Naturopathic physician joins Golden Door Spa at new Luxury Hotel at the base of the Canyons Resort, Park City

Naturopathic physician joins Golden Door Spa
Director: aim is to become a full-service wellness center
by Andrew Kirk, OF THE RECORD STAFF
Posted: 04/02/2010 04:31:56 PM MDT
When Scott Cowdrey became director of the Golden Door Spa earlier this year he said he wanted to attract more locals. Even though the spa would always service hotel guests and destination visitors, he was also offering memberships for Parkites to make it their fitness club.

The Golden Door is more than a relaxation spa, he explained.

"Putting people on the path to a really healthy lifestyle is the basic goal of the Golden Door Spa. It's not just a spa to relax in. You can, and we can knock your socks off. But we're also coming at it from the standpoint of an investment (in health)," he explained.

That goal prompted the spa to recently add naturopathic physician Trevor Holly Cates to its staff. Cates was practicing out of a medical office on Ute Blvd. in Newpark.

Cowdrey said Cates can offer guests and members nutritional counseling to complement their treatments. The spa gives Cates' clients access to fitness and stress-relieving services complementing her holistic treatments.

"We offered nutrition, but never to this level," he said.

Whatever a person needs to achieve optimal health and fitness, everything is available under one roof, Cowdrey said. That's been a goal of his ever since becoming director.

"They can walk outside her door and walk right into ours," he added.

Cates said it's a perfect fit because she's interested in the whole person. Everything a client needs for exercise and stress management is in the same place.

Destination guests to Golden Door come for a transforming week, and even though she won't be their primary-care physician, she can send them home with information to implement in their lives.
For her regular clients, the only difference will be they can now valet their car and hang out in the spa after, she said.

The hotel was recently purchased by Talisker which plans to rename it Waldorf Astoria, Park City.

Park City brings Olympic Games back home

Local Olympians and Paralympians parade down Main Street
Matthew Piper, OF THE RECORD STAFF
Posted: 04/02/2010 04:32:17 PM MDT

(Photo by Grayson West/The Park Record) Local residents Nate Roberts, left, and Bryon Wilson...

On a bleak Tuesday afternoon with frosty winds whipping through Main Street, Park City residents showed where their priorities lie by lining the streets at a parade for Utah's 2010 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
"It's always great to see the community out to honor the Olympians, because I just remember the 2002 Olympics, and being with this group again brings back memories," said Park City resident Lola Beatlebrox.
"The last time it was like this was July 4th," she said.
Beginning as advertised at 5:30 p.m. sharp, local junior athletes trod behind a convoy of international stars while viewers took part in the traditional parade fare waving, screaming and snapping photos.
There were no floats, as athletes rode in a cavalcade of SUVs and pickup trucks. 2010 World Cup giant slalom title winner Ted Ligety led off and quickly heeded one photographer's cry to "Start waving!"
Paralympic sled hockey gold medalist Greg Shaw joined fellow Park City resident and Closing Ceremony flag-bearer Monte Meier (stand-ski) in an SUV adorned with posters and paint. Behind them, recently retired moguls bronze medalist Shannon Bahrke shared a truck bed with moguls teammate Heather McPhie while trailing men's moguls athletes Nate Roberts and bronze medalist Bryon Wilson.
"It was a nice surprise," said New York's Bob Ingersoll, a winter sports fan on vacation in Park City. "Ted Ligety and Shannon Bahrke that made my day. I watched those guys during the Olympics."
Nordic combined medalists Brett Camerota and Billy Demong nearly tumbled on top of each other as their truck accelerated quickly at the top of Main Street, giving their audience a laugh.
Camerota was on a post-Olympic vacation in Thailand when he found out about the parade and rushed home.
"I really wanted to get away a little bit, but once I found out about the parade in Park City, I definitely made sure I made it back," Camerota said. "These programs are pretty much the reason I have a medal, so I wanted to show all the kids that these programs are a lot of fun and they actually do work."
Aerialists Lacy Schnoor and Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, and speedskaters Travis Jayner, Rebeckah Bradford, Tucker Fredericks and Catherine Raney Norman were also among the 24 athletes on hand.
The School of Rock Show Band played while athletes signed autographs for hordes of fans, young and old alike, at the Town Lift Plaza.
"We have a lot of pride," said City Manager Tom Bakaly on Tuesday afternoon at a Park City Rotary Club attended by Peterson, Camerota, Wilson and Demong. "We love being able to pull together, especially with the ski team taking the lead (in medals)."
Bakaly said Park City's variety of elite training facilities like the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's Center of Excellence not only benefit Utah's medal count, but local businesses.
"Every time Park City gets mentioned, that's good on a lot of levels," Bakaly said. "But on an economic level, it's very important to us."
Demong, who moved to Park City to train with his teammates and is originally from Vermontville, N.Y., said the work done by the city has made it feel like home.
"The town has really grown on me over the years," Demong said. "At the beginning, it was a means to an end, but it's been really cool to watch the community develop."
USSA Vice President of Communications Tom Kelly thought the celebration hosted by the Park City Chamber/Visitors Bureau, Youth WinterSports Alliance, and Park City Municipal Corporation was unique for its sheer size.
"We're really excited that the city of Park City has been looking for ways to acknowledge and congratulate the athletes," he said. "There's celebrations like this happening all over the country, but I don't think there's any other celebrations that included over two dozen athletes. It really shows how big a role Utah plays."

