Syracuse – OAKWOOD HOMES, a Colorado-based private homebuilder with its Utah division headquartered in Murray, announced the opening of a new community in Syracuse, Utah—Tivoli Gardens. It is Oakwood’s 10th community in Davis County.
Honeyville – HONEYVILLE INC. will expand its manufacturing within the state, generating 115 jobs and an expected capital investment of $23 million. The company specializes in private label co-packing, mixing/blending, grain milling, heat-treatment, wholesale ingredient distribution and consumer products. Honeyville supplies food producers, retailers, restaurants and consumers, and has operations in California, Arizona and Ohio.
Logan – UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY was recently selected by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to host the Utah Small Business Development Center (USBDC) Network. The new lead center will be located at the USU campus in Logan through USU Extension and will include regional service centers throughout Utah. The USU agreement with the SBA takes effect on April 1, 2016, and will be renewed annually.
Ogden – The renovation of WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY’s Social Science building received a $5 million gift from a longtime university advocate and contributor. John E. Lindquist, president of LINDQUIST MORTUARIES and GREAT WESTERN INSURANCE, pledged the money to help with an extensive remodel of the building that will then bear his name.
Salt Lake City – Stanford Medicine and INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTHCARE formed a new collaboration to support innovative projects in research, patient care and medical education. As a first part of the effort, Intermountain will provide a $1.25 million grant to Stanford Medicine to support clinical research projects, particularly in the areas of heart disease and cancer, as well as novel methods to improve healthcare delivery and clinician training.
Salt Lake City – VESTAR, in a joint venture with funds managed by OAKTREE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, L.P. acquired a 623,205-square-foot open-air retail and entertainment center within The Gateway in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. Built in 2001 and situated on 21 acres, The Gateway is located at the intersection of 400 West and South Temple. The center is leased to more than 100 regional and national retailers.
Salt Lake City – BURNS & WILCOX, a privately held specialty insurance wholesaler, relocated its Salt Lake City office to the historic Ford Building, acquired by parent company H.W. Kaufman Financial Group in 2013. In the past three years, the company’s transportation division has grown by more than 50 percent. The Burns & Wilcox Salt Lake City office occupies more than 12,000 square feet of space, nearly doubling its size from its previous location.
Tooele – The staff of UTAH MOTORSPORTS CAMPUS moved into the former Miller Motorsports Park facility to begin operations for the 2016 racing season. Utah Motorsports Campus is managing the facility on behalf of Tooele County while the procedures to sell the facility take place.
Also, FORD PERFORMANCE RACING SCHOOL entered into a four-year agreement with Tooele County in Utah to remain at the racetrack. The race school will work with the new track managers for the term of the track’s management agreement with Tooele County, as well as with new track ownership once the sale of the racetrack is finally complete.
Three Pines Coffee Sets up Shop at Gallivan
By Lisa ChristensenSalt Lake City—After making a name for themselves with their traveling espresso cart, the owners of THREE PINES COFFEE are brewing a permanent presence with a brick-and-mortar coffee shop.
“Our initial plan was five years down the road, maybe we’d open the shop,” says co-owner Nick Price. “But the opportunity for this spot came up and we got this partnership with FROM SCRATCH, and we decided to just do it.”
Three Pines Coffee opened Jan. 18 at 52 E. Gallivan Ave., adjacent to From Scratch, a restaurant with a locally-sourced menu already established in the area. Three Pines Coffee patrons can take a seat at the end of the From Scratch bar, or buy From Scratch pastries along with their coffee.
Last summer, Price and Three Pines’ other co-owner, Meg Frampton, became a fixture outside LIBERTY HEIGHTS FRESH with their small espresso cart. The idea came from a coffee shop in Los Angeles, where the pair—both Utah natives—lived before coming back to the Beehive State. Price worked for Handsome Coffee Roasters, manning a traveling espresso cart as a “Handsome Dude,” and wanted to bring the idea back home.
After the cart started gaining a following at Liberty Heights Fresh, Price and Frampton planned to save up for the capital over the next few years for a permanent coffee shop. The opportunity to move in next to From Scratch caught them a little off-guard, he says, but they couldn’t pass it up, especially with the growing popularity of the Gallivan area.
