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PARK CITY — Park City Mountain Resort announced Tuesday that it will pay the $17.5 million bond required to keep the resort open for the 2014-15 ski season, putting many community members at ease.
"As I look out this window, I think I can feel the sigh of relief this community is having with regard to this issue," Park City Mayor Jack Thomas said Tuesday.
Park City Mountain Resort was served an eviction notice last year after it failed to renew its lease agreement with its landlord, Talisker Land Holdings. Third District Judge Ryan Harris upheld the eviction but stayed the notice to allow for negotiations between the resort and Talisker.
After negotiations failed to find mutually agreeable terms for a long-term lease, Harris established a bond amount on Friday to cover damages during the upcoming ski season for the landowner. The amount includes what Harris determined as reasonable annual rent for the property as well as attorney fees. The resort has until Friday to pay the bond.
"Our goal has always been to keep PCMR open for the upcoming 2014-15 season and beyond," said Jenni Smith, the resort's president and general manager. "Paying the bond ordered by the judge will provide our employees, the Park City community and our many guests the certainty they've been waiting for about our upcoming ski season."
The bond will stay the eviction of the resort for the season, but it does not ensure a long-term solution to the dispute between Park City Mountain Resort and Vail Resorts Inc., an associate company of Talisker. The bond expires at the end of the season, and unless a long-term solution is reached, the resort will have to pay another $19 million for another season.
For now, the resort will operate on a season-by-season basis.
"While the most important outcome today is that PCMR will be open for business, the bond payment is only a short-term solution for the 2014-15 season," Smith said. "As such, we will continue working with Vail toward a reasonable and fair long-term solution."
Our goal has always been to keep PCMR open for the upcoming 2014-15 season and beyond. Paying the bond ordered by the judge will provide our employees, the Park City community and our many guests the certainty they've been waiting for about our upcoming ski season.
–Jenni Smith, president and general manager of Park City Mountain Resort
John Lund, an attorney representing Talisker and Vail, said both sides plan on working toward permanently resolving the dispute.
"We applaud PCMR for agreeing to post the bond in the amount determined by the court," Lund said. "Talisker and Vail look forward to continuing to work with PCMR on a long-term resolution to this situation for the benefit of the employees, guests and the entire Park City community."
A pretrial teleconference hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30 to determine when other trial proceedings will take place, what their duration will be and whether a jury will become involved.
While the resort's immediate fate still remained in question, Chris Monroe wondered how her newly established bed and breakfast across the street, as well as other businesses, would fare if the slopes were to close.
"We've been sort of walking around on eggshells all summer, wondering what the fate of our community's going to look like for the rest of the winter," Monroe said. "Park City (Mountain Resort) has been an integral part of this town and how this town operates and the whole flavor of it. We were concerned."
What also worries community members is that because of the resort's name, those unfamiliar with the area may not realize that Deer Valley and Canyons resorts also operate in Park City, according to Ski Utah spokeswoman Susie English.
"I think if people haven't been here, they kind of assume that (Park City Mountain Resort) is the one and only resort," she said. "A lot of ski towns just have one big resort. That's kind of the thing. We're really lucky that we have three resorts in one ski town here."
The season begins on Nov. 22 and will run through April 19 of next year. Visitors will have full use of all 116 runs on the 3,300-acre plot, and everything remains "business as usual," according to resort spokesman Andy Miller.
"It's very welcome news to the community," he said.
Monroe says she and other locals look forward to being able to plan for the town's use of all three resorts.
"There's a lot of local folks that have a big investment in this town, and without Park City Mountain Resort, we definitely would have been affected," she said. Email: mjacobsen@deseretnews.com Twitter: MorganEJacobsen
