You Rarely Stop Things In Park City But You Can Postpone Them

We received an email from a person last night asking whether “we really thought that the Uinta Express Pipeline would be stopped” by low oil prices. The answer to that is no, but it does highlight a position we find ourselves taking more often. In Park City, we believe you can STOP very few things; however, you can POSTPONE them.

A perfect example is the land that the Hyatt Hotel is being built upon in Snyderville. The owner had the rights to build offices and a small restaurant. They had those rights for very many years and built nothing. Then it seems a developer thought they could make more money with a hotel. The neighborhood was pushed to endorse their hotel idea — some would say through fear. Now, old trees are torn down…soon to be replaced by stucco and commerce. Could development of that land have been stopped. No. The owner had the right to build office space and a restaurant there. When would that have happened? Today? No. Next year? Still unlikely (there’s too much of those things right now). Five years? Maybe. Ten years? More likely. Twenty years? Yeah.

So the question is, would you have preferred to leave the land open for 10 more years and then have someone build office space and a restaurant or do you prefer having a hotel now? Unless you were the land owner, the developer, or got the construction job we think we know the answer.

We aren’t crazy enough to think that development can be postponed forever; however, we do know that Park City will probably look different in 10-20 years. Instead of accelerating that time line, why not keep it measured. In other words, you are living in the Garden of Eden. Do you listen to the snake and eat the apple now or do you hold off for a few years and enjoy paradise while you can?