Jack Thomas was key to negotiations that led to the Park City municipal government’s acquisition of land in Bonanza Park, where officials are now pursuing an ambitious development.

Thomas was the mayor of Park City in mid-2017 when the $19.5 million deal was announced for the approximately 5 acres off the southwest intersection of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard. The deal involved a private-sector partnership that struggled to win support for a development at the location. Thomas and other Park City leaders at the time instead envisioned creating an arts and culture district on the land with the Utah offices of the Sundance Institute and the Kimball Art Center as the anchors.

The concept, though, faltered in the intervening years, with the Sundance Film Festival leaving the state and the Kimball Art Center opting for a location in the Snyderville Basin. There was only limited progress toward developing an arts and culture district before the two organizations decided to depart.

The municipal government and a partner are instead pursuing a radically different development concept. It involves a large amount of income-restricted housing, market-rate units and commercial square footage. A childcare location and 2 acres of open space are also included.

Thomas appeared at the Marsac Building on Wednesday during a Park City Planning Commission meeting about the concept, offering pointed testimony about the proposal during a hearing that tilted against the project.

It has been rare for Thomas to testify about a Park City issue since he left office in early 2018 after not seeking reelection to a second term. Thomas, an architect who splits his time between Park City and Bentonville, Arkansas, served on the Planning Commission prior to his mayoral victory. Parkites saw him as a reasoned leader amid the strengthening emergence from the Great Recession and as the community was jarred by Vail Resorts’ acquisition of Park City Mountain and subsequent linking of the resort with what was then the standalone Canyons Resort.

Thomas’ testimony was notable for the influential role he played in the talks about the acquisition and the early discussions regarding an arts district. He invoked the late Robert Redford, the Sundance founder, in his comments to the Planning Commission.

“I thought I’d mention a little bit about how the arts and culture came about, because I was with another person when we came up with the concept, and that was Bob Redford,” Thomas said. “He had a passion for small towns. He had a passion for Park City. He thought it could be more than just another resort town, and I happened to agree with him.”

During his administration, he said Park City “had this amazing opportunity to see this land that we’re talking about today as the arts and culture district become available” and recalled municipal staffers devising a funding strategy. Thomas spoke about Parkites’ opinions about the land at the time, saying the current concept does not resemble what was discussed then.

“When we moved to the community and got our input to the community and from the community, we emphasized the fact that it was an arts and culture district. I don’t see that in the plan today. I think you suffer to find it in this plan,” he said.

Thomas added: “It’s a pathetic plan, and I think you should seriously consider walking away from it or re-evaluating.”

He said an earlier vision for the land respected the high-profile location, but the current one fails in that respect.

“What we see, from a perspective, is walls of buildings on Bonanza and Kearns. And I think it’s an overwhelming scale and has none of the character, none of the amenities, none of the purpose that I think we started with,” he said.

Thomas urged a reconsideration of the concept.

“It’s an opportunity to do something on the most important land we have in this community. And so let’s get it right even if it takes stepping back, evaluating the massing and scale, and taking another look at those original plans,” he said.

The agreement to acquire the land, which ended the previous owner’s disputed development efforts, was one of the top accomplishments of the Thomas administration. An arts and culture district like the one outlined at the time was viewed as advancing Park City’s efforts to diversify the economy and spotlighting the importance of the cultural sector to the community. It was also seen as ensuring Sundance’s long-term future in Park City as well as providing a permanent spot for the Kimball Art Center after the organization weathered a bruising development battle in Old Town.

In announcing the agreement in 2017, Thomas said a district “is anchored in who we are as a community.” He described the agreement as a “miraculous moment” and a “perfect opportunity” during the announcement.

The Planning Commission on Wednesday received approximately one hour of testimony, mostly in opposition to the concept. The panel is scheduled to return to the discussions at an Aug. 26 meeting.

The development proposal involves:

• 88 units of income-restricted rentals.
• 18 rentals without income restrictions.
• More than 30,000 square feet for a variety of tenants, such as retailers, restaurants, cafes and art spaces for not-for-profit organizations.
• A childcare location.
• 2 acres of open space.

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Brooklyn-based filmmaker Philip Thompson first attended the Sundance Film Festival in 2025, but even that couldn’t have prepared him for the frenzy of the 2026 festival.

Some made friends with strangers in the standby line for in-demand films. Others wandered the streets simply to experience the energy. There was networking and industry veterans and greenhorns letting loose at parties. And every Uber driver Thompson talked to was hell-bent on making bank from the tourists one last time before the festival moved to Boulder in 2027.

