Expanding Businesses
Photography: Don Weller
Real estate sales top the $2 billion mark. Kimball Junction traffic jams rival rush hour on Southern California’s 405 freeway.
Well, not quite. But it doesn’t take sitting through three traffic-light cycles to know that the Park City area is hopping. Park City, once home to cattle grazing in pastures, is now home to new neighborhoods sprouting up in those same pastures. And while open space may be shrinking, business is booming.
Several area businesses that didn’t exist here a decade ago are blowing out walls and signing new leases as they expand to keep pace with demand. The owners, nearly all transplants, see unprecedented opportunity here.
Lori Harris opened the women’s shoe store, Mary Jane’s, on Main Street in 2004. It wasn’t long before men began asking for similar foot treatment. In October 2005, Harris and her partner opened Chester’s Blacksmith Shop for men.
“The changing Park City market helped,” Harris says. “We’re going gangbusters.”
Harris isn’t alone. Just up the street is women’s clothier Chloe Lane. In business since October 2002, the store has known nothing but success. Who says mountain women don’t want to dress upscale? At Chloe Lane they can—and do. The store burst at the seams with women’s collections, necessitating its first expansion into a men’s line in September 2004. And now at 556 Main there’s a further incarnation of the store, for those who prefer denim—period.
With denim practically the ‘uniform’ for a relaxed Park City lifestyle, “The market was here, but never adequately serviced,” surmises Chloe Lane owner Michael Gribetz. “We had a great response when we opened. Park City expanded, and we expanded.”
Regulars at Chloe Lane include customers who fly in from California and Nevada. “The surprising part is that there’s such great shopping in Las Vegas and California,” Gribetz says. “We just happen to have a greater concentration of the lines and styles they like. So instead of going to three or four different stores, they can do the same shopping in one.”
Business growth extends beyond apparel. The hot business climate has come to interiors. Design stores specializing in home accessories and furnishings can’t keep the showroom floor, well, furnished. Second homeowners seeking to immediately appoint new digs are driving the design business here—yet locals are in the checkout line, too.
Interiors with Ooh’s & Aah’s Manager Mario Ferreira says store owners Suzanne Geibel and Paul Hower are looking to expand into larger quarters, and haven’t ruled out the purchase of a building. “We’ve outgrown this space,” Ferreira laments of the Kearns Boulevard store. “It can get quite congested at times.”
San Francisco Design owner Kelly Wallman finds herself in the same situation. By Park City business standards, San Fran Design qualifies as an antique. The mountain home furnishings store may have opened in its Bonanza Drive location in 1990, but it just celebrated its 25th anniversary in Park City. It’s presently undergoing a fourth remodel/expansion, this time into adjacent space. “Park City is definitely booming,” Wallman says. The latest expansion frees up space for carpeting, hardwood floor and tile displays. “We’re not just a one-trick pony.”
Casa Bella Furniture and Design, a high-end shop catering to the interior design needs of second and third homeowners, opened its doors at Redstone Center in October 2004. Just a year later, the store doubled its showroom size to 13,500 square feet. “At this point we’re pretty comfortable with the size,” says Michelle King, Casa Bella president and an owner. “We grossly underestimated the need for space initially.” The expansion allowed room to hang fabric selections and to display a full line of tile, several carpet lines, and hardwood flooring and cabinetry displays.
King attributes Casa Bella’s growth and good fortune to a triumvirate of reasons, not the least of which is the ample parking available at Redstone Center. But Park City’s phenomenal growth also figures into the picture. Casa Bella meets the demands of second homeowners looking for quality, upscale design and furnishings they don’t have to import from other states.
The booming Park City economy is, without a doubt, a player in Casa Bella’s prosperity. “All indicators are that for the next five years there’s going to be strong growth here. Ninety percent of our clientele is out-of-state people building second and third homes,” King says. “We currently employ nine full-time licensed designers, and in the next five years we’re prepared to double the size of our design staff.”
Park City is home to garages packed to the rafters with snow toys. But when it comes to children’s toys, no playroom has filled up like that of Jon and Jackie Allen, who opened JW Allen Toys at Redstone only a few years ago. Jackie Allen says they jumped at the opportunity to expand into space next door.
The Allens, like most of the other booming business owners interviewed, came to Park City to ski, ride, and get away. On the way downhill, they fell in love with the town and its lifestyle, and on the next chairlift ride, decided to call it home.
“Park City has a lot to offer,” Ferreira says. “There’s a major city 30 minutes away; a major airport 40 minutes away. It has the best skiing, great schools. I love the fact that it’s a safe and fun town. It has horseback riding, trails—you name it, we have it. How can it not be booming?”
Ann Johnson has witnessed the explosion of businesses here in the short 11 years she’s called Park City home. Ann has written for numerous national publications and is the producer of “Park City Marketplace,” a daily business segment aired on KPCW.
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