The original script seemed to be flawless. 

City Hall would solve the issue of a contentious development proposal in one fell swoop. And, in doing so, it would advance the diversification of an already-formidable tourism industry. Some would see it as a masterpiece. Others would consider it to be, in essence, a Hollywood ending.

In early July of 2017, the mayor of Park City at the time, Jack Thomas, gathered some of the community’s leading cultural figures at the Marsac Building to announce an agreement involving the $19.5 million City Hall acquisition of five-plus acres of long-contested land off the intersection of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard.

---

---

The seller, the Bonanza Park partnership of developer Mark J. Fischer and John Paul DeJoria, of Paul Mitchell hair care products fame, had by then encountered persistent resistance for years as various development concepts were considered but ultimately discarded amid concerns about issues like traffic increases and building heights.

At the same Marsac Building announcement, the mayor outlined a radically different idea for the land from the one Fischer and DeJoria pursued. City Hall would create an arts and culture district with the Kimball Art Center and the Utah offices of the Sundance Institute as the anchors. Painters and those working in other media at the Kimball Art Center would create, display and sell their works just across the way from independent filmmakers at Sundance pursuing their passion projects, the idea held. The Park City economy would benefit, the thinking went at that time, since the arts generate tourism-related revenues alongside the ski industry.

---

---

Nearly seven years after the mayor brought the Kimball Art Center and Sundance to the Marsac Building for the announcement of an arts district, however, the concept, as it was envisioned then, appears to be imperiled and perhaps even on the verge of collapsing.

The concept has remained reasonably intact through three mayoral administrations, various Park City Council rosters and the pandemic, even if progress was sluggish. But Sundance’s statement on Wednesday that it is taking an early step toward possibly moving the film festival to another place creates unexpected, and significant, uncertainty regarding the acreage at a time when Park City leaders themselves are attempting to learn whether Parkites even remain interested in the original vision.

Sundance in the announcement said it has started a process that could result in relocating the festival from Park City, where it has been held since the 1980s. The process began with the opening of a brief window for places to signal interest in becoming the host. That period closes May 1 and will be followed on May 7 by the start of a phase when Sundance will collect proposals from the communities. The submission deadline is June 21. Sundance anticipates announcing the selected location sometime in the fourth quarter of 2024 or the first quarter of 2025. Even if the festival remains in Park City, it is not known whether Sundance would be committed to the concept of an arts district.

The current agreement between City Hall and Sundance to hold the festival largely in Park City covers the event through 2026 with automatic renewals starting in 2027 unless either of the sides provides a two-year written notice by March 1 of any year. Park City leaders in 2023 agreed to allow the March 1 deadline in 2024 to be pushed back to Oct. 1 to allow Sundance more time to consider the long-term future of the festival, which is the top marketplace of independent films in the U.S. and the most lucrative event on the Park City calendar.

It could be a hectic stretch with City Hall and the tourism industry likely already beginning to formulate a strategy that they hope could persuade Sundance to abandon the notion of moving.

The Sundance side, meanwhile, will be reviewing the possibilities another community would present. It is unclear what sort of interest there will be from elsewhere in Utah and nationally, but it would be a rare opportunity for a city to lure such a prestigious event after the brand was built over the decades in Park City.

The Sundance intrigue is unfolding as Park City’s leadership also needs to address the fate of the arts district. It was not immediately clear whether City Hall intends to continue to pursue the discussions about a district at the same increased pace as it has been in recent months or whether the Sundance process will impact any of the municipal timelines. Park City officials recently gathered another round of input about the land.

If the festival departs Park City — eliminating Sundance’s involvement in a district — a project-defining question would need to be answered: Can an arts district that will likely run into the tens of millions of dollars be viable without the involvement of the internationally recognized Sundance?

The supporters of the Kimball Art Center may argue it indeed can be, citing the popularity of the organization’s programs and the crowds that gather each summer on Main Street for the Park City Kimball Arts Festival. Others could raise doubts about whether the Kimball Art Center has the stature and long-term wherewithal to anchor such an ambitious district on its own.

A debate like that would be another agonizing exercise in the prolonged talks about a district and would become an addendum, years later, to the bitter divisiveness that centered on the future of the Kimball Art Center at its previous longtime property in Old Town.

The not-for-profit art center a decade ago sought to expand its former location along Main Street, tapping a celebrated Danish architect for the designs. The modern style proposed by Bjarke Ingels Group encountered intense criticism in a location where City Hall development rules, particularly stringent in Old Town, are designed to preserve a historic fabric. The Kimball Art Center, frustrated, sold the property in a $7.5 million deal and moved into temporary quarters along Kearns Boulevard. The organization remains in that space, hardly content with the situation. 

The concept of an arts district essentially rose from the Kimball Art Center fracas along Main Street, and there was initial glee in the community about the prospects of such a development. The celebratory atmosphere, however, eventually dissipated amid questions about costs. The dollar figure for the City Hall portion of a project at one point neared an estimated $90 million, with the possibility of housing and transportation infrastructure being included in the designs. The input Park City most recently gathered about a district illustrated the wide-ranging opinions that remain about the future of the land. Some hope to continue with the original vision while others see the ground as prime for other sorts of development.

The Kimball Art Center has pressed City Hall for longer than a year to move forward with the vision of an arts district. Representatives have repeatedly appeared before the mayor and City Council to argue for such a development. The Kimball Art Center’s top staffer made one of the appearances in March. In an interview after his remarks at the City Council meeting, Aldy Milliken, the executive director, said the temporary quarters are not the organization’s “forever home.” He also expressed concern about whether the original concept would ever come to fruition.

“Unless I have a signed contract, I worry we’re not going to realize that goal,” Milliken said in an interview.

There seems to be new justification to those worries just five weeks later.

The Kimball Art Center, like a wide swath of Park City, will be closely watching the Sundance process in coming months — and hoping there is still an opportunity to create a masterpiece of an arts district, regardless of whether there is a Hollywood ending for Sundance in Park City.