This story appears in the November 2025 issue of Utah Business. Subscribe.
Long before the summer day in 2023 when Deer Valley Resort announced it would more than double its terrain, long before cranes and bulldozers swarmed both sides of the scenic stretch of four-lane highway connecting Park City to Heber City, a mysterious legal entity called BLX LLC quietly recorded an all-cash purchase of 40 acres of land in Wasatch County known as the Blue Ledge parcel.
This was January 23, 2015, and the buyer was New York City developer Gary Barnett. Barnett is world-renowned in real estate circles for his land assemblage prowess, patiently buying up parcels of prime Manhattan land over time to assemble an entire city block.
In the 10 years since that inconspicuous 40-acre deal, Barnett and his team at Extell Development made more than 20 land acquisitions. They assembled 5,500 acres in what is now known as Deer Valley East Village and on the mountain above, making Exit 8 off U.S. Route 40 the gold-plated front door to the fifth-largest resort in North America.
While Extell flirted with the idea of opening a standalone ski resort, the prospect of wrapping a new alpine base village in the Deer Valley brand name was always alluring.
Kurt Krieg, Extell’s EVP of resort development, says that “in the end, both parties concluded they were better together.” He says the collaboration harnesses both parties’ expertise: “Deer Valley’s as a world-class brand and renowned ski operator, and Extell’s as a nationally acclaimed real-estate developer with financial wherewithal.”
By the time the 2034 Olympics arrive, the East Village will be bustling with 42 carefully curated luxury retail shops (including a mix of local artisan shops), 32 restaurants, seven cafes and 10 residential developments across 2.1 million square feet.
The building boom extends across U.S. Route 40 to the land that sits on the western edge of the Jordanelle Reservoir. Extell purchased 70 acres in the Marina West neighborhood to develop workforce housing for over 1,800 residents. And in September, Wasatch County approved plans for Deer Cove, an 86-acre village with 865 residential units that will include a grocery store, dining, retail shops, trails and a town square. All those high-end consumers and all those shiny new retail spaces on both sides of the highway offer a generational opportunity for Utah businesses.
“Deer Valley East Village is designed to be largely self-contained,” Krieg says, “with lodging, residences, skier services, residences and retail all in one place. We anticipate that [the East Village] will increase significant new business development in the surrounding area, from restaurants and retail to services and workforce housing, as well as increased tourism.”
Jared Lucero, CEO of Lehi-based Reef Capital Partners, is best known for developing Black Desert Resort. Reef Capital is building Cormont, five towers with condominiums priced between $1.7 million and $9.75 million, centrally located in the East Village on what will be North America’s largest ski beach, and Marcella Landing, a private gated community on a ridge overlooking the East Village where 50 townhomes start at $9 million each.
Another gated community, Marcella at Deer Valley, quickly sold out 143 single-family home sites; recent listings showed land going for $4 million and a six-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot home priced at $21 million.
“It’s not often that you can do projects that are ski-in, ski-out,” Lucero says. “It’s one of the rarest things in real estate. It’s like beachfront property. That, and partnering with Extell, a very successful and respected developer, we felt like those two things made it worth doing.”
Fronting the entrance to the East Village Express gondola, construction has begun on the Four Seasons Resort and Private Residences, which will add 134 guest rooms and 123 private residences, with listings ranging from $5.1 million to $14.5 million. By mid-September, 60 percent of top-floor hotel residences had been sold.
The Grand Hyatt opened last winter with 381 hotel rooms and 30,000 square feet of conference space, and it sold out 55 private residences, priced from $2.3 million to $6.9 million. Utah’s first Hilton Canopy is expected to open in summer 2026, according to Extell.
According to Krieg, “We do believe East Village will become the new epicenter of growth at Deer Valley because of its scale, the brand partners, and the direct connection to the expanded terrain. That said, Park City’s existing base areas and Main Street will remain vibrant and iconic to the area. … The goal is not to shift the heart of Deer Valley, but to expand it.”
East Village visitors will have access to Deer Valley via five lifts, four of which will be open for the 2025-26 season. Day skiers will have easy East Village parking and high-speed access to new expert runs off Persistence Ridge and Redemption Ridge, as well as new beginner and intermediate runs off the top of 9,350-foot Park Peak.
A new 60,000-square-foot lodge at the gondola stop atop Park Peak, expected to partially open for the 2026-27 season, will house a restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows and a heated outdoor deck. It will transform into a destination wedding venue in the summer.
Lucero believes that with the fast new lifts and convenient parking, the East Village will be the primary entry point in 2025-26 for day skiers from Provo and Salt Lake City, as well as stay-and-play tourists.
“The goal at the end of the day,” Lucero says, “is for East Village to be the best ski village in the world for services, experience, convenience … the energy, the music. I just see it being a really amazing vibe that doesn’t exist anywhere.”