KAYSVILLE — An Air Force/military hotel-recreation facility is still years away, but it appears to be getting closer.
A project area of about 40 acres approved recently by the Military Infrastructure Defense Authority (MIDA) based in Kaysville, paves the way for construction of a private, non-military-oriented hotel.
It will be built on land overlooking U.S. Highway 40 near Jordanelle Reservoir in Wasatch County.
Tax increment funding available to MIDA from that private venture can then go towards construction of the military hotel, said Rick Mayfield, MIDA executive director.
“This is just the first step of our process,” he said. “We (MIDA) create the project area and then become the land use authority, so we decide what design as far as limitations, just like a city would with (land) ordinances,” the one-time Davis County planning director said.
MIDA became involved at the invitation of Wasatch County, which asked for the nonprofit entity’s involvement in February of last year.
“This is a different kind of a situation, unlike Falcon Hill, which is on federal land,” he said.
No tax dollars will be used to fund the project, Mayfield emphasized.
MIDA has been very involved in development of Falcon Hill, the public-private partnership with Hill AFB.
There, the plan is for about 500 acres of federal land west of the base is to be developed by private aerospace and other defense-related contractors, who will lease the land from the base.
MIDA is also involved with the billion-dollar plus National Defense Agency intelligence installation being built near Fort Williams on the border of Salt Lake and Utah Counties.
“They’re planning on bringing in another ski lift from Deer Valley which will help the overall area and help facilitate the military hotel,” said Stuart Adams, MIDA chair and a state senator from Layton.
“Hopefully this will make the military hotel more feasible,” he said. Stan Castleton, who built the high-end St. Regis Hotel in Deer Valley, is behind the military hotel project.
“That additional (non-military) hotel should improve this area, increase the desirability and functionality of the military hotel,” Adams said.
But the private hotel planned for what Mayfield said is the first project area on that 40 acres must be built first. Van Heymyer is putting that project together. Mayfield said it is in the planning and design phase now, which he anticipates will take about a year.
The Air Force originally wanted to build a hotel in Park City on the Red Maple site. That property is being traded, with resulting proceeds to go toward the new Air Force hotel in Wasatch County.
The exact site for the new military hotel has yet to be selected, Mayfield said.
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