Brandon Donnelly

Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

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Tag: summit park

  • The final push at PMH

    We are into the final push at Parkview Mountain House. The radiant tubes are in for the heated driveway and walkway (essential), and the concrete is scheduled to be poured later this week. The kitchen countertops were installed this morning, and the backsplash was templated, with install scheduled for this Wednesday. The finish carpenter is back this week, and then the painters will be coming next week. The appliances and hot tub are also on standby in their respective warehouses and will be delivered to site as soon as the team is ready. As always, things are frenetic. But we’re pushing to get occupancy this month. I’m also excited to announce that we just hired an excellent management company. We’re in the midst of that onboarding process, and we’re looking forward to starting bookings sometime this fall. If you haven’t yet added yourself to our list, drop your email over here. We’ll be offering a bunch of discounted bookings on a first-come, first-served basis to the people on this list.

  • Last run of the season

    Shot on iPhone and a Fujifilm X-T3

  • Footings and foundations in Park City

    We poured the concrete footings/foundations for Parkview Mountain House this week. Above is a photo of the pour. We’re about two weeks behind schedule because of delays related to site works and excavation. (We’re building into the side of a mountain.) But I’m hopeful we can make it up once we finish concrete work and move on to wood framing next month.

    For those of you who like details, here’s a section showing the footing and retaining wall on the back of the property facing the slope of the mountain:

    Our tallest retaining wall is going to be 15 feet high, which, as I understand it, is more or less the maximum we could have done here without getting into more elaborate structural solutions (such as tiebacks). So the team spent a lot of time solving a design puzzle that involved the height of this retaining wall, the maximum allowable zoning height for the site, and our choice of established grade.

    Onward. More concrete to come and then we move to wood. It’s a race to get “closed in” before the snow starts up again.

  • Vacation rentals in Park City

    We spent his morning meeting with prospective property managers for Parkview Mountain House. Here’s what we learned about the short-term rental market in Park City, Utah:

    • Property management fees generally range from 20-35% of revenue (these are turnkey solutions)
    • Airbnb is somewhere around 80% of the market here; though it does tend to skew toward slightly smaller rentals, whereas VRBO skews larger
    • Sundance Film Festival and New Year’s Eve are the two busiest times in Park City (demand greatly exceeds the available vacation rentals — 120%?)
    • Many Sundance guests tends to be people on expenses accounts: not price sensitive, but apparently very demanding
    • Winter is obviously peak demand because of snowboarding and skiing, but demand is still strong in the summer because of cycling, hiking, golfing, fishing, etc.
    • The two slowest times are spring (mud season) and fall
    • Many PMs will track booking lead times, which is the period of time between booking and check-in
    • This past winter season, demand was strong but average lead times were way down — meaning people were booking last minute and responding to snowstorms
    • During heavy snowfall seasons, like the one Utah had this past winter, you’ll likely need to budget for roof snow clearing (a few thousand for the season)
    • Heated driveways are a very good idea in the mountains
    • The most popular / most searched amenity is by far a hot tub; servicing one will run you about $125 per month

    I always find it fascinating to dig in and learn about a new industry and/or market. And that’s exactly what we did this morning.

  • Parkview Mountain House starts construction

    I am in Park City for the weekend because we just started site works for Parkview Mountain House (PMH).

    When you’re building in the mountains, there are generally two types of sites: sites that are uphill from the road and sites that are downhill from the road.

    The latter is significantly harder to build on because you have to first create access to the lot, which means bringing in soil and creating a ramp. You may also end up craning in materials.

    Thankfully, our site is on the uphill side. You bring in an excavator, dig into the mountain, and then you have a flat workable site.

    That’s what we’re doing on site right now and it’s what you’re seeing above — a big hole in the side of a mountain. And it’s pretty exciting.

    Photos: Isaac Silvera

  • New NFT collection — Utah

    Our week of working remotely in the mountains of Utah has come to an end. Being on mountain time meant early mornings every day. But it also meant being able to enjoy the evenings, including sunsets like the one shown here at the top of Ensign Peak. This was my first time really experiencing the Salt Lake City area in the summer, and I’m grateful for the opportunity. It is a beautiful place, and one that still feels under the radar once you exclude its global draw as a ski and snowboard destination. I also had a great time capturing it on my camera. So I’m excited to share my latest NFT photography collection — Utah. All of the photos were taken on my Fujifilm X-T3 (35mm) and can be viewed and purchased over here on Foundation.

  • Schematic design phase complete for Parkview Mountain House

    Some of you may be aware that Globizen is working on a new project in Park City, Utah right now called the Parkview Mountain House.

    It was first announced on the Globizen Journal back in the summer and then a later announcement was made appointing New York-based Mattaforma as the project architect. It’s kind of a great story because Mattaforma is a relatively new firm that was formed by two architects who used to be at Studio Gang. So we have a long history of working together.

    The vision for the project is a creative retreat in the mountains. A place to unplug, be active, and hopefully a place to foster creative expression, whatever that may be for you. It was inspired by the trip that I have been making to the mountains each year where we try and do exactly this. It’s one of my favorite times of the year and one that I look forward to the minute the last one is over.

    The team has just finished the schematic design phase for the house (see above axonometric). And we are now working through some of the structural and geotechnical issues that come with building in the mountains on very steep terrain.

    To give you all one example, we had initially contemplated large multi-storey retaining walls to hold back the earth and embed the house into the side of the mountain. But that is now being changed to a stepped foundation that minimizes the amount of excavation and reduces each retaining wall to no more than a single storey. This move will also result in more wood and less concrete. It has been a fun learning process.

    The creative retreat concept has also been evolving and we recently decided to make digital NFT art an integral part of the experience. We have a few collections that we have been stocking up on, but if any of you have any recommendations we are, of course, all ears.

    Once the floor plans have been finalized, they’ll be posted up on the Globizen Journal. So make sure to e-mail subscribe and follow along on Instagram at @parkviewhousepc.