The city soon bought the Imperial for $875,000. When the Air Force issued a request for proposals and partners to build its hotel, Park City formally proposed to swap the Imperial for Red Maple.

"But they turned us down," Bakaly said.

Wynn Covieo, with Hill Air Force Base's plans and programs office, said the Imperial had problems with "size, age, parking. It just didn't meet the needs of what our requirements are." It no longer wanted a small operation like Hillhaus and envisioned something much larger.

"We'd like to provide our service members with a first-class hotel," Morris at Hill said. He adds he envisions a large resort hotel that will bring members of the military to Park City from around the world.

With that, Bakaly said Park City is now instead in the process of selling the Imperial to another developer for just over $3 million (making a nice profit over the $875,000 it spent initially — which may be used to sweeten some other trade for Red Maple).

Partner plan

The Air Force, meanwhile, selected instead as its partner for development a team led by Wadman Construction.

Salt Lake City-based Wadman has a broad portfolio of projects across the nation, including the Westgate at The Canyons. Park City developer Brent Ferrin is also partnering with Wadman on the Air Force project.

This particular development, according to the developers, is the first hotel of its kind to use a partnership between private developers and the military.

Together, they developed a conceptual plan that Covieo with the Air Force said originally envisioned about 155 condominiums at Red Maple, most with a "lock-out" design so that they could be divided and used at times as two separate units.

Ferrin said, however, that plans have grown to 300 to 600 units — a size he figures is needed for development partners to make a reasonable profit and provide discounts for the military.

The plan envisions selling condominiums to owners who would agree that when they are not using their units, they would be rented as hotel rooms. The development would carry the name of a national hotel brand, such as a Marriott, Sheraton, etc.

Members of the military would have the first opportunity to rent available hotel rooms at significantly reduced rates. But rooms not used by the military would be made available to the public — again, Ferrin said, to make discounts as big as possible for the military.

Currently, Park City hotels, ski resorts, restaurants and other businesses offer discounts to military personnel, often for 15 to 20 percent off normal prices.

Ferrin, however, said the hotel could blow those rates out of the water (and Coveio adds that many of the currently offered discounts are only for the off season).