Military Recreation Facility Project Area
Military Opportunities in the Military Recreation Facility Area
As a benefit of military service, service members and their families have access to various recreation facilities and resorts across the United States and throughout the world. These Morale, Welfare and Recreational (MWR) facilities are exclusive to military members, or they offer significant discounts and other perks, such as advanced registration and booking, all to support retention and recruitment efforts.
MIDA partnered with Wasatch County and the Air Force to create a new Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) conference hotel in the Military Recreation Facility (MRF) project area, not only to support the military but to create positive economic impact for Wasatch County and the State of Utah. Four years of weekly public meetings with Wasatch County occurred to hammer out the greater details of the partnership.
With a private development partner, EX Utah Development LLC (EX Utah), construction is underway today on the MWR hotel at Mayflower and is expected to open in December 2024. The 387-room conference hotel includes a block of 100 rooms that will be available on a preferred rate basis for our nation’s service men and women, whether on active duty or retired, and including Department of Defense personnel, as well as access to the grand conference room space. A military concierge will be on site as a dedicated space to gather, and provide staff support to assist with recreational activity access.
The history behind the MWR hotel coming to life is a storied one. A small MWR ski lodge (just seven units) near Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, Utah, closed in the late 1990s in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Recognizing that the Air Force, too, had identified goals to expand their facilities, in 2001, Congress passed legislation granting a federally-owned, 26-acre parcel in Park City, Utah (the Red Maple parcel) to the Air Force on which to either construct a new MWR facility or trade for other property of equal value. Written into the legislation was a requirement to partner with a private or governmental entity for construction, as no monies were appropriated for the project.
At the same time the Air Force approached MIDA for assistance in finding a suitable location for the new MWR facility, Wasatch County was engaged in strategic master planning to develop 4,700 acres surrounding the Jordanelle Reservoir. Within this recreation development area, 14.5 acres for the MWR facility was identified, and ultimately donated by EX Utah, creating a property trade opportunity and an ideal three-way partnership to pursue the county’s vision for development.
EX Utah and MIDA aligned its public-private partnership to advance financing initiatives for the MWR hotel, in addition to investments to finance vast public infrastructure needs, the details of which are memorialized in contract documents between MIDA and Wasatch County.
Wasatch County invited MIDA in to execute on its 40-year-old master plan for the Jordanelle recreation area in conjunction with MIDA’s project to develop the MWR hotel to support the county’s economic revenue goals with job creation, capabilities to host large conferences supporting both the ski industry and the military, the above-mentioned new revenue opportunities to fund infrastructure needs and transportation fixes, and to create attainable housing units.
MIDA will continue to facilitate not only the construction of the new, world-class resort community’s infrastructure but is leveraging its ability to provide traffic and transit fixes with its partners, including the newly-opened Jordanelle Parkway. The Jordanelle Parkway, with construction commencing in 2019 and completed in 2021, encompasses a 3.6-mile single-lane road linking US Highway 40 and State Road 248 on the north side of the Jordanelle Reservoir in Wasatch and Summit counties. The connector provides an alternative route for regional traffic on the north side of the Jordanelle Reservoir. This is alleviating traffic congestion and improving emergency access in this rapidly growing part of Wasatch County. MIDA is financially responsible for the improvements connecting the Jordanelle Parkway to and under the north portal to the west frontage road; down to and under the south portal connecting to the east frontage road; and continuing on with the remaining southeast piece.
In August of 2023, Utah Open Lands was granted a 3,100-acre conservation easement from an EX Utah company affiliate. The conservation area will be known as the Forty-Fifth Star Conservation Preserve and will allow significant regional trail and recreation connections, and preserve important wildlife habitat and ecosystems. The conservation easement eliminates residential development (more than 600 units) in the donated areas, and opens up trail access to the public, including military guests of the MWR hotel.
Also in August of 2023, Alterra Mountain Company announced it would be the mountain operator of the Mayflower ski terrain by expanding Deer Valley Resort with the 3,700 Mayflower acreage. The expansion will more than double Deer Valley’s skiable terrain, adding 16 new lifts and a new 10-passenger gondola, affirming the resort’s commitment to delivering exceptional guest services and a ski-only experience with limited daily skier counts.
While MIDA’s relationship with the premier mountain resort operator, Deer Valley, is very new, formulating offerings for the military specific to the mountain are taking shape. In addition to access to a phenomenal ski experience, there will be many new year-round, recreational opportunities for military family members on the mountain’s hiking and biking trails and throughout the area, including access to resort skiing and snowboarding at nearby Park City Mountain; adaptive sport access in partnership with the locally-based National Ability Center; access to both the golf academy and equestrian center under construction on the east side of the MRF project area; and water sports at the Jordanelle Reservoir.
The MRF project area also includes properties and military recreational initiatives on the east side of Highway 40, and Wasatch County has retained land-use authority for them. An Interlocal Agreement was signed with Wasatch County that gave MIDA land-use control of the west side properties. MIDA adopted the Equivalent Rate Units (ERUs) established by the county for the west side properties and adheres to similar, if not the same, codes and high standards, including dark-sky compliance.
Most recently on the east side, MIDA and Wasatch County created the opportunity for development of up to 660 attainable community housing units with a priority for military veterans, Wasatch County employees, educators, health care workers and first responders. MIDA will also pursue new recreational facilities and environmental cleanup.
BY THE NUMBERS
MIDA has helped bring significant, positive, economic impact to Wasatch County and the State of Utah, including capital infrastructure investment, financed through legislative appropriations and utilizing MIDA’s statutory financing tools to assist in the development. MIDA leverages and magnifies future, new growth tax revenue to invest directly in Wasatch County-approved infrastructure projects that bring positive economic impact to the project area.
As a reminder, MIDA was created by the State of Utah to optimize underutilized federal property and incentivize economic development that enhances the military installations within the state, and specific to Wasatch County, to support the county’s economic revenue goals, and infrastructure and housing needs.
While the MRF project area is still very much under construction, the incremental economic impact is beginning to come to fruition. In addition to the benefits from growth in taxable activities associated with the development in the MRF project area, MIDA assesses additional sales taxes and remits all or a portion it collects to the county.
Agreed upon in partnership with the county, MIDA captures 75 percent of only the property value growth that largely returns to the project area for infrastructure projects. Taxing entities continue to receive their previous amounts of allotted revenue plus their share of 25 percent of the new property tax generated by the partnership.
MIDA has also facilitated a $5 million appropriation to improve Ross Creek (currently under construction are parking lot improvements, bathroom provision, picnic tables and beach area.) An additional $100,000 from two Utah Outdoor Recreation grants created an improved section of the Perimeter trail, and is improving the Crandall Point Trailhead parking lot, as well as creating a mixed-used trail from the Equestrian Center. Community foundations have also been established by MIDA partners, funded by closing transfer fees, contributing to local non-profit organizations, the construction and maintenance of trails, local scholarships, and forestry health initiatives.
The various developments within the MRF project area that Wasatch County has been planning for 40 years have to date seen significant federal, state and local investment, as well as private investment to this very special part of the state. Wasatch County has done a thorough and responsible job of harnessing the tools granted by Utah’s legislature, and have diligently sought after and secured funding from all of the various buckets of money available to it. This diligence and smart investment by Wasatch County, the Governor’s office, the legislature, MIDA, the Air Force and tremendous private partners, have resulted in millions today and billions tomorrow for Utah, Wasatch County, and the community as a whole. All while significantly improving the quality of life for military guests and residents, and of all residing in and visiting the area by providing traffic solutions, attainable housing, perpetually-secured open space, and miles and miles of year-round, world-class recreation.