Montage Construction Moving along for 2010/2011 Season Opening

Montage granted an around-the-clock construction schedule
Developers say they want the flexibility to work 24 hours a day if needed
by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF
Posted: 04/02/2010 04:31:57 PM MDT


The Montage is under construction in Empire Pass on the slopes of Deer Valley Resort. City Hall has approved a 24-hour work schedule at the site, the first time a developer has been granted an all-day, all-night schedule in at least 30 years. Grayson West/Park Record City Hall this week approved a request from the developers of the Montage to expand the times construction is allowed at the site to 24 hours a day, the first all-day, all-night work schedule allowed inside Park City since at least 1980.

Ron Ivie, the chief building official at City Hall, approved the expanded construction schedule through a letter he signed on Wednesday. Ivie said the developers had indicated they wanted to start the overnight shift as soon as practical. The developers, known as The Athens Group, said in a statement, though, the construction crews do not have current plans to start a 24-hour schedule.

Ivie has held the chief building official position since 1980 and said he had not previously approved a 24-hour schedule for a developer. The construction industry prior to Ivie's arrival was not nearly as busy as it has been during his 30-year tenure, meaning that the Montage could be the first project with an approved 24-hour construction schedule in Park City's modern era.


The Montage developers lead Park City officials on a tour of the construction site last fall. The developers hope the hotel is operating by the beginning of Deer Valley Resort's 2010-2011 ski season. Park Record file photo

An opening date has not been set for the Montage, situated on the slopes of Deer Valley Resort in Empire Pass, but the developers hope it is operating by the beginning of Deer Valley's 2010-2011 ski season.

"If it were downtown, if it were the Sky Lodge, we probably wouldn't have considered it," Ivie said, noting the tucked-away location of the Montage. "The advantage of this site is it's fairly remote."

According to Ivie, the developers anticipated putting 100 workers on the overnight shift. During a normal daytime shift, he said, between 800 and 900 workers are at the site. Ivie said the approval for the 24-hour construction prohibits deliveries during the overnight shift and the crews cannot work on the exterior of the building.
The Building Department had already granted the developers slightly extended construction hours from City Hall's standard schedule. Construction crews normally are allowed to work from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Sundays.

The Montage developers say the overnight shift would be limited to workers assigned to cleanup duties, indoors finishing work and installing furniture.

"The vast majority of construction is taking place in the normal construction hours," said Jeff Mongan, an executive with The Athens Group, adding that the possibility of a 24-hour schedule provides the crews with "more flexibility."

Ivie recently briefed the Park City Planning Commission, telling the panel City Hall retains "a lot of control" over the construction rules. Ivie told Charlie Wintzer, the chairman of the Planning Commission, the 24-hour schedule can be revoked if there are problems. Ivie also told the panel the expanded schedule at the Montage would not affect the construction of a few houses being built nearby in Empire Pass.

Marianne Cone, a former Park City Councilwoman who lives on Prospect Avenue, close to the primary driving route to Empire Pass, briefly addressed the Planning Commission, inquiring about traffic to and from the Montage site under the 24-hour schedule. Ivie said the shifts would be designed in a manner that will not increase the number of vehicles on Marsac Avenue, the main access road to Empire Pass.

Ivie said in an interview he had received two complaint letters prior to his approval of the 24-hour schedule. One was from someone with a Marsac Avenue address living close to the Montage site, Ivie said. The letter writer was worried about lights and noise from the site as well as the amount of construction traffic, according to Ivie. Since the overnight work would be indoors, the developers do not expect there will be impacts to the sparsely populated neighborhood, Mongan said.

"Neighbors shouldn't be impacted at all," he said.

The Montage is seen as the anchor of Empire Pass, an exclusive development envisioned for years before construction started in the last decade. It will be among the largest buildings ever put up in Park City, encompassing a 174-room hotel, 81 condominiums, a 35,000-square-foot spa, 15,000 square feet of meeting space and restaurants.

The hotel will add another exclusive property to the Park City-area's stable of high-end lodging options. There has been a hotel boom in the last decade or so, with places like the St. Regis, the Sky Lodge and the Dakota Mountain Lodge, which is part of the Waldorf Astoria brand, entering the Park City market.

