Local Area And Real Estate News

             The Park Record reported Saturday that a portion of the Black Rock Ridge Development outside Park City, Utah has been sold to the Talisker Company and is slated to become employee/affordable housing.  Talisker owns the Canyons, Tuhaye, Empire Canyon and other properties in Summit and Wasatch Counties. Black Rock Ridge was slated to be a community of approximately 250 condominiums and townhomes ranging form 800 to 2000 square feet. The development offered its first completed models for sale in early 2008.             Black Rock Ridge was promoted as affordable mountain style townhomes and condominiums in Park City, Utah. The development offered new construction homes at prices just below $300 per square foot. The product appeared well received, but the timing was poor. Black Rock Ridge is technically in Wasatch County and not Park City. This may have had something to do with its poor sales too as Wasatch County is outside of the nationally ranked Park City School District.             Five unit sales in Black Rock Ridge were recorded across the Park City MLS. The remaining project was foreclosed upon by the bank this past spring. What will happen with the uncompleted common area amenities and future phases of the development is unknown. The Talisker Corporation purchased 26 of the unfinished units and has an agreement with Park City which will allow Talisker to use them (along with other concessions) to satisfy some of their employee and affordable housing components of the Empire Pass development. A Talisker representative was quoted as saying the company would sell the 9 townhomes at market value and the 17 condominiums when complete for $200K - $240K. The current owners at Black Rock Ridge will welcome some completion to the project, but are unhappy (to say the least) that the development will become "affordable housing" as the impact on their investment is decidedly negative.                         The location of Black Rock Ridge is less than 5 miles from the center of Park City making the area easily accessible. There are 2 other residential developments currently under construction in the area - Park's Edge and The Retreat at Jordanelle. There are also commercial development possibilities in the area which is home to Stock Building Supply. Presently the area is a bit of no-man's land and given the current economic state, it may be a while before this changes. The YouInParkCity.com group advises to carefully examine these and other unfinished Park City real estate developments before purchasing.