More good news:
At a press conference on Friday, Park City Major Jack Thomas and the Park City Council announced a major initiative to purchase 5.25 acres in the City's Bonanza Park neighborhood for $19.5 million to form the city's first-ever Arts & Culture District, with Sundance Institute and Kimball Art Center as anchor partners. Property owners Mark J. Fisher and John Paul DeJoria after spending many years trying to craft development plans acceptable to the community that would also be economically viable, have agreed to step aside to make the new project possible. Now a collaborative planning & design process in 2017 - 2018 will lead to a projected groundbreaking in 2019.
Two years ago the news was all about Vail's new resort and Replay Resorts was being introduced as the master developer (see uncategorized post dated 7/6/2015). At that time Replay made a point that has proven key to understanding the recent Park City real estate market and now applies to the announcement of the new Arts& Culture District. Developments that provide exclusive amenities for their owners find that the price tag for the construction and maintenance of those amenities (golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools, etc) are becoming less popular with owners. Replay de-emphasizes on-site amenities in favor of natural beauty and attractions of the area. They expressed the belief that becoming an extension of the surrounding community and vice versa is a far more cost effective way of establishing a destination than building attractions inside the gates. They encourage guests to see the ways of a place through the eyes of the locals. In that light, real estate owners should look at the establishment of a dedicated Arts & Culture District (funded by a 1% transient room tax) to include the Sundance Institute and Kimball Art Center, as amenities that improve their properties free of added property taxes, club dues or higher HOA fees. Of course the recent $38 million acquisition of the 1,350 acre Bonanza Flats parcel does involve extra taxes, but provides a perpetual benefit to residents whose cost was accepted through donations and a major up-front vote for the $25 million bond.
Major credit should be given to Robert Redford for rejecting advice to solve the Film Festival's growth problems by moving out of Park City and instead making a commitment to Park City as the permanent home of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival. Park City residents and second home owners should realize the loss that would be suffered by losing what has developed over the past 30+ years. Last month it was announced that the 2017 Sundance Film Festival generated a total economic impact of $151.5 million and that number is in addition to the economic impact of the Sundance Institute's year round Utah-based programs, such as the Filmmaker Labs and Summer Film Series. There is no doubt that Sundance, the Kimball Art's Center and the arts community they have helped to build are an important component of the Park City brand. As discussed in my 6/24/17 post, Park City finished a close second for Art's Vibrancy for towns under 100,000 people in a recent study of 900 communities by Southern Methodist University.
The economic benefits and the world wide recognition are important, but as Mayor Thomas said at the Friday announcement, "Artists help preserve the soul of their communities" and this project should go a long way towards establishing Park City as a cultural hub of the West.