The Montage single-handedly propped up the Park City construction industry's numbers in 2009, with a permit issued early last year accounting for 39 percent of the year-end total tallied by the Building Department. It is unusual for one permit to weigh so heavily on the annual total. The Montage permit, expected to be the final one of significant value at the site, was pegged at $26.9 million. The citywide year-end tally in 2009 was $68.5 million.

"We're making our push toward completion and opening of our hotel at the end of the year," Mongan said.

Sweeneys soften stand against Treasure Hill buyout

The Sweeney family is open to negotiations with City Hall that could preserve Old Town hillside
by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF
Posted: 04/02/2010 04:31:52 PM MDT

Mike Sweeney, one of the three Sweeney brothers leading the family's efforts to build Treasure, told Mayor Dana Williams and the Park City Council Thursday night the Sweeneys are willing to enter into negotiations with City Hall that could result in a conservation deal for the Treasure land.

He briefly addressed the elected officials and did not provide details about the prospects of negotiations. Sweeney, though, said the family is open to talks about City Hall buying the Treasure land outright or paying the family in exchange for the Sweeneys reducing the size of the development.

The elected officials did not respond to the comments. Sweeney's statements were the second time in recent weeks a member of the family held open the possibility of some sort of negotiations about a conservation deal between their side and City Hall. Pat Sweeney, the most visible of the three brothers during the long-running Treasure discussions, said in a March interview the family could entertain discussions with Park City officials.

Doing so would shake up the talks about Treasure, which have stretched since the middle of the last decade. Throughout the talks, the Sweeneys have indicated that they were not interested in negotiating a conservation deal, saying that most of the Treasure land would remain undeveloped anyway and the project would boost business on Main Street if it is built.

The negotiations for a conservation deal between City Hall and the Sweeneys would be conducted in closed-door sessions, and it is unclear whether there had been overtures from either side leading up to the Thursday meeting.
If City Hall were to attempt to purchase the land outright, it would likely be the most expensive land deal officials have ever negotiated. The acreage occupies a prized hillside on the slopes of Park City Mountain Resort overlooking Old Town. The Sweeneys hold longstanding development rights, making the land more valuable than if there were no rights already associated with the parcel.

During the City Hall elections last fall, Mike Sweeney told a crowd during a candidate forum the land could be bought for conservation purposes for $100 million. He quickly backed away from the figure, though, saying it was a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Many would see a conservation deal for the Treasure land as the most significant of its kind since City Hall purchased the McPolin Farm along the S.R. 224 entryway in 1990.

Whatever the price tag, City Hall would need to raise millions of dollars before a deal could be finalized. There is no money left from three voter-approved conservation bonds, which have largely funded open space purchases for more than a decade.

It seems likely Williams and the City Council would need to put another bond to voters to raise the money required for a deal with the Sweeneys. Voters overwhelmingly passed the three bonds, totaling $40 million, but each of them was approved during better economic times.

Sweeney's comments on Thursday were unexpected and came as the City Council was considering whether to make a procedural change to the way some development matters are handled. City Hall staffers want the change approved in an effort to make a breakthrough in the Treasure discussions. Should the change be adopted, the City Council would have the power to appoint a hearing officer to consider appeals of some Planning Commission decisions.

Under the current setup, the appeals are put before the mayor and City Council. Because the elected officials have the duty to hear appeals, City Hall attorneys caution them not to discuss applications under consideration by the Planning Commission in an effort to retain their neutrality should an appeal be filed.

If the appeals process was changed to shift the duties away from the elected officials, they would be able to engage a developer like the Sweeneys in wide-ranging discussions, including the possibility of a conservation deal.

The Planning Commission earlier made a favorable recommendation for the change, which would be made to City Hall's Land Management Code. The City Council on Thursday delayed a vote on the change until at least April 15. The lower panel has the authority to approve or reject Treasure, but it has long been expected that the Planning Commission's decision would be put before the City Council, either through an appeal or by the elected officials exercising their authority to reconsider a decision made by the Planning Commission.

Six people spoke during a hearing about the change, with the testimony indicating there are concerns about the City Council delegating its role in appeals to a hearing officer who is not held accountable to voters like the elected officials are.

A Treasure critic, Bob Garda, suggested replacing the hearing officer clause with one calling for a three-person panel to consider the appeals.

Brian Van Hecke, a leader in the Treasure opposition, said he would like officials to entertain talks with the Sweeneys, but he was hesitant to support a setup that removes the City Council from its usual role in hearing appeals. He said the talks about the procedural change were hurried.

"It seems like we're rolling the dice a little bit," Van Hecke said.

