Big-D Construction, one of the Alliance Corporate sponsors, has been awarded a $30 million contract to build a health sciences education building at Utah Valley University in Orem. The 160,000 square ft building will feature 27 labs, 12 classrooms and a 400-seat auditorium. It is scheduled to be completed in spring 2012.
Congratulations to Big-D.
source: SL Tribune 7/26/2010, photo courtesy of UVU
Tammie Lucero is our Economic Development professional at the Uintah County Economic Development Office. Tammie is a newcomer to Economic Development with only one year under her belt. We’re sure that if she hangs around for another couple of months, she will be hooked for life.
Tammie was born in Price, Utah and has lived in Utah pretty much her entire life. She was recruited to her current position by one of the Uintah County Commissioners. So far, her favorite ED project has been the CNG Filling Station. Before joining the ED ranks, Tammie had long-term careers with Mountain America Credit Union and Utah Power prior to that.
The last book that Tammie read was Shackleton’s Story about Antartica. Her favorite movie is “Top Gun” because she loves the military and she loves planes, which leads us to a little known fact about Tammie. She flew a WWII plane in a dog fight over San Diego, California. Wow! Now that’s a story worth hearing at the next Alliance meeting.
Tammie is married with 3 children and 5 grandchildren. She loves to travel and clean (now really) in her spare time.
Let’s welcome Tammie in the Economic Development fold!
Pretty much everyone in the state is touched by this Corporate Sponsor: Rocky Mountain Power. Rocky Mountain Power is our major electric utility company providing service to over 758,000 customers in Utah. The company has been in Utah for over 100 years.
Rocky Mountain Power has a keen interest in participating in Utah’s growth. As the state continues to grow, Rocky Mountain Power is continually investing and expanding the electric system to meet the growing needs of our customers. The investment for the past few years has exceeded $2 billion.
In 2009 alone, Rocky Mountain Power invested $1.5 billion to serve the growing needs of Utah. They support economic growth by ensuring access to safe, reliable and inexpensive electricity – which provides businesses with a competitive advantage and assists in attracting new commerce and industry to the state. The company’s investments in Utah are creating the energy infrastructure that businesses and communities will need in the future while providing substantial employment opportunities for Utah today.
How they can help economic developers to do a better job is by helping us identify sites with existing infrastructure that will help a new or expanding company keep their upfront costs down and deliver electricity in a timely manner.
How can we, as economic developers, help Rocky Mountain power do their jobs more effectively? Two ways: By getting Rocky Mountain Power in the loop early on, and by identifying and planning for businesses that might be a good fit for your community. The trend is for site selectors and businesses to look for developments that already have infrastructure or are able to get infrastructure easily. By understanding the strengths of a community, they can target industries and prepare for them.
Rocky Mountain Power has been a great supporter of Utah’s economic development efforts. We appreciate all their support as we all try to work together to make Utah a better place to work and live.
Russ has been in the economic development business for 15 years and currently works at EDCUtah as their Utah County rep. Russ was born in the heart of Utah, Fillmore and has lived in the state off and on – most recently for 10 years.
Russ got into economic development while living in California. He connected with the State of Utah, Department of Community and Economic Development back then, and contracted with them to be their representative in Southern California. During that time, he followed up on leads produced by the state’s advertising, attended tradeshows in the state’s targeted areas, and made cold calls on companies who were interested in moving out of California. He also set up appointments for state officials to meet with California companies and scheduled site visits.
Besides his economic development experience, Russ worked in the real estate business both here in Utah and in Southern California. He worked on shopping center development and at one time leased space at the Layton Hills Mall.
The last book that Russ read is “The 7 Miracles that Saved America” and his favorite movie of all times: “Hoosiers” (basketball, duh!) Russ and his wife have 6 children and 23 grandchildren. He loves to produce flowers and vegetables in his garden, when he’s not producing jobs for Utah county.
According to Russ, he is the “ultimate optimist.” According to everyone else, he is a hard worker and a lot a fun to be around.
At yesterday's meeting, the Utah Alliance Board approved a new program to recognize members and their successful programs. Nominated and approved for this first round of awards were:
A Main Street Revitalization Program in Plesant Grove City
A Revolving Loan Fund in Davis County
The Academy Square Project in Brigham City
A new Economic Development Organization in Davis County
The Taylorsville Economic Development Forum
To read more about these projects, head over to our membership section.
Two companies, one already in Utah and one coming to Utah, have announced the creation of 140 new jobs in the Utah economy.
Janicki Industries, a Washington-based company has signed a lease agreement to be the anchor tenant at the new East Gate development in Layton. The company will begin construction of a new $19.5 million, 100,000 square ft manufacturing plant where they will mill composite parts for the F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft program. Janiki received an tax-credit incentive from the Governor's Office of Economic Development of up to $316,275. The project is expected to create 50 jobs and more than $20.5 million in new state wages over the next 10 years.
SirsiDynix, a Provo company whose technology helps libraries around the world to manage their collections is consolidating operations in Utah County and will open a 24-hour customer-support center. SirsiDynix is located in the Riverwoods Business and Research Park and currently employs around 200. The consolidation move will add 90 additional jobs. Some of the jobs will be transfers from other locations around the country and some will be new hires. The company is looking to hire people who speak Spanish, French, German and Mandarin Chinese.
Sources: Deseret News 7/9/2010, Salt Lake Tribune 7/12/2010
According to a report from the International Council of Shopping Centers, retail property sellers accepted lower offers, and bankers loaned out more money to buy, develop and refinance retail properties in the first quarter of 2010 than in the same quarter in 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Some $3 billion worth of retail properties priced at $5 million or more were sold in the U.S. during the quarter, up 40 percent from $2.2 billion a year ago. But this is far below the first quarter of 2007, when some $19 billion was traded.
The average price per square foot for the quarter was $147, down 3 percent from the first quarter of 2009. In first-quarter 2007 the average was $181 per square foot. First-quarter 2010 cap rates rose considerably, to 8.3 percent, versus 7.4 percent a year ago and 6.6 percent for first-quarter 2007.
But the availability of loans has eased. The average loan was $14.5 million in the quarter, compared with $11 million a year ago.
Contrast that with the report in the Deseret News this morning about Salt Lake's office rates. According to CB Richard Ellis' Mid-Year Report, vacant office space in Salt Lake County increased to a six-year high in this year's second quarter.
By the end of June, the office vacancy rate in Salt Lake County was 17.3 percent, up from 14.2 percent in mid-year 2009. At present, there is roughly 5.2 million square feet of vacant office space in Salt Lake County, up from 4.2 million square feet of vacant office space a year ago, according to a media release from CBRE.
That means landlords are offering incentives, such as lower lease rates and increased tenant improvement allowances, according to Mark Bouchard, senior managing director of CBRE's Salt Lake office.
The increase in vacant office space can be traced to tenants' downsizing their space requirements, according to Tab Cornelison, office specialist with CBRE. As leases expire, companies give up unoccupied space.
Murray and West Jordan had the highest office vacancy rate at 23.5 percent, according to the report. The Research Park region had the lowest vacancy rate at 2.9 percent. Downtown Salt Lake City's Central Business District ended the quarter with a slightly-above-average 18.5 percent vacancy rate.
(Source: Rebecca Palmer, Deseret News)