“We lucked out,” he says. “We got here right at the beginning.”
There has been a learning curve since opening the storefront. What they offered in the cart was simple, says Price, but some customers have specialized requests for their java at the coffee shop.
“We’re trying to figure out what people expect out of a coffee shop,” he said. “We’re focusing on our coffee and making it the best we can.”
Three Pines does offer some specialty on its menu—its house-made almond milk, perfected with a lot of trial and error. Price says all types of nuts and sweeteners were vetted for their flavor and how well they steamed and blended with the coffee, with the medjool date-sweetened almond milk coming out of the trials as the clear winner.
“It’s totally worth [the extra work] to have something that delicious to give to people, and the fact that we make it in house is just that much better,” Price says.
The Three Pines cart will be back this year, both at Liberty Heights Fresh and at some events throughout the summer and fall.
Taylorsville – REGAL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, which owns and operates the largest theatre circuit in the United States, executed its first lease in Utah and is gearing up for a grand opening later this year. The 60,860-square-foot Regal Cinemas’ entertainment complex at the Crossroads of Taylorsville will seat 1,400 guests in 14 auditoriums with contemporary concession stands.
West Valley City – THE STONE COLLECTION, an importer and distributor of high-quality natural stone, plans to open a new state-of-the-art facility within the 201 Commerce Center development in West Valley City. The company intends to open its new 60,000-square-foot showroom and product warehouse this spring.
Sandy – AT HOME, a home décor superstore, will be coming soon to 203 W. 9000 South in Sandy. The new 135,000-square-foot store will open at the beginning of May, bringing approximately 25 new full- and part-time jobs to the area. At Home will stock some 50,000 items for every room in various styles. The Sandy store marks the fourth store in the Utah market.
Salt Lake City – WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY (WGU) unveiled a new online master’s degree program, M.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance. Developed in collaboration with industry and policy experts, the new program offers coursework that aligns with the latest standards from national security organizations, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency.
Sandy – Local real estate professionals Ramon and Tammy Campbell opened the first Utah-based REDEFY REAL ESTATE brokerage, serving Salt Lake City and surrounding communities. The Campbells have over 15 years’ experience in the Utah real estate industry as managing brokers, home builders and developers.
Salt Lake City – KEYSTONE AVIATION, A TAC Air Company, expanded its Piper Aircraft sales territory across three additional states: Wyoming (eastern), Colorado and New Mexico. This adds to its existing territory of Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming (western). Keystone Aviation has been a Piper dealership for more than 20 years and is now one of the largest Piper dealers in the world.
Salt Lake City – Local entrepreneurs brought eco-friendly junk removal service company JUNK KING to Utah, serving Salt Lake City and its surrounding suburbs. Junk King has technology systems that allow customers to schedule a pick-up in real time with its online booking system, and has a large warehouse that facilitates managing, sorting and recycling materials. Sixty percent of the junk collected is recycled, rather than being dropped at landfills.
Salt Lake City – THE UTAH FILM COMMISSION announced that THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT board approved three new projects for state film incentives, expected to spend more than $12 million collectively on the ground. March 2016 will see Need for Speed (2014) director Scott Waugh return to Utah to shoot feature film Six Below. Feature film Wind River was slated to begin shooting in February. And Fischer Productions will begin shooting the next season of its reality automotive series, Kindig Customs, in Utah this year.
Qualtrics and Huntsman Cancer Institute Ally in Quest to End Cancer
By Lisa ChristensenSalt Lake City—The fight against cancer just got a new ally—QUALTRICS and a new community-driven initiative to raise funds for the HUNTSMAN CANCER INSTITUTE.
Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics, announced the Five for the Fight initiative at the Qualtrics Insight Summit in February. The campaign asks people to donate $5 toward cancer research in the name of someone they know who has battled with cancer, then invite five friends to do the same.
Dr. Mario Cappechi, a Nobel prize-winning cancer researcher with the Huntsman institute, says the state of cancer research has improved by leaps and bounds since the start of his career. “We’re making progress,” he says. “First, we need to understand what this disease is and how it progresses, and once you have that understanding, you can work on therapy.”
