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The 120-unit condominium development owned by Wolfgramm Capital has sat unfinished for years in the Frostwood Village area of Canyons Village at Park City Mountain.
OKOA Capital bought The Ascent Park City at auction July 22. The company says in Summit County records Wolfgramm defaulted on a $30 million loan last October.
The records also show OKOA credited $24 million in outstanding debt toward the purchase, not additional cash. It's unclear if there were any other bids.
The Park City-based private credit group is working on plans to complete The Ascent, according to partner Jason Meyer.
“The next steps are to begin analyzing the cost to complete and the several options that may enable people to recover the money that has been lost,” he wrote in an email.
OKOA was named in a July 15 lawsuit brought by seven people, who put thousands of dollars down as deposits on condos, to block the auction. They allege Wolfgramm “began having issues” with The Ascent project as early as 2021.
Third District Judge Patricia Kuendig allowed the sale, and the lawsuit remains pending as of July 24. OKOA and Wolfgramm’s subsidiaries, which are also named, haven’t responded in court.
The plaintiffs want the court to find they have an interest in The Ascent despite not having closed on their units.
Wolfgramm, a Texas-based private equity firm, also faces several other lawsuits from contractors. The Salt Lake Tribune reports their claims total up to $14 million.
Summit County says Wolfgramm subsidiaries didn’t pay tens of thousands in property taxes last year, including on units at The Ascent and Waldorf Astoria directly across the street.
Wolfgramm was founded in 2021, the same year The Ascent broke ground.
In 2022 it purchased the Waldorf Astoria hotel directly across the street for an undisclosed sum. At the time it promised to “infuse” $60 million in improvements into the property.
The hotel remains in operation but is expected to lose its luxury Hilton branding next year.
Real estate agent Wayne Levinson, who sells properties at the Waldorf Astoria, said in February the hotel would most likely adopt different, upscale branding some time after April 2027.
In 2028, a new Waldorf Astoria is slated to open at Deer Valley Resort’s new East Village base, also home to a Four Seasons and a Grand Hyatt.