MIDA Board Meeting Highlights – 10/19/2023
Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) Board Meeting Highlights
October 19, 2023 – Link to Agenda
This is an unofficial summary of the Board meeting produced by MIDA communications staff. Minutes will be posted to the public notice website once they are approved.
Board members present: Adams, Farrell, Shepherd, Ostermiller, Froerer, Starks (non-voting member)
EX Utah Development LLC (EX Utah)’s Kurt Krieg provided a village construction update to the MIDA board Thursday, including recognizing the October ribbon-cutting ceremony overseen by EX Utah’s Brooke Hontz (above, middle) for the opening of the first, new trail access. The Military Recreation Facility Area (MRF) will feature 70 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails that will be open to the public.
Board Action
- Unanimous approval of Resolution 2023-11 approving an Exchange Agreement with the United States Air Force in the MIDA MRF Project Area.
- MIDA Executive Director Paul Morris delivered a detailed historical account going back to 1999 when the Air Force demolished a seven-room lodge at Snowbasin Resort to make room for improvements for the 2002 Winter Olympics. In 2001, Congress passed a bill that gave land to the Air Force to construct or find property to build a new hotel (with no monies appropriated.) While the Red Maple parcel in Park City was identified for the new hotel’s location, the City has long indicated its preference to keep that parcel as open space and will sell the land for $2 million. Ultimately, a parcel in Wasatch County was identified and where the Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) hotel is currently under construction. Morris further explained that the military benefits of the 387-room conference hotel are: 100 rooms will be discounted for military personnel; military will have use of a concierge space right off the hotel’s lobby area; and 1 percent of the 15 percent accommodations tax will be allocated to the MWR office at Hill Air Force Base for MWR activities in Utah. (Of the remaining, 10 percent goes toward the hotel’s financing; 2 percent for MIDA operations; and 2 percent to Wasatch County to use as they so choose.)
- Morris explained the next step is for the Army Corps of Engineers to review and approve the Exchange Agreement.
- Sen. Adams remarked, “The Air Force has been a great partner. It is very exciting.”
- Unanimous approval of Resolution 2023-12 approving the Pioche Village Condominium Plat in the MRF Project Area.
- Morris explained that the Plat would allow EX Utah to condominiumize the four-building Pioche complex. The 17 units within Pioche that were committed by Extell for workforce housing rentals will remain as such; Morris further explained that MIDA will assume ownership of these units and is in discussions to potentially grow the number of workforce housing units at Pioche that would serve employees in the project area, Wasatch County, the school district and retired military.
- Unanimous approval of Resolution 2023-13 approving the JMARA PID Interlocal Agreement.
- MIDA legal counsel, Richard Catten, explained that the Agreement allows JMARA and MIDA to loan monies to one another, and for JMARA to use MIDA personnel.
MRF Project Area Update
- EX Utah’s Kurt Krieg stated that a brand has been secured for the MWR hotel, and construction is well on track for a 2024 fourth quarter opening.
- The team is finalizing utility and pavement work in the village core.
- Krieg highlighted the land Extell has donated to MIDA for recreational activities at Marina West (below), as well as the transformative opportunity to fulfill a 137-bed workforce housing obligation, as well as the potential to build up to 660 units of affordable and market-rate housing on the site, housing resort employees in close proximity to their jobs and minimizing traffic impacts.
- On August 1, Extell granted a 3,100+ acre conservation easement to Utah Open Lands (below.) The conservation area will be known as the Forty-Fifth Star Conservation Preserve and will allow significant regional trail and recreation connections, protecting this important conservation value as well as preserving important wildlife habitat and ecosystems. The conservation easement eliminates nearly 700 units of density from the mountainside.
- Krieg also reviewed the previously-announced Deer Valley terrain expansion that nearly triples the resort’s size.
Falcon Hill
- Taylor Woodbury delivered a very comprehensive and positive construction update of the aerospace research park enhancements, including infrastructure .
1.3M sf of completed construction (100% leased), 114 room hotel.
- Under construction:
- Museum expansion
- New North/Roy Gate.
- Tenant buildouts.
- In design now:
- Two 75-90k SF office buildings at the West Gate
- Inside fence flex office building
- Planning/Design Stages:
- Two freeway interchanges
- New 1800 N Gate Entrance
- Mixed-use project at South End
MIDA Updates
- Paula Eldredge, CFO, provided the Board with a financial update, with specific focus on analysis of future revenues available to pay debt service on the MIDA tax allocation revenue bonds, which are related to the construction of the MWR Hotel and the ski and mountain infrastructure. Based on current projections, the present cash on hand, plus estimated future revenues are more than sufficient to pay debt service. A similar analysis is underway for the Golf and Equestrian Center PID tax allocation revenue bond.