the developer’s due process rights.
So, it was troubling to see public negotiations move into a private subcommittee, said Van Novack, a Sun Peak homeowner and member of FRD.
“And then almost immediately after that was announced — with no preamble, no evidence that it had been discussed beforehand — they announced they're considering purchasing the Skullcandy property,” he said.
The Skullcandy purchase came up separately from those private talks, Councilmember Chris Robinson said, when the property was listed for public sale in February. It may save the county money on new construction.
“There's lots of ways that you can try to spin a tale out of this. That isn’t what happened or what we’re doing,” he said May 8.
The council voted to purchase Skullcandy’s headquarters for $17.5 million, financed by bonds paid for with existing taxes. The county will earn money on the lease and may share the building with Skullcandy for county services and employee offices.
Novack doesn’t object to the purchase necessarily—he said it could be a good place for an interim Park City senior center during the new one’s construction. But he repeated FRD’s request for more information.
“It would be comforting to know what the state of the negotiations are and how this purchase fits into those negotiations or the ultimate plan for the [surrounding area],” Novack said.
Here’s what the council has said so far.
Negotiations with the Dakota Pacific subsidiary that owns Skullcandy’s building until mid-July and negotiations with the parent company have been separate.
But under county ownership, the Skullcandy land can now play a part in negotiations about potential development.
Part of the purchase agreement allows for a road to cross the county-owned land, which could allow better access to future buildings. The Skullcandy headquarters may also replace the Sheldon Richins Building, where the Kimball Junction library and DMV are, if the nearby transit center is expanded.
Councilmembers, county staff and Dakota Pacific are determining what’s possible in the private subcommittee. However, councilmembers have said repeatedly that ideas developed behind closed doors would be vetted and voted on in public.
Eventually, the council will vote whether to amend the parties’ development agreement and let Dakota Pacific build housing.
Dakota Pacific was unable to comment on the sale Friday.