The Sweeneys are seeking a Planning Commission approval for approximately 1 million square feet of development, with the proposal including a hotel, condominiums and commercial and meeting space. Treasure opponents claim the project would draw too much traffic, the buildings would loom over Old Town and the neighborhood has changed dramatically since the original approvals in the 1980s.

More snow equals more skiing at Park City Mountain Resort!

Park City Mountain Resort Extends Season to April 18
submitted by PCMR
Posted: 04/02/2010 01:09:11 PM MDT



"Thanks to the recent return to winter and an 87-inch settled base depth, the current conditions are the best they've been all year, which is why we've decided to stay open for an additional week," said Peter Curtis, president and general manager of Park City Mountain Resort. "We will continue to deliver an exceptional guest experience, maintaining our grooming standards and high-level of guest service."
Beginning Monday, April 12 the resort will operate eight lifts including PayDay, Crescent, Bonanza, Silverlode, Thaynes, Jupiter, First Time and Three Kings. Pick'n Shovel, PayDay and King's Crown terrain parks will also be open.

Lift ticket pricing for the extended week of the season is as follows:
Adult (ages 13 and 64) $ 65
Seniors (ages 65 and up) $ 45
Children (ages 7-12) $ 40
The Canyons and Deer Valley Resort season pass holders will be able to purchase a single-day lift ticket to the Resort for $25 when they show their current 2009-2010 season pass.

Fed Pulls The Plug On Mortgage Purchases

Fed Pulls The Plug On Mortgage Purchases
by CHRIS ARNOLD

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifying on Capitol Hill this month about how the U.S. economy still needs the assistance of the Fed. At the end of March, however, the agency plans to stop purchasing mortgage-backed securities.



March 30, 2010
The Federal Reserve will stop buying mortgage-backed securities on Wednesday, ending a massive program that's been helping the housing market recover.
A year and a half ago, the government wanted to drive down interest rates for homeowners to stimulate the economy by making it cheaper to buy or refinance a house. But hardly any banks or investors were eager to lend money for home mortgages, even to people with decent credit. And that drove up interest rates.
The way mortgages most often get bought and sold is that they get pooled together and bundled into mortgage-backed securities. The subprime mess made all those securities suspect.
Before the financial crisis, pension funds, hedge funds, banks and lots of other investors bought and sold these pools of home loans. But Guy Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance,says the subprime crisis "put a skull and crossbones on all mortgage-backed securities." Back then, everybody was selling — and hardly anybody was buying. Banks were even selling their pools of good loans to try to raise money.
The race to sell threatened to make the recession worse.

Riding To The Rescue
The Federal Reserve decided to come to the rescue by buying up a lot of mortgages.
And by early March of this year, "the Fed and Treasury together became the largest mortgage-backed security investor in the world," Cecala says.
The unorthodox approach worked, and the government was able to drive down interest rates for millions of homeowners, which also helped the economy. To date, the Fed has bought a colossal amount of mortgage-backed securities — more than $1.2 trillion worth in all.
Since the start of this year, the government has been reducing its purchases of home loans while the private sector has been recovering and stepping in to make up the difference. The Fed was buying 90 percent of new mortgage-backed securities. Lately, it has been buying about 30 percent or less. And when March ends, it'll stop buying altogether. So the question is what happens then?

Pulling The Plug
Barry Habib, chairman of the board of Mortgage Success Source, which tracks rates and trends for mortgage brokers, says that when the Fed stops purchasing these securities, it will leave a vacuum in the market that will push up interest rates.
Paul Van Wart, a mortgage broker outside Boston, says rates have been jumping around a little bit recently. But overall, he says they're still near historic lows and "the market has definitely turned for the better."
Van Wart hopes this scenario doesn't change when the Fed stops buying up so many mortgages.
Scott Simon, who oversees mortgage-backed securities investments at PIMCO, an investment management firm, says rates might move up by a tenth of a percentage point when the Fed pulls the plug. "It won't be a perfect landing, but there are people now who think that rates are going to go up by one-half or 1 full percentage point," Simon says. "And we think that's crazy."
But Habib thinks rates could rise more. And he says anyone who hasn't refinanced his home yet should consider doing so very soon.

The Fed's Impact
Simon says the Fed's mortgage purchase program has been an important initiative for getting the economy back on track.
If the Fed hadn't intervened, he says, "the housing market would have imploded" because foreclosures would have been so large.
"We could have had a depression," Simon adds. "I think they really saved the day."
The government actually has been making quite a bit of money on this program. The U.S. Treasury earns about $50 billion a year from interest that homeowners pay on loans the government owns.
Still, the investment is not without risks. The government holds more than $1 trillion worth of home loans that might go bad. But these were not subprime or exotic loans — they were fairly well documented and affordable. As a result, the government could continue to make money on its initiative to prop up the housing market.

Park City Board of Realtors - Market Update & Stats 2009/2010