Construction began on what the developers believe is the most ambitious affordable housing development of any ski town in America, probably the world, before the builders had their financing.
“Not many people know this,” said Tony Tyler, partner at Columbus Pacific Development, who helped conceive of the project and then get it built. They had reached the point of excavators on site, all ready to go. “We had a multimillion dollar outlay before we knew we could actually finance the project.”
From that leap of faith in 2021, they built the “impossible”: a community for 1,200 people from the ground up to a kind of cubist forest of five- to six-story buildings designed specifically to bring people together in the best of ways.
Tyler and others spoke Thursday morning at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in a common space out of the weather in one of those buildings spread across 7.7 acres near the Canyons base village.
The housing arrangements may not be for everyone. Two- to four-bedroom and larger units share a common living room, kitchen, bathrooms, and residents live as roommates. The units are furnished, with utilities and internet included in the rent, which ranges from around $600 to $1,000. The buildings have common areas for working out, gathering socially, meeting, as well as laundry and storage. The slopes and trails are right out the door.
The average age of residents now is 26, Tyler said. More than half are female, and 91% of the renters are individuals. Most stay in Park City year-round, many matching winter seasonal jobs with summer ones.
“So that’s the reason why it’s set up the way it is, because we wanted to create a social atmosphere that also created a community,” he said.
To qualify for a room, a renter’s annual pay must be no more than $66,560, which is 80% of Summit County’s average median of $83,200 for an individual. There are other qualifications, which are tiered to favor an employee of a Canyons business first and then radiate out from there to employed in Summit County or at the last, intending to work in the county.
He said they also have master leases with businesses that will rent for the year and have housing for their employees who qualify.
Toni Delgado, originally from Hawaii, was one of the first to move in last winter as part of the initial test run with Canyons employees. She retired from a career with Disney in Orlando, Florida, and with her boyfriend decided to work seasonally, a great way to see the world, she said. Last winter and going into this next one, it’s here. She joked this would be the year she’d learn to snowboard. She’s worked at national parks and likes to tend bar at music festivals. She said she loves the lifestyle.
To a crowd of 50 or 60 there for the celebration, she spoke of the community feeling she has living at Slopeside Village, the friends she’s made, the connections they have, watching the snow pile and pile and pile outside last winter while snug and warm inside with best friends.
“This looks like a community and feels so much like a home and not just an apartment complex,” she said. Of course, the affordability and living close to work make all the difference, as well.
For Deirdra Walsh, head of Park City Mountain, the housing for 441 employees during last year’s epic ski season was a godsend.
“So we had a lot of snow; right off that door. So you can imagine what it meant to have employees that were already here, that didn’t have to drive up that canyon and worry about that,” she said. “It proved to us how important it is that the proximity and the density of where we put housing is what will impact this community most.”
She added that people who hear about Slopeside Village are more interested in working at the ski resort.
“This is truly an example of how we can come together as a community, create things that maybe people might think are impossible,” she said, “and make them possible.”
Summit County Council Chair Roger Armstrong gave an overview of the nuts and bolts of what sounded like a miracle to pull off, along with the government grants and decisions that maybe made the developer a little more willing to take a leap of faith that the final financing would indeed come.
And so the excavators on site began the work.