“Boulder is way more spread out, so that’s going to have a different feeling to it. … Park City is so crammed in and compact and condensed, it’s like everyone’s bumping into each other, all the cars are about to hit each other, and you really feel that energy,” Thompson said. “Sometimes it is a lot. I was there for a week, and by the end of it, I was ready to go home. But it is this magical feeling that you really can’t get anywhere else.”

There was a much different feeling at the Sundance Institute’s annual, three-day Screenwriters Lab. 

Thompson, who is currently writing the script for his first feature film, had been invited to the Sundance Mountain Resort, along with 10 other fellows, to receive feedback from accomplished screenwriters like Michael Arndt, Lulu Wang and Meg LeFauve in the days leading up to the festival in January.

The lab’s vibe was exemplified by a screening of the 2016 Academy Award Best Picture winner, “Moonlight,” with co-writers Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, two of the creative advisers who worked with the fellows on their scripts. Both hadn’t seen “Midnight” in years, Thompson said.

“I forgot that ‘Moonlight’ was about (McCraney’s) life. So, being able to talk to him and know him as a human being, and then watching the movie after was so emotional and devastating but beautiful. Both of them broke down in tears after the screening,” he recalled. 

Ilyse McKimmie, deputy director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, said the feeling of the lab was especially reverent this year as the fellows and lab organizers honored Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, who died in September, by discussing what the actor and director meant to them.

McKimmie, who has worked for the Sundance Institute since 1999, remembers Redford as committed to his craft, forthright and funny. 

“When he was there, he was just another person at the lab,” she said. “He always wanted to make it very much about the work and was very eager to get to know each fellow.”

While the death of Redford and the moving of the film festival to Boulder have left the Sundance Institute in a season of change, the Screenwriters Lab will continue to be held at Sundance Mountain Resort, the “ancestral home” of the Institute and Film Festival, as McKimmie called it.

The Directors Lab will also return to Sundance Mountain Resort in 2027 after it moved to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in 2024 amid construction at the resort.

Redford founded the resort in 1969 and the Sundance Institute in 1981. Though he sold the resort in 2020, the location is rich with the Sundance Institute’s history and ties into Redford’s lifelong passions for nature and Native American rights.

“I have many wonderful memories of doing everything from snowshoeing in the winter to riding the ski lift in the summer and going hiking,” McKimmie said. “And traditionally, when our Directors Lab has been there in the past, we always kick things off by going up to Elk Meadows, which is a meadow a little bit up the road from the base of the mountain, and receive a blessing from a Ute tribal leader.”

McKimmie is hopeful that by maintaining a connection with Sundance Mountain Resort and continuing its outreach to Utah organizations, like the film programs of the University of Utah and Utah Valley University, that the Sundance Institute can “get away with having the best of both worlds,” she said, beginning “a version of our story in Boulder” while repaying Utah communities and ensuring they stay a key part of that story.

As for the Screenwriters Lab fellows, they’ll continue to walk away from the lab with their confidence shaken “in a good way,” as Thompson put it.

His script, “Dance Monkey Dance,” is a found-footage documentary about a fictional comedian, equal parts “Blair Witch Project” and a satire of fame and the commodification of Black artists by white audiences. He’s been working on it for well over a year.

He had to cut down his 180-page epic to 130 pages to even apply to the Screenwriters Lab. Now, he has a thousand new ideas — but the script is too long again.

Fellow Renee Zhan is also working through revisions. The London-based filmmaker has been working on her script, “BAOBAO,” for two years. 

“BAOBAO” follows an only daughter returning home to China to find that her parents have had another baby. It’s inspired by a true story from a friend, studying in London, who returned to China in her mid-20s to find her parents had brought a baby brother into the world without letting her know.

“They’d done this at the time because the one-child policy was revoked, so they could finally have, basically, the son that they’ve always wanted, because it’s still such an important thing for the patriarchal system in China to have that boy,” Zhan explained. “I’m a very much spoiled only daughter, and the thought of, suddenly, this new intruder of a baby arriving … I just could imagine how angry I’d be.”

With such a wacky premise that becomes even wackier as supernatural horror and baby puppetry enter the mix, Zhan’s greatest challenge has been ensuring that the characters remain relatable rather than cartoonish even as the tone becomes increasingly surreal. 

After receiving feedback from five industry veterans, Zhan is back to square one in developing her main character.

“To be honest, before I got to the labs, I was feeling pretty good about the script,” she said. “Now, I’m rethinking everything. I’m confused, but in a good way. I think the lab really challenged me to look deeper and to think about it in different directions, which I think, ultimately, is going to make it a much better script.”

And that, McKimmie said, is the point of the Screenwriters Lab.

“They’re not at the lab trying to find all the answers,” she said. “We always say, ‘Actually, if you leave asking the right questions, that’s a great result.’”

