Doppelmayr Opens New State-of-the-Art Headquarters and Manufacturing Facility in Salt Lake City

Doppelmayr Opens New State-of-the-Art Headquarters and Manufacturing Facility in Salt Lake City

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Double the Space for Utah Lift Manufacturing

Doppelmayr cut the ribbon on a brand-new 160,000-square-foot United States headquarters in Salt Lake City, nearly doubling the manufacturing footprint the company has maintained in the Beehive State since the early 2000s, KSL News reported. The facility, located at 3080 W. 500 South right next to the older site, houses approximately 120,000 square feet of indoor production and warehouse space alongside 40,000 square feet dedicated to offices and training. An additional 68,000 square feet of covered outdoor space rounds out the campus.

The expansion anchors Doppelmayr’s long-term operational base in Salt Lake County, where the Austrian-based parent company has operated in the US for over half a century. The investment forms part of a broader $150 million international capital push encompassing new facilities in Salt Lake City, St. Jerome in Quebec, and China.

Regional Ties Drive Decision to Keep Expansion Local

The path to the new campus stretches back through decades of Western ski industry development. Doppelmayr originally established a Colorado presence in Golden after securing a 1985 contract for four detachable quads on Vail Mountain. Following a merger with Garaventa, the company inherited a Utah office in 2002 and subsequently partnered with the Holding Family to overhaul Snowbasin’s lift fleet ahead of the Salt Lake Olympics.

Those deep regional supply chains and institutional ties prompted leadership to keep the expansion local. Keith Johns, president and CEO of Doppelmayr USA, told KSL News that staying in Salt Lake City was an easy choice.

“Our people are here, our supply chains are here. There’s great infrastructure. There’s support from the state … encouraging manufacturing and really trying to bring it here,” Johns said. “It just makes sense in a lot of ways … being so close to many of our customers and our bigger customers here in the West.”

State backing materialized in June 2024 when the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity approved a post-performance tax incentive for the project. Under that agreement, Doppelmayr projected adding 130 high-paying jobs over a 10-year span, generating an estimated $82.4 million in wages.

Doppelmayr Opens New State-of-the-Art Headquarters and Manufacturing Facility in Salt Lake City
Photo: liftblog.com

Salt Lake City Plant Manufactures Heavy Equipment Domestically

The expanded factory floor allows Doppelmayr to manufacture heavy equipment domestically that previously required trans-Atlantic shipping from European plants. The Salt Lake City headquarters has begun fabricating conical lift towers—the type used on marquee D-Line and Uni-G machines. The facility produced its very first domestic conical tower for the Yellowstone Club’s new Lodge lift scheduled for next summer; such components were previously manufactured in Wolfurt, Austria.

To accelerate production, the new machine shop integrates advanced robotics and precision tools. A newly installed welding robot produces cylindrical towers for projects like Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, cutting welding time by 40 to 60 percent while leaving specialized welds to human craftspeople. The machine shop also houses four CNC machines, three mills, and two lathes capable of holding tolerances down to a thousandth of an inch.

Non-Ski Transit Projects Comprise One-Third of Global Sales

While ski resort projects across North America drive much of the workflow—including five new chairlifts built for Deer Valley Resort, three of which debuted for the 2024–2025 winter season—non-ski transit projects now comprise one-third of the global group’s sales. Doppelmayr’s biggest current project worldwide is situated outside the ski sector at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Inside the Salt Lake City plant, an expanded operator house assembly line builds metal frames filled out with wood. The facility turns out roughly 35 operator houses in a typical year, with a record of 53, supplying finished cabins for installations ranging from Snowland’s new T-Bar to unannounced regional projects. With a dedicated laydown port and drive-through crane loading bays, finished components move directly onto transport trucks bound for mountain resorts.

Future Growth Toward the 2034 Winter Games

As operations transition to the new 160,000-square-foot campus, the company’s older facility will be leased out temporarily. Johns noted that leadership is maintaining a wait-and-see approach regarding future space requirements, keeping expansion options open as regional demand rises in anticipation of the 2034 Olympic Winter Games.

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