Park City Mountain’s Town Lift future in jeopardy due to lawsuit

The 1981 Town Lift lease agreement stipulates a rental fee of $10.00 per year for the land and associated rights, to be paid to each lessor over the 70-year term.

PARK CITY, Utah — A winter slip-and-fall incident has escalated into a legal dispute that could affect skier access to Park City Mountain from Main Street via the Town Lift.

New York skier Dina Miller filed suit against Vail Resorts and the land owner Brothers III, LLC on April 26, 2024, after suffering a leg fracture in Town Lift Plaza’s public restroom last February. Brothers III, LLC is owned by Patrick, Mike and Ed Sweeney. Brothers III demanded Vail Resorts defend them in Miller’s lawsuit, citing lease agreements dating back to 1981. The resort refused, arguing a third party handled restroom maintenance where Miller fell and that the insurance policy they held satisfied their obligations to Brothers III.

The Sweeney family or Brothers III, LLC are prominent landowners in Park City, and lease the land to Vail Resorts for the Town Lift and Town Lift plaza. They have also been strong supporters of Matthew Prince’s plans to build a controversial mansion on Treasure Hill in proximity to the Town Lift chairlift. The home site is regulated by both the Sweeney Master Planned Development and Historic Residential (HR) one zoning, which has required a powerful team of lawyers to help push the project through Park City’s planning process to be built.

“The operation of Town Lift depends on these long-standing agreements,” Brothers III stated in court documents, highlighting how a contractual dispute could affect lift access for thousands of skiers who use the Town Lift throughout the season.

The 1981 Town Lift lease agreement stipulates a rental fee of $10.00 per year for the land and associated rights, to be paid to each lessor over the 70-year term. The agreement specifies this flat rate without any adjustments for inflation or other factors that might increase the rent over time.

Brothers III, LLC seeks termination of the 1981 lease agreement for Vail Resorts alleged violation of its terms of the lease agreement.

“We don’t want to shut down the lift,” Sweeney told The Park Record. “But we’re just done. We’re separating ourselves from Vail.”

Park City Resort’s Chief Operating Officer, Deirdra Walsh said they plan to operate Town Lift now and into the future.

“Park City Mountain is proud to operate Town Lift, a one-of-a-kind portal from Main Street to America’s largest resort. Town Lift will continue to operate now and into the future through our longstanding and long-term rights in the property. We have valued our relationship with the Sweeney family and complied with and respected our agreements related to the Town Lift Plaza. Town Lift will begin daily operations mid-December.”

Main Street Gondola Upgrades

The escalation to terminate the lease comes amid discussions to improve Park City’s Main Street, which have included talks of a new aerial gondola connecting skiers to Main Street. Exploratory discussions on the gondola location have included the Brew Pub lot and Town Lift Plaza.

During a conversation this fall about Park City’s plans for updates to Main Street, Park City Council member Ryan Dickey, spoke about the potential of a new gondola and the potential process of upgrading the current Town Lift fixed grip chairlift.

“We don’t own the Town Lift Plaza, that’s owned by the Sweeney family, and it’s private, so we don’t have the lift, we don’t have the plaza,” Dickey said.

Dickey went on to explain that if the vision for Main Street redevelopment includes aerial gondola connectivity or lift upgrades the City would hope to incentivize its redevelopment by working with the land owner.

Time For Park City To Update Infrastructure

In an April, 2 Opinion Piece authored by Matthew Prince, owner of the Park Record and tech billionaire, he contends that Park City Municipal is getting in the way of infrastructure updates at Park City Mountain, being especially critical about the Town Lift.

Prince laments, “Want to make the Town Lift not be an 18-minute slog that makes you think about jumping off at Tower 16, after which there’s another 12 minutes of ride and yet only another 100 feet of vertical rise? Sorry, not possible until the City Council approves a new development agreement.”

Prince suggests “replacing Town and Bonanza with a high-speed gondola to the Summit House, including an angle station supporting load/unload capability near the old gondola’s angle station (just to skier’s right of the bottom of the Silver Queen run).

Town Lift currently can be used for ski in/out access to homes on Treasure Hill.