Wednesday, October 2, 2019
New Slopes in the Works
Posted By Babs De Lay on October 2, 2019, 4:00 AM
Although the fall colors seem a bit late, the hills surrounding the Wasatch Front are finally beginning to turn to those beautiful oranges, reds and yellows we all love. If you head from Park City to Heber City, you will see colors to the west and the Jordanelle Reservoir to the east. For newcomers, you might think that the big fishing and boating pond has been there for a long time, but it's one of Utah's newest bodies of water. Construction started in 1987 to build a dam and six years of massive concrete pours later, it was finished. It took two years for the Provo River to back up and fill the pond and sink the towns of Keetley, Hailstone and Jordanelle.
While driving this direction, if you look to the west to the aspens and oaks changing colors, note that you will see another big change. Something called The Mayflower Mountain Resort is about to give Deer Valley a run for its powdery money. The developers of new skyscrapers in New York City, such as One Manhattan Square, Central Park, Brooklyn Point, One57, The Orion, Ariel Condominiums and more, are going to build a ski resort on the back side of the mountain facing the Jordanelle waters. Extell will have to clean up the dirt before building to get rid of polluting soils from a long-ago gold mine.
This is a pretty big deal because ski resorts don't get built too often these days. We haven't had a new one in our state in 40 years. This one will be a doozy with five ski lifts they hope to have open in 2021, and of course a fancy five-star lodge and convention center. What's really unique is that the developers have agreed to work along with already designated U.S. military plans to build a resort for personnel in the same area.
Given the success of our Wasatch Front and Back resorts lately, it will be nice to have some of the burden of parking and traffic taken around the bend from Park City. Developers hope to someday tap into Deer Valley and its ski runs. A new resort certainly would enhance Utah's chances of landing the 2030 Winter Olympics. It would take that long to develop the mega resort. Looking at Extell's website (extell.com), you can see they don't do things half-assed, or small. And they are smart to offer to build the military hotel to get their own resort up and running. Ah, what's a few billion when you can be the owners of the newest and hippest ski destination in the U.S. in a few years?
About The Author
Babs De Lay
A full-time broker/owner of Urban Utah Homes and Estates, Babs De Lay serves on the Salt Lake City Historic Landmark Commission. A writer and golfer, you'll find them working as a staff guardian at the Temple at Burning Man each year.
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