Tracing the disease is made even trickier by the fact that the many ailments that fall under the “cancer” diagnosis share certain similarities but can behave in vastly different ways and have different causes. “Each one is different; each one has its secrets. We have to break them and develop treatments for each,” says Cappechi. “We have to study each one individually.”
Dr. Joshua Schiffmann, a pediatric oncologist whose work on the link between elephant genetics and cancer prevention has made headlines over the last several months, says because of the way the cancer prevention gene, dubbed P53, works in humans, odds are about half of the population will get cancer at some point. Elephants have 40 copies of that gene, versus the two found in humans, says Schiffmann, and elephants have very low rates of cancer.
While elephants have the supergene prized by researchers, Cappechi notes that mice are somewhat easier to raise in a lab. Mice are quick and prolific reproducers, and have the useful attribute of being able to be biologically tweaked on the genetic level. In this way, researchers could alter mouse DNA to reflect the elephant version of P53, or study disease-resistant genes found in other animals, he says.
Research on animals does translate to research and treatment of humans, as well. With enough support—financially and otherwise—drugs borrowing the super-powered elephant cancer defense could be available in the next three years, Schiffmann says.
To bolster that support, Smith presented Peter Huntsman, representing the Huntsman Cancer Institute, with a $1 million donation, in addition to the proceeds from the Five for Fighting initiative. Huntsman says he was humbled by the donation and the initiative, and the breakthroughs that could come because of it.
“Society is so much better because of this effort,” he says. “We all have been touched [by cancer]. We all have been impacted. … [Eradicating cancer] is our legacy. This is something we can all be proud of.”
To take part in Five for the Fight, go to fiveforthefight.com.
The Needlepoint Joint Offers a Community for Crafters
By Adva BitonOgden—Looking for a place to knit? The Needlepoint Joint has you covered.
Located on Ogden’s Historic 25th Street, the establishment—which offers not just knitting, but also spinning, needlepoint, tatting, weaving and crochet—isn’t what you might expect to see nestled among all the shopping, dining and bars. But this crafting community has actually been around for 44 years, and is still going strong.
“We were one of the early businesses in this area. In 1992, Judith Jones was seeking a building for her business when the historic property on 25th street became available. We are pleased to have such a charming building for our business,” says Amelia Jones, manager of the Needlepoint Joint and daughter of its owner, Judith. “It’s a great community. It’s becoming more and more vibrant. When we first started here, there were some empty storefronts and dilapidated buildings. We’d much rather be in a vibrant, fun area, with a lot of people. We’re really excited to see that.”
Community is a big thing for the Needlepoint Joint—and, in order to bolster that, the shop offers a host of classes and programs. Their classes run the gamut from beginning knitting to rigid heddle weaving
to social knitting nights. They even have a knitting support group
where people can come in and get extra help on projects, or a spinning circle where spinners can learn and enjoy each other’s company while they work.
“It’s great to see what other people in the community are making and get inspiration and share some time knitting,” says Jones. “You
can come and, in a casual atmosphere, spin or stitch or weave with some people.”
The clientele that frequent the shop are varied, says Jones.
“We have some teenagers on up that are really into knitting. It has been popular for a number of years with people who are not necessarily grandmas. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of younger people are doing it—especially knitting, but also spinning and weaving,” she says.
Anything a person needs to get their projects going—or get started, period—is either available in the shop or can be located, says Jones. The knowledgeable staff is on hand to answer questions, and that staff includes not only Jones, but her mother, who founded the business. Plus, because the shop has been around for so many years, they’ve ended up with books and specialty items not often found in other such establishments. Some of them—like a Shetland Island knitting belt, used for knitting while hiking—are more curiosity items, but these rare items give the shop even more interest and depth.
“We have fun doing what we do,” Jones says. “The people who work here are excellent. They have a high level of expertise in knitting—everyone who works here knits. Not everyone spins or weaves, but we have a high level of expertise and we have fun with it, and we hope that we’re sharing that with others.”
