Prospector Park City and Bonanza Park: three names, three products

Updated September 6, 2026. The 5-Acre Site is in Planning Commission review — dates move. Re-check the city page before you treat a hearing as final action.

The Prospector Park City Bonanza Park neighborhood is three maps, not one listing label. Prospector is a neighborhood. Prospector Square is a 23-acre association. Bonanza Park is the district next door where the city is trying to redevelop five acres. If your listing says “Prospector,” ask which map they mean: the Square, a condo stack, a house east of the Rail Trail, or Bonanza Park next door.

Do not conflate a Prospector Avenue condo with a single-family house east of the trail.

Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park, Summit County, June 21, 2009. This frame is along the state-park corridor — not proven as the paved Bonanza Drive block. Photo: GreenGlass1972, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Three names in the Prospector Park City Bonanza Park neighborhood

The Park Record (June 4, 2022) put the geography in one sentence: “The term Prospector can be used broadly… the neighborhood stretching between S.R. 248 and the Rail Trail as well as the businesses that generally move inward from Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard.”

That neighborhood sits east of Old Town / Historic Main Street. Bonanza Drive is the hinge.

Prospector Square is a 23-acre master-planned mixed-use (planned/constructed 1974): condos, hotel/lodge, office, restaurants, health care. It is managed by the Prospector Square Property Owners Association (PSPOA). Public right-of-way streets are maintained by Park City Public Works; 11 parking lots sit under PSPOA rules. Inside that plat you may also have a residential condo association on top of PSPOA common-area rules.

Bonanza Park is the adjacent district west/north of Prospector, centered on Kearns and Park Avenue / Bonanza. The city’s 2014 General Plan treated it as a ~200-acre study area. It is home of the city-owned 5-Acre Site at the southwest corner of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard. City Council adopted the Bonanza Park Small Area Plan on July 11, 2024.

Iron Horse is the commercial/industrial-to-mixed-use corridor (Iron Horse Drive) often grouped with Prospector/Bonanza in local writing. Same in-town fabric. Different plats.

Housing in the broader neighborhood: 1970s-era condos (Prospector Square and nearby Iron Horse stacks) that function as lock-and-leave; townhomes and newer infill; single-family on the residential side; and lodging/condo-hotel inside the Square. Rental rules are not uniform. Pull the city nightly-rental map and that subdivision’s CC&Rs. I am not publishing a neighborhood-wide nightly-rental map — third-party ordinance summaries exist, and they are not a substitute for the city GIS.

This is not ski-in/ski-out. Do not sell it as such.

What you actually get from the address

The Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park runs 28 miles, Park City to Echo Reservoir, non-motorized. Southern end: Poison Creek Trail at Bonanza Drive. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (May 2025): the first ~3 miles in Park City are paved and managed with the city and Mountain Trails Foundation. White Pine Touring at 1790 Bonanza Drive is a documented trail-parking / access point. Walk the trail from the actual building to Main Street before you believe a listing’s “in-town” line.

A city plat at 1775 Prospector Avenue includes a public pedestrian/bicycle easement from Prospector Avenue to the Rail Trail (GC zoning). That is how close some of these addresses sit to off-street trail.

Free city transit to resorts and Main Street is part of the PSPOA pitch and is true of Park City Transit citywide. Check current routes.

Prospector Square commercial — restaurants, services, office — is a second downtown that is not Main Street. You live next to it, or in it, depending on the plat.

Historic Main Street — Prospector sits east of this core; you reach it by trail, bus, or a short drive, not by living on it. Photo: Ken Lund, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

If the address is inside the Square, read PSPOA first

PSPOA exists. Office: 1670 Bonanza, Suite 205. The 2026 annual meeting was July 15 at the Sheraton.

Parking: license-plate-reader overnight registration (effective Oct. 1, 2024) in 11 lots, 11 p.m.–6 a.m. Short-term rental vehicles have a separate registration path. Fines described up to $250 for parking; illegal-dumping fines $500 first offense (board, June 2023).

Master-plan infrastructure: Phases 1–4. Phase 4 completed in 2026 (Lot I sewer + paving). PSPOA’s public site: “all old sewer lines have now been replaced.” Membership approved a Phase 3 assessment April 27, 2023 ($1.6 million, 75% yes). That is a PSPOA fact, not a neighborhood-wide tax. I am not inventing condo-level dues or future assessments.

The 5-Acre Site next door is a land-use adjacency, not an amenity

The city has owned the ~5 acres at Bonanza and Kearns since 2017 (purchase $19.5 million). Partner: Brinshore Development. Council authorized land-use applications March 19, 2026 (Second Amended ENA the same date: 50/50 third-party predevelopment costs up to $1 million; anticipated city contribution up to $40 million or as negotiated; ground lease $1/year for 60–99 years; ENA term end Dec. 31, 2026).

Current 2026 concept on the city page: seven buildings (one 1-story, five 3-story, one 4-story), 106 housing units, locally serving retail/restaurant, arts/culture, 280 underground parking spaces, 50-foot Kearns setback, about 2 acres of publicly accessible gathering space. News reporting: 88 income-restricted rentals + 18 unrestricted; more than 30,000 square feet commercial; childcare.

It is in Planning Commission review, not built. TownLift, August 2026: public hearing Aug. 26 (no final action); work session September 9, 2026; public hearing October 14, 2026 for possible final action. Dates move. Re-check.

Park Record, June 30, 2026 timeline, approval-dependent: November 2026 predevelopment agreement / construction docs; December 2026 building permit + financing; construction start December 2027; grand opening winter 2029.

If you buy in Prospector this fall, the view from Bonanza/Kearns may look like a vacant city site for a while, and like a construction site later. Underwrite construction, traffic, and new retail as adjacency — not as a closed amenity.

Already built next door, not the Prospector housing story: EngineHouse, 1875 Homestake Road, just off Kearns in the Bonanza Park / Homestake area. 123 rental apartments (99 income-restricted, 24 market-rate). Park Record, March 30, 2026: opened late 2025; 67 of 99 income-restricted units leased as of that date. City owns the land (~2 acres) on a $1/year 99-year ground lease. Remaining vacancies as of September 2026 were not re-verified. Do not update the March 30 count without a new source.

Town Lift on the Old Town side of town — useful contrast: Prospector is in-town and transit-connected, not lift-base. Photo: Richardmouser, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

How to shop it

Buyers in this fabric are typically shopping in-town lock-and-leave condos at a different entry than Old Town or Deer Valley; second-home users who will bus or trail-walk to Main Street; some primary residents in the single-family pockets. Sellers are often condo owners in 1970s stock, commercial condo/office owners inside the Square, or single-family owners on the residential edge.

Walk the Rail Trail to Main Street from the actual building. Read PSPOA parking rules if the address is inside the Square. Pull the city nightly-rental status for that subdivision. Pull the Planning Commission calendar for the 5-Acre Site if you will live against Bonanza and Kearns.

I can run a specific Prospector or Bonanza address through plat, association, trail access, and the current 5-Acre hearing status.

Esteban J. Nunez, Park City Realtor.