Commercial real estate adjusting to rapid growth in Utah County
Mary Street, associate broker at CBC Advisors, discusses land development in Utah County Feb. 28, 2017 at the Utah County Commercial Real Estate Symposium.
CBC Advisors President and CEO Lew Cramer, center, moderates the transportation panel Feb. 28, 2017 at the Utah County Commercial Real Estate Symposium.
Tuesday’s Utah County Commercial Real Estate Symposium centered on the theme, “Adjusting to Rapid Growth.”
This seems to be a timely subject, as Utah County almost takes a small breath before it continues further on its growth trajectory.
As Mary Street, land use development specialist at CBC Advisors, explained, Utah County is almost split into three different sectors of growth. The north is still booming, with a mixture of offices, retail and residential filling in the Lehi skyline and settling in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. The central part of the county is seeing more infill and redevelopment. She explained that the southern part of the county is poised to make its own name for itself.
“In 20 years, South County will be larger than North County. Expect to see remarkable growth there – growth that will surpass what the North is experiencing,” Street said.
For Brandon Fugal, chairman of CBC Advisors — who partnered with the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce on the Symposium – bringing all the major players in the county and beyond to the same table was the purpose of the event.
“Pulling together state, cities, transportation and business leaders – that’s a critical part in continuing the dialogue, that will both address and resolve issues that come from growth,” Fugal said. “To see such a diversity of key decision makers and influencers here at one place, discussing the challenges and solutions in an open manner, is unique.”
The day lived up to his, and many others’, expectations, with discussions presenting a variety of county business angles. Attendees heard from business development experts, transportation and transit leaders, and those who could share the pulse of the state’s economy.
While the county has much to pride itself on – being a major player in the Silicon Slopes scene, boasting a lower cost of living, highly educated workforce and low unemployment numbers, among other things – rapid growth does have its pitfalls.
Traffic is one, and was a consistent theme of the symposium. The answer to this problem is a multi-faceted one, according to Shane Marshall, deputy director of the Utah Department of Transportation, and Mary Delamare-Schaefer, regional Utah County manager for the Utah Transit Authority.
Increasing the size of the freeway and the number of parking stalls isn’t the only answer, Marshall said. “We need to have good conversations with our partners and businesses on how people get to work, and where they need to go,” he explained. “We can’t just keep adding parking.”
That said, Marshall is for the current push by business leaders to speed up the financing for the freeway expansion that will add lanes to the “bottleneck” from the Point of the Mountain to Lehi Main Street. Once that is completed, and as Utah County grows, he forecasts east/west traffic issues will come to the forefront. Again, roads need to be widened or created, but Marshall said these thruways have a limit on how wide they can go.
That is why UDOT and UTA are collaborating – as they did in Salt Lake County — to solve transportation issues. Delamare-Schaefer said not every person is a transit rider, but if the transit system is connected, reliable, convenient, speedy and has enough capacity, then more people can use that system as they move throughout Utah County and beyond.
“We’re focused on taking care of the first mile to get to the transit station and the last mile, to get to where you need to go,” she said.
In addition to ironing out the area’s transportation issues, local experts agree that the county needs to plan for balanced growth.
“We need to make sure Silicon Slopes doesn’t rise while the rest of Utah falls or remains stagnant,” said Clint Betts, executive director of Silicon Slopes and editor-in-chief of Beehive Startups.
One of the areas that needs to rise with the tide is industrial and manufacturing. Experts agreed that the area needs to plan for more areas of industrial space, and recruit more industrial-focused businesses.
“It’s vital to the success of our economy to have a balanced economy,” said Jarrod Hunt, industrial real estate specialist and senior vice president at CBC Advisors. “Not everyone wants to go to college, not everyone wants to sit behind a computer all day.”