The Inn at Entrada: A Home Base for Exploring Southern Utah
By Adva BitonSt. George—Exploring Southern Utah and the Mighty 5 doesn’t just appeal to the rugged outdoorsman. For those who want to see the red rock vistas of St. George and stay a stone’s throw away from unbelievable outdoor recreation—as well as play golf on one of the best courses in Utah, luxuriate in an outdoor pool or get a massage—the INN AT ENTRADA is happy to offer itself as their home base.
“I call it your home away from home for exploring the wonders of Southern Utah. It’s more than just a hotel room,” says Timothy Mahoney, resort manager for the Inn at Entrada.
In fact, the Inn’s lodgings couldn’t really be simply called “rooms” at all. They’re more like duplexes, villas, casitas. Visitors stay in half of a stand-alone villa, which can be one-, two- or three- bedroom. Each unit has a private garage and patio out back, and most have water features, as well. The rooms are decorated in contemporary Southwest style—everything features natural textures and stones, all in earth tones. Bathrooms feature a wide natural stone shower and a deep whirlpool tub. Living rooms have large flat-screen televisions and fireplaces. All the one- and two-bedroom suites have full kitchens and washer-dryer setups. The villas are built along a few winding streets, each with a view that either goes out onto the golf course or the natural beauty of St. George.
The Inn’s offerings of luxury, activity and relaxation are part of what makes it unique. Visitors can go 15 minutes down the road to Snow Canyon State Park to enjoy hiking and seeing the red rock formations, lava flows and extinct cinder cones. An hour away is the beauty of Zion National Park, and two and a half hours away is Bryce Canyon National Park. After long day-trip to any of the parks, visitors can take the next day off to relax at the Inn, avail themselves of the spa and the pool, or play golf or pickleball.
The Inn at Entrada uses the facilities and course of Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club. The Johnny Miller Signature Design 18-hole championship course is over 7,000 yards from the back tees, and three holes—15, 16 and 17—run through a lava field. Golf Digest named the course the best year-round course in the state, but Andrew Hopkin-Payne, head pro at the course, says players of all skill levels can enjoy playing.
The recreation facilities also offer pickleball, a rapidly-growing sport that’s something of a cross between ping-pong, badminton and tennis, played out on a court with paddles.
“[St. George] was primarily a golf destination for a long time, and it turned the corner in the past two years. People are discovering us as: ‘I can stay here and I can go to Zion for the day or I can go to Bryce for the day or go to Snow Canyon State Park for the day,’” says Mahoney. “Instead of hopping from hotel to hotel, they can come back here and see it as a central place for exploring Southern Utah.”
Orem – PRIMARY RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE, INC. opened a new branch in Orem, marking its 14th branch in Utah. PRMI plans to continue expanding its presence nationwide with a goal of 15 new branch openings over the next three months.
Saratoga Springs – SMITH’S FOOD & DRUG is constructing a new Smith’s Marketplace store at the northwest corner of Pioneer Crossing and Redwood Road in Saratoga Springs. The 123,500-square-foot multi-department store will offer a complete grocery store along with pharmacy, apparel and household needs; Fred Meyer Jewelers; sit-down sushi and hot Asian food bar; made-to-order baked pizzas, salads and sandwiches; and a Starbucks with indoor fireplace and outdoor seating. In addition, the store will feature an on-site Smith’s Fuel Center and two-lane drive-through pharmacy. Smith’s Marketplace will anchor the first phase of the 21-acre shopping center named The Crossing under development by THE BOYER COMPANY.
Park City – COREBRACE, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SME Industries, Inc., completed the purchase of STAR SEISMIC of Park City. Both companies will operate under the name of CoreBrace, LLC. All current Star Seismic projects will be completed by the new entity, CoreBrace, LLC.
St. George – Approximately 5,000 local student singers, dancers and musicians are participating in the 27th annual SOUTHERN UTAH PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL, which commenced on February 9th and will continue throughout the following eight weeks. The festival is the creation of the St. George Exchange Club, a local service organization.
St. George – JACK FISHER’s active-adult community in Southern Utah, BRIO, opened a new, state-of-the-art community center. Numerous amenities intended to help residents live a fun, active lifestyle are offered including a premium fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, pickleball courts, walking trails and a dog park.
