Luxury resort brings jobs in tough economic times

PARK CITY — Piper Mathews considers herself among the fortunate people in Utah to have found a new job in a tough economy — in a career she enjoys, while working for a respected company. She is one of the approximately 300 people hired to work at the soon-to-be-opened St. Regis Deer Crest Resort located at Deer Valley.

When completed, the 12-acre luxury property will be one of just two five-star-rated resorts in Utah, along with the Stein Eriksen Lodge also located at Deer Valley.

"When I saw an opportunity to work for St. Regis, I quickly applied and took advantage of that," Mathews, housekeeping supervisor, told the Deseret News. "The fact that is it a prestigious, well-known brand and that it is a luxury hotel (was) something that I always wanted to work for. And it was conveniently (located) here in Park City."

Besides the 300 resort staff, the project, set to open in November, also employed about 400 construction workers since it broke ground in spring 2006.

The development's price tag is about $320 million and is expected to come in slightly under budget, a release said. The resort will include 181 guest rooms and suites, 67 condominiums and 26 upper-level private residences.

The cost of ownership ranges from $1.5 million for condos and suites to more than $10 million for upper-floor residences, spokesman Mark Fischer told the Deseret News. He said two-thirds of the property's units have already been sold, including all of the upper-floor residences.

The new property follows in the long tradition of the St. Regis mantra, "the finest addresses in the finest locations," Fischer said.

Founded by millionaire New York businessman John Jacob Astor IV, the first St. Regis hotel opened in New York City more than 100 years ago. Today, the St. Regis brand has luxury properties worldwide and is a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels and Resort Worldwide Inc., based in White Plains, N.Y., which owns 968 properties globally.

Stan Castleton, founder and chief executive officer of Park City-based development firm DDRM, told the Deseret News that having a highly respected partner such as St. Regis helped "seal the deal" with investors and lenders — along with infusing the project with more than 33 percent in equity up front to help the project to weather the recent economic storm.

"We have a very high percentage of equity … maybe we don't make as much money or any money," he said. "But the project gets built and … everybody's happy."