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Demolition crews will someday have a go at Bonanza Park buildings

by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF

Mark J. Fischer, the key landowner in the Bonanza Park district, holds ambitious plans to remake the district, essentially from the ground up.

That means many of the buildings that currently sit on his patchwork of properties must eventually come down to make way for the new developments. In the little more than two months since Fischer filed paperwork at City Hall asking that he be allowed to redevelop the properties, there has been little discussion about the buildings that are now standing.

They are not historic, meaning that the influential preservation community in Park City is unlikely to be involved, and Parkites generally do not see the structures themselves as being critical to the community’s vitality even as they frequent the businesses that lease space inside them.

Even so, Fischer’s blueprints represent what would be the largest-scale redevelopment inside Park City since the beginning of the skiing era in the 1960s. Under Fischer’s plans, buildings that could be demolished and the property where they stood redeveloped include:

  • The Yard off Kearns Boulevard, the building that now houses the Blind Dog restaurant. Fischer said in an interview he would like the Blind Dog to anchor a new building once the site is redeveloped.
  • the lumberyard buildings at The Yard
  • the Bonanza Drive building that houses the Maverick gas station-convenience store
  • the Bonanza Drive building where the stores No Place Like Home and Whimsy are located
  • the building where the Buggy Bath Car Wash is located, situated on Bonanza Drive
  • the building that houses Anaya’s Market, located on Munchkin Road
  • the Bonanza Drive building where the Park City Clinic is housed

    Fischer has requested City Hall allow him put upward of 940,000 square feet of new development on the various parcels involved in the 11-acre application, which divvies the land up between three primary locations. Park City Mountain Resort is involved in one of the three primary locations as well.

    The project would offer residential properties, commercial square footage and institutional buildings like medical offices. Fischer has said he intends to offer space to the tenants now leasing in the buildings that would be demolished.

    The Park City Planning Commission has not started its discussions about the application, and there could be months of meetings before the panel is ready to cast a vote.

    The developer is scheduled to host an open house on Wednesday to describe the ideas. It is the first chance for a mass audience to review the plans. The open house is scheduled from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at The Blind Dog, 1251 Kearns Blvd. A City Hall notice indicates there could be a majority of Park City Councilors and members of the Planning Commission in attendance on Wednesday. Fischer and key members of his project team are expected to be at the meeting.

    Fischer said in an interview the timeline on the demolitions will depend on market conditions. If the economy picks up, the buildings could come down and the new ones put up sooner than if the economy sputters, he said.

    "It’s just a function of supply and demand," Fischer said. "We want to be ready when the recession ends and the economy starts improving."

    He envisions the parking lot at The Yard, an expansive piece of ground off Kearns Boulevard, will be developed first. A project at that site will not require buildings to be torn down. Fischer said the building where the Blind Dog is located could be the first to be razed.

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