This story appears in the 2025 Advisor, a publication sponsored by Colliers Utah.
In an innovative move that could reshape career education in Utah, Canyons School District has transformed eBay’s former Draper headquarters into an advanced technical learning center — capitalizing on both the post-pandemic office real estate market and its prime location near The Point, Utah’s emerging technology hub.
A steal of a deal
“The purchase was a convergence of the right timing, the right building, the right location, the right price,” says Kirsten Stewart, associate director of communications for Canyons.
It began with the district’s Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC). CTEC offers Canyons students the opportunity to take classes involving hands-on, real-world trades, including physical therapy, welding, cybersecurity, cosmetology and business leadership. However, according to Dr. Rick Robins, superintendent of Canyons, the forty-year-old CTEC building needed an update.
While the current real estate market is rather inhospitable toward new construction, conditions are ideal for those who could use office space. The after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a mass influx of office employees opting to work from home.
“The cost to construct a new building is about $500 per square foot right now,” Leon Wilcox, business administrator of Canyons, says. By contrast, eBay offered $230 per square foot, less than half the price. “The building is only twelve years old and in great condition, so we’re excited,” Wilcox says.
Updated building, upgraded education
It wasn’t just the price tag that made the eBay campus appealing. The architecture reflects the values of Canyons just as it did eBay, Robins says. An open, airy space with very few walls, the building was designed to be an ideal workplace to foster collaboration, creativity and presentation.
“We were looking for a space where students, teachers and industry could really work side by side in more of an apprentice/mentor type model. The [eBay] office space really presented it,” Robins says. “We weren’t necessarily locked in on a certain type of business or building.” Instead, they simply considered what their needs were and the most efficient way to meet them. “It just happened to be that the eBay building really checked the box.”
Canyons School District’s goal for its students is that they enter the doors each day feeling the professionalism and the sense that “this is something I can do,” Robins says.
According to Wilcox, the campus’s appeal was also in its novelty. With technology, furniture and a perfectly functioning HVAC system, the campus was ideal for Canyons’ long-term vision for the project.
“It’s loaded with technology, and all that stays with us. We’re looking at this as not just a two or three-year deal,” Wilcox says. “This is going to impact students two, three decades from now. That’s our vision with it.”
While the project began as a replacement for the district’s old CTEC building, Robins hopes it will evolve to more than that: “We see much more than just our CTEC programs evolving there. We’d really like it to have an entrepreneurial atmosphere.”
“I really see it as a hub and a center for the community to rally around and support. It’s definitely not a traditional high school model. But, for a lot of students, that’s exactly what they’re seeking.”
— Dr. Rick Robins
Breaking the status quo
The new building’s location couldn’t be better for a program aiming for an entrepreneurial atmosphere. Directly in front of the Draper Frontrunner station and adjacent to The Point, an emerging community in Draper dedicated to fostering technological advancement, the area is ideal for inspiring the innovation that is at the core of the Canyons’ mission.
“Innovation is one of the tenets of our strategic vision. Since the beginning of Canyons School District, that has always been a central component of what we do in the district,” Robins says.
The response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. “There is a lot of excitement and people asking how they can partner … and be part of this,” Robins says. “I really see it as a hub and a center for the community to rally around and support. It’s definitely not a traditional high school model. But, for a lot of students, that’s exactly what they’re seeking.”
Many of those students are hoping for real-world, hands-on experience that will truly prepare them for a career.
“When this is all said and done, we see our students doing apprenticeships, work-based learning and mentorships with all the companies that will be moving into the area,” Robins says.
The relationship will be a symbiotic one, as the new businesses will have a fresh batch of talent to choose from to further fuel the community’s economy. “Having an educational space like this, in any community, will enhance the overall culture in that area,” Robins says.
“This is an area that we will be serving,” Stewart says. “When they build The Point and build homes there, we will be serving those families with our schools. This gives us a foothold in that area.”
In addition to the building itself, the purchase came with 16 acres of developable land, which could be repurposed into an elementary school for the new families moving in.
As Canyons School District transforms this corporate space into an educational hub, it offers a dual blueprint — showing school districts how to create modern learning environments that connect students to industry, while demonstrating to commercial real estate owners how vacant office buildings can find new purpose in a post-pandemic market.