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It was five or six years ago when Wasatch County Arts Council President Pat Sweeney ran into the late Robert Redford at the Wasatch County Library. 

Redford looked like he was researching something with a friend, but Sweeney didn’t eavesdrop. She did, however, approach the Oscar-winning actor and director to tell him about the Heber Valley Arts Center planned for 4 acres east of the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus. 

The center is planned to encompass an outdoor amphitheater, indoor theater and rehearsal, community and gallery spaces. The project, which Sweeney estimates will cost $100 million, began in December 2023 with a 50-year lease at a rate of $1 per year between the Arts Council and Heber City. The nonprofit hopes to build the center by the 2034 Winter Olympics.

Redford loved the idea.

“He said, ‘This is exactly what the area needs. This is how we’re going to grow and improve the quality of life in this back area,’” Sweeney recalled. “The man had a vision, and the man’s vision didn’t just encompass film.”

Sweeney’s initial hope for the Heber Valley Arts Center’s indoor theater was to use it as an official screening venue for the Sundance Film Festival, much like The Ray and Yarrow Theatres in Park City.

But when the 42-year-old institution announced in March that it would be packing its bags and moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, the dream of Wasatch County becoming more involved in the festival was crushed.

“We’re still going to have (the theater) because it wasn’t dependent on Sundance, but it’s unfortunate because we knew that it would fill the house for several days,” Sweeney said. 

The loss of a potential screening venue is perhaps the biggest impact the Wasatch County arts scene will feel as a result of the film festival’s departure. 

Sweeney said most of Wasatch County’s arts organizations are in hibernation in January and February, when Sundance takes place, so there won’t be a loss of an audience of wandering festivalgoers. 

While there aren’t any film organizations or nonprofits in Wasatch County, she added she’s hopeful Wasatch and Summit counties can come together to create a new film festival to fill the void left by Sundance. 

She imagines a boutique event taking place over the summer instead of the winter, perhaps in conjunction with the Park City Kimball Arts Festival. If such a film festival were to arise, she would love to offer the Heber Valley Arts Center as a venue to bring the two counties together. 

“It might not draw people from across the country right away, but we could have something of our own and make it our own,” she said.

Sweeney’s desire to bring a local focus back to film festivals in the Wasatch Back was echoed by Alicia Stockman, a Heber City folk Americana singer-songwriter and Wasatch County Arts Council administrative assistant.

Stockman has lived in Wasatch and Summit counties her entire life. Her fond memories of Sundance include volunteering at the Egyptian Theatre to get free tickets in her 20s, experiencing virtual reality for the first time at one of the festival’s art installations and watching KT Tunstall perform at the ASCAP Music Café. 

But she thinks the festival’s local focus has diminished over time.

“It just got really big and unwieldy and became all about brands and sponsorships, and that took away from that art experience, I think,” Stockman said. “Now, it kind of feels like it’s so exclusive, and it’s hard to get into. It’s not as compelling for locals to really be able to participate in it.”

That point was hammered home when Stockman performed at the Chase Sapphire lounge during the 2024 festival.

“For me to get my mom to come and see me play at Sundance, I had to pull strings,” she said. “I knew the caterer, and that’s how we got people in.”

Thankfully, the security recognized Stockman’s mother the next year her daughter performed at the same venue and let her right in.

While Stockman acknowledged the departure of Sundance will have its impacts on the Heber Valley arts scene with the Wasatch Back no longer attracting the same creative minds it used to, she’s also hopeful the valley can forge its own future in the arts. 

“With our population growing as much as it has, I think we’re at this precipice, this opportunity, to really define who we are culturally and artistically,” she said. “We have a knack for making things accessible to families. … That’s something that sets us apart.”

As for Sweeney, she looks forward to the ongoing development of the Heber Valley Arts Center — the panel of community members and elected officials behind the project should land on a concept design for the outdoor amphitheater in the spring — and the role it will play in capturing audiences in Summit, Utah and Salt Lake counties.

But her outlook about the departure of Sundance was a bit more somber.

“Next to the mountains, it is the most beautiful thing in the Wasatch Back,” she said. “I’m sorry to see it go.”

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Park City figures on Tuesday reacted to the death of Sundance founder Robert Redford, emphasizing the impact he had on the community over the past four decades.

Sundance is one of the top film festivals on the international circuit, alongside those in places like Cannes, France, Toronto and Venice, Italy. The rise of Sundance starting in the late 1980s tracked closely with Park City’s ascent toward the elite levels of mountain resorts. Sundance plans to relocate to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027.

The Egyptian Theatre was one of Sundance’s original screening rooms, packing audiences into the historic venue. Randy Barton, the theatre manager, described Redford’s impact on Park City as “enormous.” Only Deer Valley Resort founder Edgar Stern had more influence than Redford on Park City’s modern era, Barton said.

