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Summit Series • Powder Mountain purchase a done deal at a $40 million price tag.
By Cathy McKitrick,The Salt Lake Tribune. Published: May 10, 2013 09:44PM
Ogden • The Weber County Commission
approved a consulting contract Tuesday with Bonneville Research to
develop a project area plan and budget that could allow future tax
revenues to flow back into the Summit Mountain Holding Group’s Powder
Mountain development.
The u nanimous vote of the three-member
commission for the $12,800 contract allows the Salt Lake City-based firm
to conduct a financial analysis of the ambitious project that could
infuse new life, cash and change into the rural Ogden Valley communities
of Eden, Liberty and Huntsville.
According to Douglas Larsen, executive director
of Weber Economic Development Partnership, Bonneville Research will
help determine the most appropriate use of tax increment, a term
referring to the increase in property tax revenue that flows from an
area as a result of new development.
Once established as a Community Development
Area or CDA, part or all of that tax increment could flow back into the
project for a yet-to-be determined period of up to 25 years, contingent
on approval from taxing entities such as the county and school district
that would agree to forego their share of that increase for the
designated time.
Larsen said that Bonneville Research’s work
should conclude by July and public meetings will then be held to allow
discussion of the proposed CDA.
“We look at the Summit project as the right
development at the right time,” Larsen said Tuesday, applauding the
group’s fresh vision as “environmentally intelligent.”
Summit’s plans include up to 500 single-family
homes and a village of similar scale on the 7,000-acre mountain — far
less than previous developers have envisioned for the area, but more in
line with what the Ogden Valley might be able to handle in terms of its
natural resources and paved roadways.
In late March, the County approved a $22.5
million special assessment bond to fund public roads, water and sewer
for the project’s initial phase of 154 homes. Debt service for that
20-year bond is to be paid from homeowners within the development.
Tax increment from the CDA can provide an
additional layer of security for bond debt service should the need
arise, Larsen said, while funding gas and electrical lines and fiber
optic cables for future phases, which may include a mountaintop event
center and boutique hotels. As well, a small percentage of the tax
increment revenues could be directed to assets that would help further
sustain the development, Larsen added.
The Summit Series team announced Tuesday that it had finalized its $40 million purchase of Powder Mountain.
Reached Tuesday afternoon, Summit Partner
Thayer Walker said that the 40-plus investors behind the purchase were
founding members of the company who would one day own homes on the
mountain. That well-heeled group includes PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel,
Tim Ferriss — author of The 4-Hour Work Week , and Elle Magazine founder Sunny Bates.
The ski resort’s heritage and feel will remain
intact, Walker said, with development occurring mostly on the mountain’s
south side. While a mountaintop conference center is part of Summit’s
future plans, Walker said its tone and scale will be “more like retreat
space than Salt Palace.”
cmckitrick@sltrib.com
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56274750-78/development-mountain-summit-tax.html.csp
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By Marjorie Clark on April 16, 2013, Daily Utah Chronicle
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Jon Springmeyer from Bonneville Research delivers findings from a study on the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at a Hinckley Forum on Monday.
Marjorie Clark / The Daily Utah Chronicle
| Some might say Monday morning is too early to talk about liquor
laws, licenses and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control,
but the Hinckley Institute of Politics and Bonneville Research
disagree as they hosted the event “Working in Partnership with
Utah State Government.”
“Say what you want to say about the state being in the liquor
business,” said Jon Springmeyer, vice president of Bonneville
Research. “You can say it’s a really good idea or a bad idea, but
I think we can all agree that if you’re going to do it, do it
well. Do it right. And that’s not happening.”
Bonneville Research was hired by the Utah Department of Alcoholic
Beverage Control to research its operations and create an enhanced
business plan. The research company completed an investigation of
the DABC, including state versus package stores, maintaining the
status quo and how to move the commission forward to adjust with
the times.
The company made recommendations to the department, but during
their six-month study, the heads of the department changed so the
people who commissioned the study were not there to hear the
findings. As a result, few recommendations have been implemented,
Springmeyer said.
Included in the company’s findings was that all the state liquor
stores made money. Despite the size of the store, inventory and
employee turnover and location, each store made at least a
$200,000 profit.
“The [Alcoholic Beverage Control] Commission spends almost all of
its time hearing pleas and requests for liquor licenses,”
Springmeyer said. “Steady parade of — for the most part — new
business owners who are putting themselves at the mercy of this
liquor commission.”
Research also found there was a “significant lack” of retail
experience on the commission board. The board was looking at
selling alcohol as a state agency and something that should be
controlled instead of a $3.2 million annual retail business, he
said.
Bob Springmeyer, president of Bonneville Research, said revenue
appears to be on the climb.
