The City Hall panel that awards the popular Old Town grants rejected a funding request from High West Distillery on Wednesday, declining to provide money to the whiskey maker in what was one of the most closely watched grant decisions ever made by the Historic Preservation Board.
The Historic Preservation Board, in a split vote that highlighted the difficulty members had in deciding whether to provide funding, concluded that High West should not receive assistance through the grants program. The vote was 3-2 against High West. Puggy Holmgren, Roger Durst and Sara Werbelow were in the majority. Gary Kimball and Ken Martz cast the dissenting votes.
Kayla Sintz, the City Hall architect who handled the grant application, had recommended the Historic Preservation Board consider providing an $11,000 grant. High West would have been required to match the assistance provided by City Hall. The $11,000 recommendation was equal to the amount High West received in an earlier City Hall grant meant to assist with moving distilling equipment from Salt Lake City to the Old Town site.
Holmgren had been especially critical of the High West request for funding. Most people who seek a grant do so before starting work on their historic properties, but High West submitted its application for a grant more than a year after the first building permit was issued and as the project is nearing completion.
Holmgren was displeased with the schedule High West followed in seeking the grant, saying on Wednesday she would have difficulty explaining why the whiskey maker was not held to the typical timeline. There have been two or three instances in which grants were provided after a project was started, the panel was told.
Martz, meanwhile, supported the recommendation for $11,000 in assistance, saying that it would mean “at least we’re offering something to preservation.”
There were tense moments on Wednesday as David Perkins, the owner of the distillery, and the project’s architect lobbied for a grant. Perkins responded to Holmgren’s statements with a claim that the grant-seeking process is unclear. There was also a brief comment from the architect before the decision. Wally Cooper said High West desired a “significantly larger” grant than the $11,000 that had been recommended.
The High West side argued that the work on the buildings on what is widely known as the Watts property, situated at 703 Park Ave., represents one of the most significant historic restorations ever undertaken in Park City, on the level of the renovation of Miners Hospital in the 1980s.
High West also described its wish that the buildings — a historic house and the landmark garage — remain on the National Register of Historic Places, a coveted honor in preservation work. Perkins told the Historic Preservation Board High West had done a “darn good job” restoring the buildings. The whiskey maker has said construction costs have risen to $4.3 million from the forecasted $3.3 million.
High West had outlined $712,699 in work at the site that it contended was eligible for grant money, but Perkins had said he realized that the sum was much more than could be awarded. The largest grant that has ever been provided is $50,000.
Recent grants requests have generally asked for between $10,000 and $20,000. The grants over the years have helped Old Town homeowners with numerous upgrades, with painting and foundation work being among them.
Two people testified during a hearing on Wednesday before the vote, with each of them mentioning the restoration work at the property has been done well. One of the speakers, Ruth Meintsma, said $11,000 would be “almost a symbolic gesture,” but the funding could prove more important to someone else who is renovating a historic property. Mary Ann Cirino, the other speaker, challenged the timeline High West chose in seeking the grant, saying it could set a precedent. Providing the grant would be “going down a slippery slope,” Cirino said.
The grant program has been popular with people who own historic homes and buildings, and it has provided more than $2 million in assistance since the mid-1980s, when City Hall began providing the grants as an incentive for people to fix up their historic properties.
The distillery is scheduled to open in September, and Perkins envisions it becoming an attraction for people while they are off the slopes in addition to being a whiskey producer.
“The board’s got to do what the board’s got to do. Obviously, I’m disappointed,” Perkins said after the decision.