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Similar to opinions on the value of Zillow advertising or ibuyer brokerage models, the market’s response to tiny homes depends on who you ask.
If you ask the developer team behind Park City, Utah’s Yotelpad, you’ll get a confident response asserting that buyers are ready for less square footage — and the company is staking seriously expensive acreage on it.
Yotelpad, largely made up of people who once worked with Intrawest Resorts, which was acquired by KSL Parners and Aspen Sking Co. in 2017, is a joint effort by Replay Destinations, a resort developer whose projects include the Village at Whistler Blackcomb, Park City’s Canyons Village, and Yotel, an urban-minded luxury hotel builder that focuses its efficient room designs on first-class airline cabins.
Instead of stand-alone tiny homes, developers are building a four-level condominium project that will offer 402-square-foot “Pad Plus” units among other options, the largest being a three-bedroom, 1,013-square-foot residence.
The development will nest in the shadow of residences that cost close to five times as much at Canyons Village, part of the nation’s largest ski destination, Park City Mountain Resort.
Yotelpad is targeting younger, recreation-driven homebuyers who don’t believe it’s the size of their second home that matters, but what its surroundings provide.
Prices will start at $275,000 for a fully-furnished unit — a paltry sum for a resort town like Park City, which was recently named no. 6 on Business Insider’s list of the 17 most expensive and exclusive power cities.
The median list price in the one-time rural mining town is $1.55 million, with a per-square-foot median of $656, according to Zillow.
“I think these are going to be a huge success,” said Tyler Richardson of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Park City. “For millennials who now make enough to buy something here, this property is perfect.”
Richardson and his business partner Peggy Marty are the listing agents for the posh Waldorf Astoria Park City, barely a minute’s walk from Yotelpad.
“They’re filling an open niche in our market that will go fast, and I’m excited to see it come together,” Richardson said.
Park City locals are also prime targets for Yotelpad.
The West’s mountain resort towns are operating in the midst of a housing crisis. Replay Destinations is aiming to disrupt the trend, and vice president of sales and marketing Todd Patrick said his company and Yotel have been looking for a reason to partner for years.
“It’s nice to be involved in something like this,” Patrick said. “It’s a new product to a new generation, and for people in locations like Park City and other places where prices have skyrocketed, we’ve made something affordable, innovative, and that has lots of social spaces.”
Reservations for Yotelpad units became available on February 26. According to Patrick, more than 50 were reserved within three days and numbers are trending toward 150 by the end of March, when the development will hold its unit selection event.
“There’s always fallout with a reservation systems, but I’m hopeful,” he said.
The modern, utilitarian layouts are ideally designed for the mountain town lifestyle. Owners will enjoy hosting apres ski gatherings and the walking distance to the resort’s mid-mountain cabriolet and its open-air Umbrella Bar, among many other entertainment options.
At the heart of Yotel’s architectural brand is the streamlined, multi-use approach to every feature in a room. In a Yotelpad condo, “SmartBunks” will transform into desks, coffee tables are also dining tables, and cozy sofabeds are the norm.
“In a way, these are better than standard condos,” Patrick said. “They’re planned down to every inch and hyper-organized.”
Approved plans call for a pool, a central “backyard” communal space, lounge, boutique grocery store and fireside lounge.
It’s very rare for ski town locals to have an opportunity to own a home within steps of their workplace.
Yotelpad breaks ground in July.
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