St. George – LEGEND SOLAR grew its revenue from $3.7 to $18.3 million in 2015, a more than 400 percent increase year over year. The St. George company expanded to Northern Utah, serving all areas of the Wasatch Front. Legend Solar also achieved Master Dealer status with SunPower. The company is the fastest-growing partner for SunPower.
Park City – VAIL RESORTS, INC.’s retail division, VAIL RESORTS RETAIL (VRR), will open a new The North Face retail store at 515 Main Street in Park City, located in the space of the former Talisker on Main restaurant. VRR entered into a long-term lease with Talisker on the 2,780-square-foot space, where it will feature The North Face brand’s extensive line of performance apparel, equipment and footwear for climbers, mountaineers, extreme skiers, snowboarders, endurance runners and explorers.
PLAYERS
Phillips Edison & Company promoted SCOTT ADAIR to vice president of community partnerships. Adair, who previously served as assistant director of property management, will remain based in Salt Lake City. In his previous position, he was responsible for the overall financial and operational success of 60 of the company’s properties.
GINGER FISHER was named COO of Utah Valley Specialty Hospital. Fisher possesses more than 35 years of healthcare experience as a registered nurse, with more than 17 years in nursing administration. Prior to this position, she served as director of nursing operations and case management, and regional director of nursing and respiratory operations for Ernest Health.
National EWP, Inc. added GERNOT PENZHORN to the company’s executive team as COO. After beginning his career as an attorney in South Africa, Penzhorn entered the mining and drilling industries, where he has developed a targeted expertise in diverse business development and operations management over the past two decades.
TAB Bank appointed CURT QUEYROUZE as president. Most recently, Queyrouze served as TAB’s chief credit officer. He will be based out of TAB Bank’s corporate headquarters in Ogden and will oversee all strategic, financial and operational functions of the bank.
ThomasARTS hired TOM PRATT to further develop its growing portfolio of regional and national accounts. Pratt joins the firm with 30 years of experience in the advertising industry as a creative director, having spent the last 10 years at McGarry Bowen in New York City, where he worked on major campaigns for large corporate accounts like Disney, HP, Verizon and Marriott and was the creative lead on JPMorgan Chase and Crayola.
Wadsworth Development Group promoted two team members to senior level management positions. NATE BALLARD, who has served as general manager for the past five years, was promoted to COO. COLE WADSWORTH was promoted from property manager to vice president of Wadsworth Property Management.
JILL FLYGARE joined the Governor’s Office Of Economic Development (GOED) as the new managing director overseeing internal operations. Before joining GOED, Flygare was the finance director at the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts. Previously, she was a policy and budget analyst at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, where she worked closely with many state agencies on budget issues.
McCann Worldgroup promoted LORI FELD to president, MRM//McCann North America. Feld has been at Worldgroup for more than a decade, where she helped transform the Salt Lake City operation into a cutting-edge B2B customer experience marketing agency.
DigiCert hired MICHAEL OLSON as its CFO. Prior to joining DigiCert, Olson was CFO at Workfront, where his leadership helped the company achieve strong increases in customer renewal rates, average customer license value and monthly recurring revenue. Previous to that, Olson served as CFO at inthinc and started his career in the audit and assurance practice of Arthur Andersen
Onset Financial named KRISTINA ALLEN as executive vice president of lease operations. Allen has nearly two decades of experience documenting equipment lease transactions, and she will help Onset continue its seven years of consistent year-over-year growth in customers, funding and personnel.
Hamlet Companies promoted JON SOUTHERN to vice president of construction. Since joining Hamlet Homes in 2004, Southern has served as production supervisor, homebuilding manager and most recently as director of construction.
Les Olson Company assigned CHRIS WEENIG, third-generation family member and current Les Olson Company vice president of leasing, additional responsibilities as the company’s CMO. Weenig previously served in operations management, where he assisted in the implementation of new technologies, software and operational procedures to bring company to higher levels of productivity. He serves on the Les Olson Company board of directors and is currently chairman of the company’s profit sharing and investment committee.