Luxury Ski Resort in Utah Scores $60M Refi

By Scott Baltic

St. Regis Deer Valley in Park City, Utah

Sonnenblick-Eichner Co. has arranged $60 million in financing for St. Regis Deer Valley, a AAA Five Diamond year-round destination resort in the Deer Valley ski area in Park City, Utah.

The non-recourse financing was funded by a domestic life insurance company in what S-E described as “a highly structured transaction.” Proceeds were used to refinance existing debt with a new long-term, fixed-rate loan and to provide for the development of the resort’s next phase, which will include additional condo and hotel units, a destination restaurant, and other resort amenities. Construction on that next phase is expected to begin later this year or in early 2019.

The property’s owner reportedly is a joint venture of a privately held East Coast real estate company and a Hong Kong investor.

“Deer Valley is recognized as one of the finest destination ski resorts in the world. With its year-round amenities and the successful history of condominium and private resident sales, the transaction was ultimately structured with a life insurance company who fully appreciated the intrinsic value of the asset in underwriting the collateral for the loan,” S-E Principal David Sonnenblick said in a prepared statement.

The ski-in, ski-out facility offers 67 hotel condominium suites divisible into 177 hotel keys and 25 private whole-ownership residences. Amenities at St. Regis Deer Valley include:

• spa and fitness facilities
• J&G Grill
• a signature restaurant
• a private club

A long and busy history

Deer Valley was purchased last August, before it was a St. Regis, by affiliates of KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown & Co.

Those two entities had just weeks prior finished combining Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc., Mammoth Resorts and Squaw Valley Ski Holdings into one company, which owns 12 four-season mountain resorts with 6 millions skier visits and 20,000 skiable acres, along with “significant land available” for future development.

“This is the third financing that we have arranged for the ownership, including a $212.5 million construction loan and a subsequent permanent loan,” added S-E Principal Elliot Eichner. The $212.5 million loan was arranged way back in July 2007.

Image courtesy of Sonnenblick-Eichner Co.