He described that Redford “rescued” a fledgling film festival that eventually became the Sundance of today. Redford, he said, successfully coupled storytelling and independent filmmaking, making Sundance the “center of the independent filmmaking world.”

Barton said he came to know Redford “quite well” over the years, saying he was “very approachable and very friendly to everyone.”

The Egyptian Theatre on Tuesday changed the marquee in honor of Redford. It said, “Thank you Sundance kid! Applause for Bob Redford!”

Sundance kept its Utah offices at Silver Star in Park City for approximately 15 years, ending in 2019. Rory Murphy, who led the Silver Star development team and was instrumental in negotiating the lease agreement with Sundance, met Redford repeatedly as a result of the relationship with Sundance. Murphy also served for a decade as a member of a one-time Sundance advisory board in Utah.

“He had such an enormous impact on Park City. He gave Park City a cachet it would not have otherwise had,” Murphy said.

Some of Park City’s mountain resort competitors like Aspen, Colorado, and Sun Valley, Idaho, enjoyed the prestige he referred to for years before Sundance debuted, he said.

“It boosted our tourism. Certainly boosted the arts in the community,” he said, describing that Utah at the time Sundance began did not have a reputation for being “edgy and cool.”

The festival attracted a wealthier, better-connected clientele to Park City, he said. Murphy described the nine-digit economic impact Sundance brought to the state annually.

“Most people, the vast majority, do not understand the impact Redford and the Sundance Institute had on Utah,” he said, adding, “He was such an icon that everyone knew him and we were blessed to have him associated with Park City. They didn’t just know him. They loved him.”

Jennifer Wesselhoff, the president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, provided a prepared statement saying Redford’s “passing leaves us reflecting on how profoundly he changed Park City—for the better. With his star power, love for the arts, and passion for Utah’s wild beauty, Redford transformed Park City into a place for free expression and new ideas. He championed conservation and helped align Utah’s identity with the natural beauty we love.”

“We will forever find his legacy in his films, in the spirit of independence he inspired, and in every heart that loves our soaring mountains, deep canyons and fresh snow. The Park City Chamber of Commerce is indebted to Robert Redford, whose Sundance Film Festival brought acclaim to the Park City region. With his passing today, our organization and community want to acknowledge the many ways in which the festival’s values have shaped Park City and challenged us to grow. We are, at once, saddened and grateful for his vision and generosity which became synonymous with Park City. If the world knows us as creative and conscious, it is because Robert Redford shared the mission and messages of Sundance with us for 40 years,” Wesselhoff said.

Mayor Nann Worel issued a prepared statement about the death of Redford.

“Robert Redford changed the trajectory of Park City and left an indelible mark on Utah. Through his vision for the Sundance Film Festival, he brought world-class art to our mountains and introduced so many of us to the power of independent film. He was a maverick – unafraid to chart his own path – showing that ideas and creativity can flourish even amid our differences. His legacy is both beautiful and profound, and one for which we all should be deeply grateful,” she said.

The post Robert Redford remembered: ‘He gave Park City a cachet’ appeared first on Park Record.

By the time Brad Olch took office as mayor of Park City in early 1990, Robert Redford’s film festival was a burgeoning event on the international circuit and already seemed destined to stand among the elite festivals in the world.

It would not be renamed the Sundance Film Festival until the next year, but the event had started to bring a touch of glitz to Park City.

Redford, who died on Tuesday, was a Hollywood legend, and Sundance began to help define the community’s identity as both the festival and Park City rose in stature in the 1990s.

Olch served 12 years as the mayor, ending in early 2002, weeks before the Winter Olympics, and his time in office largely tracked with Sundance’s growth into the independent-film spectacle that it is today.

Sundance “really put Park City on the map, long before the Olympics came to town,” Olch said in an interview on Tuesday.

Olch met Redford as a member of the Park City Council in the 1980s, saying the two were at a reception at the Elks Building on Main Street during the festival one year. They went to a premiere screening at the Egyptian Theatre later that day, Olch said. They would work with each other repeatedly over the decades, with City Hall and Sundance having such an important relationship.

The Sundance founder had a highly visible presence at the festival and retained a leadership role within the organization through the decades, Olch recalled. He said Redford ensured Sundance’s success would continue as he prepared to eventually retire.

Olch noted Redford invested in Park City beyond the festival through the former Zoom restaurant that was along Main Street for years. Redford was an “important figure for Park City as well as the state of Utah,” Olch said.

“He was an icon in the movie business. He was an icon in Utah and, with Sundance, was an icon in Park City,” the former mayor said.

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