Huge ski resort underway near Jordanelle Reservoir

By John Rogers 

A New York-based developer, best known for its multiple upscale residential properties on Billionaire’s Row along the south side of New York City’s Central Park and in the posh Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan, has announced plans for a massive new ski resort in the Jordanelle Reservoir area of Wasatch County. Extell Development Co. has already begun building roads in the area west of the Mayflower exit on U.S. Highway 40 north of Heber City.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

To be known as the Mayflower Mountain Resort — so named for historic mining claims on the site — the development will back up to Deer Valley Resort and will share ski terrain with the existing ski properties over the mountain from Jordanelle Reservoir in the Park City area. Extell owns more than 5,600 acres on the site.

Mayflower’s master plan calls for a village with 1,560 residential units; 825 hotel rooms in three separate hotels, including a five-star property; and 250,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. In addition to parking for the on-site facilities, there will be 600 day-skier parking spaces. Plans also call for a 68,000-square-foot recreation complex and 95,000 square feet of workforce housing.

Extell Development's chairman and founder, Gary Barnett, said that work has begun on remediation of the old Mayflower Mine, something he said has been made a priority in the development of the new resort. The Blue Ledge Mining District was established in the 1870s and the Mayflower mine was one of the nation’s top gold-producing operations until it played out in the 1960s. Barnett said that Extell entered into Utah’s Voluntary Cleanup Program in July 2017 and the company’s plan for remediation was approved this spring for Phase 1, which encompasses the entire village area of the master plan. 

An Extell release said the cleanup effort will be a “multi-million-dollar endeavor in just the first year of site work.” Many of the areas of the old mining operation will have to have soil removed to a depth necessary to extract pollutants. The soil will be hauled off-site and capped, the company said.

Mayflower will be the first new full-blown ski resort to be built in the U.S. in 30 years and the first in Utah in nearly four decades. Barnett will tap into Utah’s Military Industrial Development Agency (MIDA) tax increment financing to help make his project possible. MIDA is an entity created by the Utah Legislature in 2007 to facilitate the development of military land in Utah. It serves a dual role of helping strengthen the military presence in Utah while stimulating the state’s economy. 

In 2018, the Mayflower area was designated by the state and Wasatch County as a site under MIDA jurisdiction for the construction of a Morale Welfare Recreation (MWR) facility, hotel and conference center. Similarly designated facilities, where active U.S. military personnel from all branches can go for rest and recreational activities, exist worldwide. Extell has agreed that it will build the MWR as part of the Mayflower village with reduced fees for members of the armed forces in exchange for the return of some of the property tax generated by the facility. Although under MIDA jurisdiction, permitting and taxing authority for the MWR development will stay with Wasatch County

The Mayflower MWR, which will be the country’s first at a ski resort, will be located on approximately six acres within the Mayflower village. The site will include a 1.5-acre undeveloped parcel requested by the Air Force. The eight-story hotel will have 388 guest rooms, 100 of which will be reserved for military personnel at preferred pricing based on rank. It will also have four levels of underground parking and 55 condominium units for private ownership. The MWR conference center will contain approximately 75,000 square feet of commercial, military concierge, ballrooms, conference rooms, restaurants and coffee shops, retail shops and a bar. The MWR will break ground within a few weeks, Extell said. 

With its proximity to Deer Valley Resort, Barnett said that the two companies are still negotiating on shared usage of ski lifts and slopes. Deer Valley and Barnett recently announced the signing of a 199-year lease for the lifts serving Deer Valley’s Mayflower and Sultan ski runs. Extell bought the land beneath the lifts in 2017. Barnett said that the decision on how much terrain and how many lifts will be shared by the two resorts is still pending. He also said that ski lift and run configurations for Mayflower are still on the drawing board.

“We’re actually in the midst of studying exactly what kind of skiing we can provide and I think will determine that the next several months,” Barnett told KPCX radio in Park City. Another decision yet to be made concerns snowboarders. Deer Valley is a skier-only resort and Mayflower has yet to determine if it will allow snowboarders.

The lease agreement between Deer Valley and Mayflower does not address management of ski operations, which Barnett said are likely to be handled by a ski management company, not Extell. He said Deer Valley is an option but that the decision will be made down the road.

With remediation work underway, Extell is planning to break ground on vertical improvements later this year, starting with the ski improvements and the MWR conference hotel. The complete village build-out will occur over the next two decades with the majority of the infrastructure completed in anticipation of the potential 2030 Olympic Games in Utah.

The Langvardt Design Group of Salt Lake City is developing the master plan for the Mayflower project while SE Group, also of Salt Lake City, is designing the ski operations. Two Denver firms, OZ Architecture and 4240 Architects, are designing the buildings and layout of the village area.{/mprestriction}