Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority Board voted unanimously Tuesday morning to accept Sundance Mountain Resort’s invitation for the entity to help it establish a $35 million hotel, 63 rooms of which would be reserved for wounded veterans.
In November, Utah County commissioners voted to extend the offer to MIDA.
During that meeting, the commission was assured Utah County would retain land use control and receive 25% of an incremental tax increase while MIDA would use the remainder in funding the Sundance veterans program and building the inn.
Nicole Cottle, MIDA’s chief administrative officer, said “the need and purpose for MIDA’s participation” in the project is small compared to other projects.
“The Sundance veterans program is modeled after a very long-standing program that came out of Vail,” Cottle said. “It’s very unique, very specific to wounded veterans and their families.”
Veterans visiting the inn would be able to participate in a handful of activities without charge, including art classes, horseback riding, fishing, skiing and snowboarding.
While 10-20 of the rooms will be used for veterans’ programs, the remaining will be available for members of the public.
“It provides that atmosphere where then the wounded veteran and the caregiver and families can come together and rehabilitate, learn how to move into the future and facilitate their success,” Cottle said. “The people that are progressing into this program come out of the veterans’ hospitals.”
The project area stretches over the entire 2,600 acres of Sundance, and MIDA officials said the increment of the entire area will be vital in helping fund the inn. Even with the funding, they added, investors will still need to contribute a considerable portion of the cost to make the project feasible.
Utah County commissioners voted unanimously for the deal, and on Tuesday, the project received another unanimous vote from MIDA’s board of directors.
MIDA Operations Director Kristin Williams said the state entity’s main role will be issuing public bonds to finance the inn.
She also relayed a story Sundance partner and investor Bill Jensen told about his wife bringing seven amputee veterans to Colorado to ski after she gained an appreciation for the severity of their wounds.
“An Army veteran and double AK (above-the-knee) amputee, Sgt. Heath Calhoun, commented to my wife and I at the end of this four-day program that he did not know why we did this, but we changed his life,” Jensen said. “We realized that mountains have the potential to heal people, and over the past 19 years, we have brought over 3,600 severely wounded veterans and their families to the mountains of Colorado to support their healing journey. We believe the mountains provide a stress-free environment that builds confidence, resiliency, provides coping mechanisms and rejuvenates the spirit of those and their families who have sacrificed for all of us.”
Given Tuesday’s approval, the project is expected to begin with the issuance of bonds and the creation of a Public Infrastructure District area in the spring.
This article has been edited from a previous version for clarification and to correct spelling errors.