At the height of the building boom, the Jack Johnson Company employed 135 people in six offices across the country. Clients spanned the globe and the brand was recognized in development circles.
Another victim of the recession, it is now “winding down,” explained founder Jack Johnson on Monday.
When building stopped in 2009, the company fell out of favor with its bank. After intense negotiations, the people who held the purse strings eventually turned them down ending a 35-year run.
“We had some role in 75 percent of what you see in Park City,” he said.
When he started the community had two ski lifts, he said. There were no buildings north of where Deer Valley Drive meets S.R. 224.
“With the bank I was very disappointed with the results,” he said. “But the responsibility is mine. We increased in the last five years to quite a large company. I delegated responsibility to others, but it came back to me. I was running the company.”
Johnson began the company as an engineer. He helped developers design subdivisions and gradually added services including land planning, architecture, surveying, analysis and various forms of consulting. Eventually it became a full-service development firm specializing in resort communities surrounding ski, beach and golf destinations.
The Jack Johnson Company worked on nearly 70 ski resorts in North and South America, about two dozen golf communities and half a dozen beach resorts. It’s still consulting developers about a ski resort in Chile.
But in about 2005 Johnson made a decision that hindsight reveals to have been a mistake. He partnered with one of the largest landowners in the Phoenix, Ariz. area, Merrill Trust, who also was one of the state’s biggest developers. Johnson sold the majority interest in the company to him and made plans to expand in concert with his new partner’s endeavors.
The partnership was meant to guarantee work for the firm. It was a decision made to shield the company from downturns, Johnson said.
But as Phoenix proved to be one of the cities hardest hit by the recession, Johnson’s new boss downsized dramatically and is sitting on plans waiting for the economy to improve in another year.
Clients far and wide made the same decision.
“Last year they decided to take the year off,” Johnson explained.
When that impacted the company’s balance sheets, it fell out of compliance with its lenders, he said. If they’d been given more time, Johnson said he could have saved the company. But the reality is major changes are now underway.
There’s no more payroll and all of the offices outside of Park City have already closed or will be closed.
As the company dissolves, several of his managers have decided to begin a new entity to continue service to existing clients and finish on-going projects. The new entity will employ Johnson as a consultant and preserve his name in its new logo.
“My personal name has become a brand in the industry and it’s a personal legacy to continue the brand,”
Whereas the company had a staff of 35 before the bank troubles began, the new endeavor will just be a handful of people starting anew from the same space, with the same expertise and resources, he explained.
He said the entity is not ready to announce its new name or the principals, but plans to in the coming weeks.
The managers will begin leasing their space in the Jack Johnson Office Lodge. An additional 4,000 square feet on the first and second floors will also be leased out, he said.
The new company will still focus on resort development, but for the past year Johnson has already gotten more involved in the community and working with the city.
“I consider this just the next chapter in my business life. It’s a chance to get involved in the roots of my business and in the community. It’s an industry I know and I’ll definitely continue to be a part of it,” he said.
Much of his time had been spent running the large company; he now plans to work more closely with clients personally and return to the kind of work that made his business a success.
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