With its own private ‘gondola,’ this luxury home may set a Utah price record

Listing agent Paul Benson believes builder Doug Bergeron had a certain type of buyer in mind over the six years he spent crafting a seven-bedroom, 16-bathroom home near Deer Valley Resort. The person would be discerning, active, well-connected and wealthy — very wealthy.

“He felt it would be the home for, as he put it, a titan,” said Benson, the CEO and cofounder of Engel & Völkers Gestalt Group. “Somebody out there that’s conquering the world and wants the best of the best.”

Fittingly, then, the house comes at a titanic price tag.

If sold at list, the 21,000-square-foot home with views of the Jordanelle Reservoir, its own ski “gondola” and an NBA-size basketball court would fetch a Utah-record $65 million. The current record for a single-family home, Benson said, was set when $41.7M was paid for a furnished home in The Colony at Park City Mountain in 2022.

This house at 3566 W. Crestwood Court sits on 2.6 acres in the posh and gated Deer Crest neighborhood, on the northeast side of Deer Valley in Wasatch County. Below it meanders a section of the new Deer Valley East terrain — the expansion project the ski area will begin opening this season that almost triples the resort’s acreage.

Being in such proximity to a ski area means planning for snow, so Benson said the house was designed so that no one would need to leave in the middle of a blizzard.

To that effect, it has a theater, a two-lane bowling alley next to its own pub, a heated infinity pool, a game room, a golf simulator, an indoor pickleball court and its own climbing wall.

A video in the great room can be programmed to welcome guests, project a soothing forest scene or play ski flicks.

The real star, though, is the “gondola,” which, though it doesn’t strictly fit the definition because it’s mounted on rails, gives new meaning to ski-in, ski-out lodgings.

Passengers can access the single, smoky-glass enclosed cab from a motion-activated door that opens from the house’s ski room. Built by Skytrac, the cab can seat up to four adults and two children.

Benson said with a touch of a button, it will whisk riders from the home along rails to Deer Valley ski runs at the top of Bald Eagle Mountain. At the end of the day, Bensons said, guests can either ski back to the home or return via the gondola.

“A lot of people that avoid ski-in and ski-out homes avoid them because you constantly have people skiing by, looking in your windows, or chair lift noise going by your windows,” Benson said.

“So it’s kind of the best of both worlds. You get to walk out your door and not get in the car and ski, but you have complete privacy.”

The lift access to the resort, Benson said, was negotiated as part of Deer Crest’s master plan before Bergeron purchased the property in 2016. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bergeron — the billionaire former CEO of payment company Veriphone Systems — paid about $3M for the lot. Benson said Wasatch County and Deer Crest had to approve the electric lift’s construction.

The gondola is one of “a handful” of private lifts that provide access to Deer Valley, resort spokesperson Emily Summers said in an email to The Salt Lake Tribune. Summers said none of the infrastructure is located on resort land and that Deer Valley, which is owned by Alterra Mountain Resorts, has no involvement with the private lifts.

She added that those who reach Deer Valley via the private lifts still must purchase day or season passes to access its other lifts.

Deer Valley’s expansion makes this an ideal time for Bergeron to sell the property, which he built to spec. Nearby, a planned luxury community called Marcella being developed at the base of the ski area’s new East Village entrance has sold all of its 151 single-home lots. Benson said he expects some homes in that area to soon touch the $100M sales price.

For now, though, property in the Park City area can be considered a bargain compared to real estate in places like Sun Valley, Idaho; Aspen, Colo., and Napa, Calif., Benson said. But investors are starting to catch on.

“The ultra wealthy look at how responsible and well-run and what are the taxes of the state,” Benson said. “And we rank pretty strong.”

A 20% down payment on the house would be $13M. With a mortgage rate of 6% on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, monthly payments including taxes and fees would be $398,432.

The MLS listing for the house went live Friday. Thanks to word of mouth and curious neighbors, however, Benson said Thursday that he already has showings arranged with two potential buyers.