As I mentioned in last week's blog, this past Saturday was the Savor the Summit on Main Street. Park City and the restaurants outdid themselves. Savor the Summit has been going on now for five years and the local restaurants now see who can out-do with decorations, menu and food. This year's festival was the largest I've ever seen and the restaurants certainly outdid themselves with their decorations. I was at the Talisker on Main table where they had made a canopy out of aspen trees. It was really quite impressive and seemed to be a focal part for everyone's pictures. Talisker served a 7-course dinner, complete with wine pairings that lasted well into the evening. (Of course, just to be sure, we bought plenty of wine ourselves.) This year, for the first time, when dinner concluded most of the restaurants provided live entertainment inside. This was a terrific addition to an already fabulous festival and kept everyone on Main Street until the wee hours of the morning. The only downside is that I was playing in a weekend golf tournament and had to be up at 6:30 Sunday morning, ready to play. While I was up at 6:30, I can't say that I was necessarily ready to play.
In real estate news, the start of the summer selling season is now here. The weather is perfect, visitors are here, and the opportunity to pick up a vacation home at a terrific price has never been better. While Park City has always had a few name-brand hotels they have been the likes of Holiday Inn, Marriott Hotels, and the Radisson; all mid-range names. Now we have the Waldorf-Astoria and Hyatt at the Canyons, and St Regis and the Montage at Deer Valley. I find this to be a significant change as Park City transforms itself from a mid-level resort to one catering to a more discerning clientele.
This change in Park City started in 1981 when Deer Valley opened. Of course, no one knew it at the time, but the opening of Deer Valley started the town of Park City down a path from which there was no going back. Deer Valley's premise from the beginning was to provide a high-end, exclusive resort, catering to upper-income families who expected the best in services for their limited vacation times. While Deer Valley provided the quality of service required, for several years the town of Park City did not pick up on the change in clientele and continued with the kind of restaurants, quality of food and services that was typical of a ski town in the '80s. It did not take long for the entrepreneurial aspects of Park City to catch on. Higher-end restaurants came in, upscale shops, and quality of service upgraded to the level expected by the new Deer Valley/Park City vacationer. As word spread that not only was Park City easy to get to, the restaurants and guest services were also at a very high quality, but the town itself somehow retained much more of the historic Old West mining town than either Aspen or Vail, I believe it is this combination of the quality of accommodations, quality of restaurants, quality of services, while retaining a small-town charm that has made Park City such a sought-after destination.
So, don't just take my word for it. Come see for yourself why I call Park City home and why so many of my real estate buyers are thrilled to be here.
