Summit/Wasatch roundtable.

• Position: Q&A - Discussion

A special thank you to Myles Rademan, director of public affairs for Park City Municipal Corporation, for moderating the discussion. And a special thank you, as well, to Red Ledges for hosting the discussion.

PARTICIPANTS

Tim Anker, Cushman & Wakefield/Commerce

Laurie Backus, Jordanelle State Park

Mitchel Burns, Red Ledges

Catherine Cimos, Grand Valley Bank

Tom Fisher, Summit County

Hans Fuegi, Grub Steak Restaurant

Jeff Jones, Summit County

Alison Kuhlow, Historic Park City Alliance

Bill Malone, Visit Park City

Alan McDonald, Heber City

Terry Nolan, Park City Board of Realtors

Bill Rock, Park City Mountain Resort

Tracy See, Wasatch Mountain State Park

Rick Shand, Park City Board of Realtors

Rich Sonntag, Promontory Development

Ryan Starks, Wasatch County

Kevin Stocking, Heber Valley Bank

Jonathan Weidenhamer, Park City

Bob Wheaton, Deer Valley Resort

First let's talk about skiing. We were up by almost double digits this past season.

ROCK: Utah had a record year, over 4.4 million skier visits. And we had a record year in Park City for all resorts combined. Last year, the East Coast had a terrible ski season. The Midwest had a terrible ski season. Anything west of the Mississippi did really, really well. So it was a tale of haves and have nots in the ski industry last year. A lot of East Coast visitation came out West because of what they were facing with snow conditions.

I think about why our company is here, and we re here because Park City is an amazing community. It's got unprecedented access to the airport. It's got the greatest snow on earth. We invested $50 million to take two resorts and create the largest in the United States, so that certainly created a lot of buzz and generated visitation.

For those of you not familiar with the Epic pass, it's sold by our company to our whole network of resorts, including in Perisher, Australia. It's sold in all 50 states and over 100 countries. It really changed the paradigm of the ski industry about seasons passes, which used to be a product for locals who skied 40, 50,60 days a year. Now it's really become a product for destination guests, something for them to ski affordably and with lots of flexibility. We introduced the Epic pass here when we bought Canyons.

In Wasatch County, has the ski industry started to affect you more, or do you still see it quite separate from what you do?

STARKS: More and more the line between Summit and Wasatch Counties is getting blurry. When Summit County has a great ski season, that certainly benefits us--people will spill over and they want to see what else we have. So we have a lot of traffic in our Visitors Center, skiers from Park City saying, "What else is there?" We can refer them to our Homestead Crater or to the Heber Valley Railroad.

This past winter, luckily, mother nature was on our side and gave us some good cold weather and we had a successful year with the ice castles. Ended up generating about 80,000 visits to the area. So it certainly spills over quite a bit.

SEE: At Soldier Hollow, we see more and more skiers show up looking for another avenue in winter recreation. And between both of our concessionaires for snowmobile rentals and our Soldier Hollow Legacy Foundation area, we had our top sales for the year in both those areas this past year. Cross country skiing, tubing and snowmobiling were really big for us this past year.

WHEATON: Our guests that come--especially our destination guests--don't know when they are going from Summit County to Wasatch County, nor should they really care. It really shouldn't matter.

Let's talk about real estate a little bit.

SHAND: We are seeing more and more people deciding to be a part of this community. We are seeing an expansion of the city. We are seeing expansion into Wasatch County. The Wasatch and the Heber Valley numbers, this year compared to the last 12 months, is astounding. Volume is up. Median price is up. We are seeing a huge demand in more affordable price points. There is certainly the Deer Valley clientele, but the main push is under that median price point, or right at that...