The Summit County Council received an update on Wednesday on the proposed plan to turn the Junction Commons into a residential and commercial development.
Singerman Real Estate, the company that owns the property, and Elliott Workgroup, a Park City architecture and design firm, are requesting a rezone of the property at 6699 N. Landmark Drive in Kimball Junction from a town center zone to a neighborhood mixed-use zone.
Junction Commons was built in 1991 and had three previous names — Outlets Park City, Tanger Outlets and the Factory Stores at Park City. Singerman has owned the property since 2018 and invested more than $20 million into the property, said Adam Greenebaum, the company’s senior vice president.
He said the project represents a unique opportunity to transform the retail center into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood that includes housing where people can live, work and play.
“The proposed design materially improves trail connectivity throughout the site, and it also introduces new transit facilities, gathering spaces, bike share stations that will serve both future residents and the broader community,” Greenebaum said.
The proposal for the site includes building a residential development in the upper portion and putting additional infill development in the lower portion. The project would have 19 mixed-use buildings.
The upper portion has approximately 98,000 square feet of retail space, including about 70 retail tenants, management offices and a small restaurant space. The plan is to demolish about 82,000 square feet of the retail space and replace it with 391 apartments and 42 townhomes, according to a Summit County Planning Department staff report. Of those 433 residential units, 205 would be designated as affordable housing.
The apartments would be in three buildings, and one of them would include a 7,200-square-foot clubhouse. The upper portion also would have 7,300 square feet of commercial space and two parking structures.
The lower level currently has about 230,000 square feet of retail space. The proposal is to infill the parking area with a nine-building mixed-use project that has 54,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial and 77 upper-level apartments.
Priority for the affordable units would be given first to those who live or work adjacent to the development, then to those in the Kimball Junction area, then to those in the larger Snyderville Basin area and then probably to Summit County at large.
Architect Craig Elliott, Elliott Workgroup principal, described Junction Commons as a “fortress for cars” because it is a building with commercial and retail space surrounding a large parking lot. Some of the new buildings would be built in the center of the property to break up the parking lot and create a public walking area, he said.
After multiple meetings, the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission forwarded a positive recommendation on Feb. 24 to the Summit County Council.
County Councilor Tonja Hanson said her first reaction was that the project was very thoughtful and well done. She suggested the council do a site visit.
“I love your walkability and bike trails,” she said.
Hanson expressed concern about traffic and said she wants to discuss that at a later time.
County Councilor Roger Armstrong was also concerned about traffic in the area.
“We’re still bound by the difficult highway infrastructure that we have,” he said. “Navigating the traffic issues is going to be hard.”
Armstrong contrasted Junction Commons with Dakota Pacific’s 885-unit, mixed-use development that is coming to Kimball Junction.
“Dakota Pacific is brand-new grading, brand-new everything,” he said. “This is infill, and this is really the only reasonable way in my mind to start addressing new housing.”
County Councilor Megan McKenna said the plan is a great example of a neighborhood mixed-use development and fits well in the area. She likes the connectivity and the walkability of the proposal, and that the plan addresses housing needs.
“This is really exciting to see, and I look forward to diving deeper into some of these areas,” McKenna said. “But overall, I’m really excited to have a more functional, walkable, usable space.”
More work sessions will be held as the project moves forward and the County Council looks at the proposal in more detail. The councilors asked for more information about transportation, traffic mitigation, infrastructure, the income levels that will qualify someone for an affordable apartment and deed restrictions, among other issues.