A Little Plug for Pleasant Grove
The economy may be dreary, but Pleasant Grove is finding the bright side.
The Grove commercial district has added 15 new businesses employing 550 people in the past 48 months, city economy director Richard Bradford told elected officials in a recent meeting. The success is part of the city's focus on creating jobs to support families.
"The area currently has 15 businesses in 11 buildings, all built by private developers," Bradford said in an interview. "Those 15 businesses employ 550 people. Most of those jobs are high-level executive and administrative positions, including marketers, administrators, engineers and financial advisors. The goal is to create quality jobs. By that we mean jobs that will support families."
The companies include several financial adviser firms, along with Horrocks Engineers, which employs 70, Mozy, which develops Internet tools and employs 90, the University of Phoenix, employing 32, the Liahona private school, employing 12, as well as a food supplements business, a bank, a website design firm and more.
Ultimately the city hopes The Grove will be home to 150 businesses and 4,800 employees.
To encourage development in the area, the city has spent $10.6 million installing roads and utility infrastructure.
"We've helped reduce the up-front costs of some of these businesses because they don't have to build their own infrastructure, and they are very cost conscious," Bradford said. "Anything they can do to relieve some of their up-front costs is a real incentive for them to come."
• Caleb Warnock can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
