Industry News
Matthew Prince, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and CEO of Cloudflare, has purchased the Town Lift Plaza at the base of Park City Mountain in Utah and claims he has even discussed purchasing Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) from Vail Resorts, according to KPCW.
The deal, finalized May 16, transfers ownership of the prominent Main Street property from the Sweeney family, who developed the plaza in the 1990s and have been central figures in Park City’s growth for decades. The transaction includes retail spaces, the Park City Mountain ticket plaza, popular restaurants such as The Bridge Cafe and Flying Sumo, the Town Lift Plaza deck, and a majority of the garage parking beneath the building. While the property was listed for $27 million last November, the final sale price remains undisclosed.
Prince, a Park City resident with an estimated net worth of $5 billion, said he does not plan immediate changes to the property. “I just want to serve this community,” he told KPCW, emphasizing a commitment to local ownership and Main Street revitalization. “We want Main Street to be the center of Park City.”
Prince has voiced his dissatisfaction with the management of PCMR by Vail Resorts, which led him to approach the ski company with an offer to purchase. As a former ski instructor at PCMR, he believes Vail Resorts has neglected the mountain, as most recently evidenced by the approximately 200 ski patrollers’ 13-day strike that began on December 27, 2024, during the peak holiday season.
He confirmed he has approached Vail Resorts with an offer to buy Park City Mountain, though the company declined. “That offer still stands,” Prince told KPCW. “It would not be hard. This feels like it is one of these things that has to be inevitable. So I think it’s very unlikely that I own Park City [Mountain] in the next five years, but the next 50? I think having local owners really matters.”
Prince envisions significant upgrades to the Town Lift, including the possibility of replacing the current chairlift with a gondola that could eventually connect Main Street to Solitude and Alta, echoing European ski infrastructure. “Why stop at Park City? You can, with a fairly clear right-of-way, go straight from Main Street Park City all the way to Alta, with a stop at Solitude along the way. How amazing would that be? Could we make this like Europe?” he told KPCW.
The acquisition comes as Park City officials consider improvements to public spaces in the Main Street core, aiming to boost the area’s competitiveness against outlying commercial districts. Prince has voiced strong support for these efforts and has become a prominent figure in local development discussions.
Prince’s purchase of Town Lift Plaza follows his acquisition of The Park Record newspaper in 2023 and ongoing legal disputes with Park City Municipal over his plans to build a home on Treasure Hill. The Sweeney family, who supported Prince’s proposal for Treasure Hill, described him as a steward of Park City’s future.
View this post on Instagram
