A Utah developer of this luxury community owes $100M in unpaid loans, its lenders say — and they’re taking over

From her expansive living room framed by floor-to-ceiling windows, Cynthia Dahl takes in a postcard view: the Wasatch Mountains just catching their first dusting of snow and the winding Jordanelle Reservoir stretching below.

Beneath that peaceful scene, there’s a steady buzz of daily activity — construction crews bustling around unfinished homes, cranes lifting materials skyward and trucks rumbling down the dusty roads weaving through the sprawling, planned 2,550-acre footprint of Benloch Ranch.

Sold as the “modern adventurer’s paradise,” the development has promoted plans for choices from archery and a skeet shooting range to a skating pond, “glamping” and yurt camping. Also featured in marketing: restaurants, shops, a clubhouse, a spa and a convention center.

Golf and hotel development was expected to begin in 2023 and be complete by this summer, according to a proposal from Benloch’s ultimately unsuccessful effort to be annexed into the Wasatch County town of Hideout. Stores were projected to start opening in 2024, with other amenities rolling out through 2026, it said.

None of that has been built. And this summer, two lending companies sued Benloch CPC, LLC, a Lehi company that owns the land in phases four through six of Benloch Ranch.

Benloch CPC of Lehi is unrelated to Benloch Ranch Land Co. — the company owned by Jamie Mackay, the Wyoming entrepreneur who created the adventurous vision for Benloch Ranch and is developing its first phase.

His company sold phases four through six to Benloch CPC of Lehi in 2021 and 2022, it said in a statement Sunday. The July lawsuit doesn’t name Mackay or any company owned by him.

Instead, Salt Lake City financial firms SDP REIT, LLC, and SDP Financial 2020 name only Benloch CPC, alleging the Lehi company owes them nearly $110 million in unpaid loans.

Construction on Benloch CPC’s properties is “currently behind schedule, is over-budget and is under-capitalized,” the firms allege.

Benloch CPC “has failed to properly manage construction of the project and has failed to bring in additional capital necessary to complete the project,” the firms claim in their lawsuit, adding that they would not provide any additional funding for phases four through six while it was in charge.

The lenders asked a judge to “promptly” appoint a receiver to “maximize construction activity” before winter sets in. Benloch CPC didn’t oppose that request, and since mid-July, receiver Ampleo Turnaround and Restructuring has been overseeing its property in the development.

The Salt Lake Tribune sought comment from Benloch CPC through Cache Private Capital Management, the Lehi investment firm that shares its address and manages it, and the attorney who represents it. In a statement provided by the attorney Monday, the company said it has been working with its lender since December.

Benloch CPC “is in regular contact working together with the lender and receiver to improve the project,” the statement said. “There is no mismanagement, rather my client’s efforts have added a tremendous amount of value to the community.”

Developments take longer than planned, the statement said. Benloch CPC “has stipulated to working with the lender and receiver to move the project forward in a positive, meaningful way, as well as recapitalize the debt for the long term benefit of the community.”

Building the first phase

Mackay’s company is overseeing development in the first phase of Benloch Ranch, formally known as 1A, it said in its Sunday statement. Mackay had initially replied to The Tribune’s request for an interview but later stopped responding until Sunday.

The alleged loan default by Benloch CPC “has no connection to Jamie Mackay’s development of Phase 1A, which remains financially sound and continues to progress,” the Benloch Ranch Land Company emphasized.

Phase 1A is not in financial default; Mackay has no involvement in or responsibility for Benloch CPC or its alleged default; and the construction in the first phase is not controlled by Benloch CPC, it pointed out.

And the construction delays in the first phase have been only temporary, the Benloch Ranch Land Company said.

Dahl said progress in the first phase has been slower than she and her husband, Scott Dahl, expected. They bought their lot five years ago, she said, with the expectation that their home would be completed that same year.

Today, they’re among the few people living in the first phase — because they chose not to wait on the developer, she said, and instead built a custom home with a private builder.

“Anybody that stayed with the developer does not have a finished house,” Dahl said, gesturing toward a neighboring home still under construction. “Their foundation was dug before ours, and we [soon] will have been in our house for a year.”

‘Live large’

Mackay has been the project’s public face, telling the magazine site dwell in 2021 that “the true mission of Benloch Ranch is to disrupt the building and architecture industry.”

Mackay described the prefabricated homes being offered to buyers in the development as perfect for millennials who “want to live large with less,” and affordability — at least compared to expansive resort homes — was part of how Benloch was being marketed.

The Benloch home options are larger versions of the small homes created by Mackay’s company Wheelhaus — a tiny home design-build company with a production facility in Salt Lake City, according to the website of his Wyoming company, Mackay Developments.

Wheelhaus grew out of his vision for his Fireside Resort in Jackson Hole — which offers guests private, sustainably built vacation cabins with modern design.

In June 2023, Mackay’s Benloch Ranch Land Co. sued the Cache Private Capital Diversified Fund — a fund of the investment company that manages Benloch CPC — alleging it had not met the terms of a deal to buy land within Benloch Ranch.

Mackay’s company dropped the case weeks later, but he confirmed Sunday that Benloch CPC purchased phases four, five and six from his company in 2021 and 2022.

There have been other lawsuits filed by and against Benloch Ranch Land Co. or Mackay related to the development of Benloch Ranch, from financial disputes with contractors or suppliers to property owners suing over delays in extending water to home sites. Some cases have been dropped, potentially settled out of court; others are still pending.

“While Benloch Ranch Land Company has faced legal proceedings — primarily concerning permitting issues with Wasatch County — it is true that the company prevailed in those cases, resulting only in temporary construction delays,“ it said in its Sunday statement. ”The company has since resolved all litigation and continues to move forward confidently."

Mackay‘s company said it “remains fully committed to the success of Phase 1A and to creating lasting value for its homeowners. We look forward to completing residential construction and ensuring every property owner enjoys the equity, stability, and opportunity Benloch Ranch represents.”

‘Patient with what’s going on’

Despite the delays, some residents remain hopeful that improvements will come.

Scott Anderson was searching for a quiet place to settle down after retiring from McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago. Though he initially considered Colorado, he said, discovering Benloch Ranch changed his plans.

He purchased a lot in 2023, and when he learned the developer’s timeline for building homes was delayed, he decided to build his own. His four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home was completed by the end of 2024, he said.

Now, Anderson splits his time between his condo in Chicago and his mountain home in Benloch Ranch.

“I think we have to be a little bit patient with what’s going on,” Anderson said. “As soon as more people move in, it’ll push that way.”

Online listings show homes priced between $1.5 and $2.8 million, and lots ranging from over 13,000 square feet to one acre, priced between $350,000 and $600,000.

Between 80 and 90 homes have been built in phase one, Mackay estimated in his March deposition in one of the lawsuits.

In early October, crews were hard at work throughout phase one of the development on homes in various stages of completion. Some buildings were just framed, with exposed wooden beams and scaffolding wrapped around them. Other houses had walls and windows but lacked finishing touches like paint or landscaping. A few homes were nearing completion, with freshly painted exteriors and driveways.

Dahl and her husband moved from the Washington D.C. suburbs, drawn to Utah by family connections and the outdoors. Unlike other homeowners who are using their properties as a second home or vacation getaway, the Dahls are among the few currently living there full time, she said.

“We love living up here,” she said, describing the sunsets that crest below the mountain ridge line each night. “Every night, my husband and I are like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so beautiful.’”

To enjoy the landscape, they built a platform about 80 steps up the slope behind their home, offering a panoramic view of the mountains and reservoir below.

“We are very fortunate,” Dahl said. “And when it snows, it’s particularly lovely.”

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