Just in Time for Ski Season, This Famously Affluent Resort Town Has Loads of Luxury Homes in the Works

It’s not only winter sports enthusiasts and January’s Sundance Film Festival making it a busy season in Park City, Utah.

Real-estate developers are digging in throughout the peaks and valleys of this former 19th-century mining town, with the activity bringing nearly 1,000 units of housing in the coming years.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in the new Deer Valley East Village development, which will link with the fabled Deer Valley Resort ski village — where chairlifts swoop skiers across deep ravines, and up and across Park City’s powder-covered slopes.

Deer Valley East is the first significant resort development in Park City since 1981. Besides residences, new ski runs carved over 5,700 acres of terrain, plus 16 new chairlifts and a 10-person gondola, will be added to the main Deer Valley Resort. Developers are betting that affluent travelers — and those who can own at least a second home — want to be near the action.

In December, Deer Valley East welcomed its first hotel guests and residents at the first fully completed building, the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Residences, by New York City heavyweight Extell Development. It adds 55 condos to this formerly uninhabited expanse by I-40, overlooking the Jordanelle Reservoir.

Then came the announcement for Extell’s luxury Four Seasons Hotel and Residences breaking ground nearby in the Dear Valley East development, eventually adding 123 one- to six-bedroom homes, ranging from 1,200 to 7,000 square feet. Pricing for these is as-yet undetermined.

Also about to take shape in what’s now being called the “East Village” is Cormont, a luxury mountainside condominium project developed by REEF. Sales recently launched for the 48 one- to five-bedroom ski-in, ski-out units in its first residential tower, due for completion by summer 2027. Prices range from around $1.7 million to $9.75 million.

Cormont will eventually include five residential buildings total, adding an estimated 350 units surrounding a plaza lined with dining and shopping, which will form the main ski beach for accessing the slopes.

“The East Village has a good diversity of properties for different home buyers,” said Sheila Hall, associate broker at Summit Sotheby’s International Realty, the lead sales agent for Deer Valley East Village residential. “But it’s a luxury price point throughout.”

There are also single-family home plots and townhomes being constructed at Marcella Landing, a private enclave in the East Village and also developed by REEF. Pricing there starts at $6.9 million.

All this development and more home inventory may not translate into better deals for buyers in Park City, though.

“Because of high demand in our market, there’s historically low inventory,” Kristen Barber, principal broker for Stein Eriksen Realty Group, told The Post. “Developments sell out before they are even completed and that has been the case historically for the last 10 or 15 years here.”

Barber oversees sales at the new Stein Eriksen Estates, a gated luxury single-family home enclave within the main Deer Valley Resort, where three of 15 planned homes are under construction. Pricing for a seven-bed, nine-bath home is more than $20.9 million.

That said, as with most luxury home boom towns, affordable housing is disappearing; most people working in hotels and ski resorts live in Salt Lake City.

“Affordable housing has become a concern. Everything’s gotten so expensive,” said Charlie Taylor, managing partner of The Agency Park City. Taylor is the lead agent for Studio Crossings, a five-phase development of 50 condos and 50 townhomes, plus around 200 affordable units, near the Utah Movie Studios, all of which is developed by Crandall Capital.

Studio Crossings is due for completion by spring 2026, with sales launching in spring 2025. Pricing for the market-rate homes is expected to be $1.37 million to $1.7 million.

It isn’t just snow sports bringing in residents, said Taylor — Park City is for all seasons: “I think people move here for the beautiful mountains, clean air, outdoor active lifestyle and high quality of life. There’s also ease of access, being 30 minutes from Salt Lake International airport.”

Barber said this has been a decades-long steady build up of new residents, with many opting to live in Park City year-round. “Many second homeowners tell me they now spend the majority of the year here,” she said.

Still, Taylor feels Park City’s expansion will level off.

“Development is nearing build out. There are not many development parcels left,” he said.

For now, though, Park City’s once-pristine hills are alive with the sound of excavators and power tools. Even developments with firmly planted footprints are still expanding.

The long-established Canyons Village at Park City Mountain, which dates to 1968 and gained hospitality cred when the newer Pendry Hotel opened in 2022, is expanding too. Construction began on its Elevation Townhomes in summer 2024, with completion expected in fall 2025. Pendry currently has five residences for sale ranging from two-bedrooms at $1.89 million to a four-bedroom at $4.8 million.

Nearby, White Pine Canyons Village is in its final phases, Slopeside Village’s Phase Two is underway, and the 15-year-old St. Regis Deer Valley at Snow Park will complete its final phase by the end of 2025. Notably, this final phase brings its largest Park City condos to market, an expansion from around 2,000 square feet on average, to 3,000 square feet.

“Demand for larger luxury homes is part of it,” Michael Zaccaro, chief operating officer for the developers, Falcon Investors, said. “But we also had a design change from the original hotel residences. These condos have a great room, dining room and kitchen with about 1,200 square feet, which run front to back with big windows looking onto open space. That is very desirable.”

Out of the final 12 St. Regis condos for sale, only two are unsold. These three-bedroom residences are priced at $5.95 million and $6.25 million.

“Park City has developed significantly over the last 15 years and it’s somewhat surprising the area continues to absorb all this product,” he added. “Real estate remains very strong here.”