“We don’t know whether people are drinking more or more people are
drinking,” Bob Springmeyer said.
The worst store, in a bad location with bad parking, located on
Park City’s Main Street, made a profit of $232,000, Jon
Springmeyer said.
Utah and Pennsylvania are the only two states that have complete
control over liquor sales. Bob Springmeyer mentioned changes that
have occurred during the years to Utah’s liquor laws as hope for
change in the future.
“We find that we are the bridge between the public side and the
private side and help facilitate those communications,” Bob
Springmeyer said.
The liquor board has adopted committees to deal with policy issues
since the report was completed. It was not one of their specific
recommendations, but Bob Springmeyer said it is a step in the
right direction.
“There is a right-hand, left-hand disconnect between the executive
branch and the legislative branch on what to do,” Springmeyer
said. “Why are we involved? Because there’s money to be made.”
He said there is also some culture and history involved with the
situation.
“Good public policy would be to encourage those who want to
consume alcohol to do it at home or at a restaurant with food,”
Bob Springmeyer said. “It would reduce drunk driving and abuse.
This is not without some values involved.”
Contact Marjorie Clark at m.clark@chronicle.utah.edu
Short URL: http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/?p=2587724
Posted by
Marjorie Clark |
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Mixed-use development takes root in heart of the city.
By Cathy Mckitrick, The Salt Lake Tribune, Published: September 27, 2012 03:45PM
“The philosophy of transit-oriented development is that the people who will be attracted to live there are either young singles or older empty-nesters,” said Bob Springmeyer, president of Bonneville Research, a Salt Lake City-based consulting firm.
“The products are really designed to meet their needs,” Springmeyer said, noting that Murray’s nearby Intermountain Medical Center has driven interest and support for more rental housing.
“Until recently, we’ve seen declines in value in residential single-family homes and multifamily condos,” Springmeyer said of the surge in apartment construction. “Lenders have been reluctant to loan on an asset declining in value.”
Along with the new medical center, Murray is home to several major auto dealers, the Fashion Place mall and two transit stations. Springmeyer called the city of almost 48,000 residents, centered in the populous Salt Lake Valley where two interstate highways intersect, “extraordinarily well-positioned.”
Murray • When Mayor Dan Snarr took office, the city’s center consisted of a series of dilapidated properties contaminated by smelters and other industrial waste several decades ago.
Now in the third year of his fourth and final term, Snarr is pleased to point out that those areas have been reclaimed.
“My goal was to get them all cleaned up before I left office, and that pretty well does it,” Snarr said as he surveyed the multitude of high-density apartment complexes rising out of the ground in the city’s 97-acre, transit-oriented Fireclay district, named for the brick factory that once operated there.
Birkhill on Main is among the newest round of multifamily residences that are sprouting on a former brownfield in the Fireclay area south of Big Cottonwood Creek.
A recent announcement from the national architecture and planning firm KTGY Group Inc. said that Birkhill’s $17 million phase 1, which consists of 137 one- to three-bedroom apartments on five levels, will begin pre-leasing in October and should be occupant-ready by March.
The Ogden-based Kier Corporation is building the 664- to 1,119-square-foot units that are designed to be energy efficient and meet the Enterprise Green Communities Certification Standard. Features include 9-foot ceilings, gourmet kitchens, roomy closets, private patio/balconies and same-level parking.
Hooper Knowlton III — manager of Parley’s Partners, the Salt Lake City firm overseeing Birkhill’s development — touted Birkhill’s structured parking garage in a recent statement.
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Sales in good shape early in ski season
Posted: 03/13/2012 04:37:04 PM MDT
According
to a report released by Bonneville Research, December's sales tax
revenue was up in Park City despite a seven percent decrease in the
city's population, a potential sign of market recovery. Tax revenue
increased by 9.4 percent, increasing from $245,645 in Dec. 2010 to
$268,852 in Dec. 2011.
"The
numbers were distributed on where the sale took place and what
proportion that area has of state's total population," said Bob
Springmeyer, the Bonneville Research President. "It's point of sale and
population."
Springmeyer
said Utahns, and Park City residents, could feel good about Decembers
numbers, which show more consumer trust in the market.
"These
numbers reflect that the economy was a little better this year than
last even though we've had poor snow," he added. "We got off to a great
start with the travel and tourism industry, and had a reasonably strong
carry over from the fall season."
Springmeyer
speculated that the strong numbers may not continue as new sales tax
numbers are released because of the poor snow fall in the region.
The
state as a whole gained 20.2 percent in sales tax revenue in the same
time period, also with a decrease of 0.7 percent in the population.
Information from the report was provided by the Utah State Tax Commission.
ARTICLE: http://www.parkrecord.com/ci_20165704/december-sales-tax-numbers-up
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