Brandon Sanderson is buying the land under the shuttered Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and he is not interested in reviving it as a fantasy theme park. The bestselling author says his architects determined the existing Evermore structures have degraded too far to be reused, so his company Dragonsteel will acquire the land itself while leaving the old buildings behind.
Sanderson announced the purchase in a report from KUTV. According to that report, Dragonsteel partnered with the Will Group, a Utah County real estate company, to purchase the plot next door to land the author's team had already bought in Pleasant Grove. Sanderson, known for Mistborn: The Final Empire and The Way of Kings, had reportedly considered buying the Evermore land before, but it had been out of Dragonsteel's price range.
The purchase ends years of limbo for the 12-acre property. Evermore Park opened in 2018, created by DigiCert founder Ken Bretschneider as an immersive theatrical fantasy village where visitors interacted with costumed actors rather than riding amusement rides, according to background reported by the Daily Herald. The park closed in 2024 after financial complications worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, per the same KUTV report.
A Property Tangled in Lawsuits and a Taylor Swift Feud
Before Sanderson's team stepped in, Evermore's path to a new owner was anything but smooth. Owner Brandon Fugal had agreed to sell the site for nearly $15 million in 2024, but that deal collapsed into mutual lawsuits in January 2025 over missed payments and property decay, with prospective buyers reportedly seeking a price reduction to cover repair costs, as the Daily Herald reported.
The park also carried a stranger chapter of notoriety. In 2021, Evermore Park sued Taylor Swift over her album Evermore, and Swift's team countersued. Both lawsuits were later dropped. The legal fight drew coverage from Forbes.
Building On an Existing Pleasant Grove Footprint
This is not Dragonsteel's first foothold in Pleasant Grove. Sanderson's team had already bought land next to the Evermore site, and the Evermore purchase expands that existing footprint rather than bringing the company to the city for the first time.
The project's earlier name was Dragonsteel Village; it is now called Dragonsteel Plaza. Dragonsteel's plans call for the combined site to become a permanent home for company headquarters, complete with a warehouse, bookstore, and event space, and the company says it plans to share more details about Dragonsteel Plaza as development continues.
Why a Dedicated Venue Matters Now
The timing lines up with a looming gap in Sanderson's home-state event calendar. Dragonsteel Nexus, the author's annual fan convention, announced in June that it will temporarily relocate to Denver from 2027 through 2030 while Salt Lake City's Salt Palace Convention Center undergoes a major renovation, according to posts tracked on the Dragonsteel Nexus community on Reddit. That four-year absence from Utah raises the stakes for building a venue Dragonsteel actually owns.
Demand for Sanderson's events has made that capacity crunch obvious before. All 7,500 tickets to the 2024 Dragonsteel Nexus convention at the Salt Palace sold out in one hour, according to KSL.com, leaving thousands of fans disappointed after the Salt Palace declined to accommodate more people.
A Growing Footprint Beyond Pleasant Grove
Dragonsteel has built up local charitable ties, having partnered in December 2025 with Zachary Levi's mental health initiative Nerd HQ to sell a commemorative Next Step Coin, with all proceeds funding virtual therapy sessions through TimelyCare — a project Hoodline covered alongside a related benefit concert in Salt Lake City.
For now, Dragonsteel's plans exclude any of Evermore's existing structures, and Sanderson has said his team will buy the land, not the park itself. What rises next on the site remains to be detailed, but the author has said more information about Dragonsteel Plaza is coming.
