Doppelmayr USA has opened its new headquarters and ski lift manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, expanding the American operation behind chairlifts and gondolas across North America. The company celebrated the grand opening Oct. 19 with customers, community leaders and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
Doppelmayr’s original expansion plan called for approximately 120,000 square feet of indoor production and warehouse space, plus 40,000 square feet for offices and training. That adds up to 160,000 square feet indoors, with another 68,000 square feet of covered outdoor space.
More Ski Lift Components Built in the U.S.
The company plans to manufacture more major components, particularly lift towers, in Utah rather than importing them from Austria. The expansion by no way means every component of a Doppelmayr lift will now be American-made. The company will continue importing other equipment, including gondola cabins from Switzerland, even as it increased production in Utah.
A Utah Operation That Needed More Room
Plans for the Salt Lake City headquarters expansion became public in 2024, when Doppelmayr said demand for new lift infrastructure required more manufacturing space and a larger workforce. The company had already been designing and building lift systems in Utah for more than two decades.
“The current facility has served us well for over 20 years, but we are bursting at the seams,” Katharina Schmitz, then president of Doppelmayr USA, said in the company’s 2024 announcement. The project was intended to accommodate that growth while expanding production, storage and training facilities.
Utah economic development officials announced a projection of 130 new jobs over 10 years when the state approved a performance-based tax incentive for the expansion in June 2024. That was a long-term hiring projection associated with the project, not an opening-day employment total.
Major Resort Projects Are Driving Demand
The opening comes as Doppelmayr continues to supply some of North America’s most ambitious lift projects. Its recent work includes major gondola installations at Big Sky and Deer Valley, both highlighted in the company’s latest annual results.
Doppelmayr’s 2025-26 financial results showed revenue growth of 9.1%, with its global workforce increasing to 3,987 full-time-equivalent positions. The company said demand remained high across winter sports, year-round tourism and urban transportation, giving its expanded American manufacturing operation a market that extends well beyond the ski slopes.
