A real estate auction in Park City is often the smoke that suggests a fire sale. On Jan. 17, eight units of the Silver Strike Lodge at Empire Pass will go on sale. What makes this different, insists developer Matt Mullin and auctioneer Ken Stevens, is these are brand new units.

They believe this is the first time brand new units will be auctioned in Park City.

It has nothing to do with a relationship with a bank, insists Mullin of Ironwood Resort Development. It’s a marketing strategy that he believes will create scarcity for the remaining units, bring a market correction to forces driving down prices in Empire Canyon and make buyers involved in the pricing of the real estate.

There are 34 units in the ski-in/ski-out condo hotel that qualifies for Talisker Club membership. Almost half the units sold when the project was launched in 2006, Mullin said. There are still 19 unsold units.

“Sitting around with an ‘Open House’ sign for the past three years hasn’t sold a lot of real estate in Park City especially not in the last 12 months,” Mullin said. “We’re looking for a good response for our marketing dollars in a short period of time.”

This is not a foreclosure or liquidation sale; it has nothing to do with Ironwood’s lender and it’s not an attempt to dump the property, Mullin explained.

“This is a partnership decision a means to an end,” he said.

The bottom line is there’s too much supply in Park City right now. It’s driving down prices and buyers want the best deal possible. As developers like himself and Realtors tell shoppers that the market has hit bottom and prices won’t go down any further, they don’t always trust them.

“The real crux in this is we developers have been setting prices from the beginning that’s how real estate is sold in this country. That doesn’t always work with the market trending downward; it looks like our homes are too expensive,” he said. “They think we’re spinning it, they never feel like they’re getting a good enough deal.”

Shoppers see the units aren’t moving so they come in with bids that are too low and it perpetuates the stagnation.

An auction lets the buyers set the price themselves. Because of the location, the quality of the work and the amenities available through Talisker membership, Mullin believes he’ll get a good price through auction.

And because the best deals are usually found at auctions, he expects the prices for the remaining 11 units to go up. Also, selling eight in one day will look good on his books and the other units should sell quickly after as well.

“It’ll remove the smoke and mirrors from the process and there’ll be no more beating up developers to get lower prices. Auctions are transparent,” he said.

For a few marketing dollars, Mullin believes he’ll get a better return on the rest of the building and hopefully drive prices up for the rest of the neighborhood in the process.

In anticipation of that, he’s removed the remaining 11 units from the multi-listing service because he wants to see what happens.

“Our strategy will be determined by the result of auction,” he explained. “It’s a risky game for us, but we definitely understand what we’re doing from a market standpoint.”

Ken Stevens, founder of Accelerated Marketing Partners, is conducting the auction. Originally from Australia, Stevens said homes are sold this way all the time there and thinks the stigma in America is strange.

Preconceived notions aside, his company has conducted about 35 of these auctions nationwide in the past few months selling 2,000 condominiums. From Philadelphia, to Los Angeles, to Seattle to Portland, developers of high-end condos are turning to auctions to thaw markets and get units moving again.

“It’s a very transparent process that’s why we’ve gotten a lot of traction this year,” he said.

Once construction debt is down to a manageable level through these quick sales, developers gain the flexibility and time to price units more fairly, he explained.