City Hall has been in few development disputes with the stakes as high as they are in the long running discussions about the Sweeney family’s idea to build Treasure.
But what if the Sweeney side is bluffing about the prospects of Treasure?
That idea, something that has not been widely discussed in public over the years of the Treasure talks, was broached by at least two people in the days after a midsummer open house organized by the Sweeney family and City Hall. Park City officials last week released a set of 54 comments that were submitted anonymously just after the open house. The two people used the word “bluff” in their written comments.
In one of the comments, the person discussed the real estate industry in the context of financing. “Call the Sweeneys’ bluff! Ask yourself this question, ‘Would either the Montage or St. Regis get financed and built if someone proposed these projects today?’ No, of course not,” the person said as a part of his or her comments submitted to City Hall.
The other person, meanwhile, wrote about the idea of a voter-authorized bond to reduce the scale of Treasure, saying that the debt from a bond could be burdensome.
“The city should not underestimate a potential bluff by the developer,” the person wrote.
The two comments seem to be describing a scenario in which the Sweeney family does not have the confidence that financing will be readily available to develop the Treasure land someday. Instead, the family is holding up the possibility of the Treasure development as a bargaining chip in the talks with City Hall about a conservation deal, in essence bluffing about the project eventually being built, the comments appear to claim.
The comments were released just weeks before City Hall anticipates making public the price tag that the Sweeney family set for a complete buyout of the family’s longstanding development rights on the Treasure land, which is situated on a hillside overlooking Old Town. The land is along the route of the Town Lift. The figure on a conservation deal is expected to reach into the tens of millions of dollars. The dollar amount is expected to be made public on or close to Dec. 16.
There has been little said publicly about the financing of Treasure, likely a result of the Sweeney family’s inability thus far to secure the necessary permit to proceed with the project. The family was in front of the Park City Planning Commission with the development application well before the onset of the recession. Those talks stalled based on concerns about traffic and the size of the Treasure buildings, among other worries, and led to the ongoing discussions about a conservation deal.
It is not unusual for a developer to stay quiet about financing during the approval process, and in many cases the information is guarded even after the funding is secured. There could be a gap of several years between a project approval being won by a developer and a groundbreaking that would necessitate financing being in place.
Mike Sweeney, one of the family’s representatives in the talks with City Hall, declined to discuss the claims of a bluff in any depth. He said he has not paid attention to the comments released by City Hall.
“We’re dealing with the city in good faith, end of story,” Sweeney said.