Just in the downtown Salt Lake area, Wood said, there's 222 S. Main, a 21-story skyscraper announced by Wasatch Real Estate Partners and Hamilton Partners; a $100 million new courthouse and renovation of the Frank Moss Federal Courthouse; ongoing development at The Gateway; and renovations at the Walker Center.

"And that's in addition to City Creek," Wood said, referring to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' massive multiuse complex of office, retail and residential space. That project, now under way, has been estimated at $1 billion.

In addition, there are expansions or renovations planned at most of the Salt Lake Valley's shopping malls — from Trolley Square to South Towne Center, Valley Fair Mall to Fashion Place. There's I-15 northbound, Legacy Highway, Frontrunner and TRAX. And on and on.

"It's very typical that they come on like this — economists would call it 'lumpy,"' Wood said of the glut of projects. "With the residential sector, it's much smoother. With the nonresidential sector, you get real spikes, more volatility."

Underneath the lumpiness, though, the fundamentals are at work.

"The driving force of the whole thing is population growth," Knold said. "That comes from two places: our own birthrate and in-migration. And in-migration comes in two forms: You get in-migration from other parts of the United States and in-migration from other countries."

Over the past 10 to 15 years, Knold said the strongest economic growth has occurred in the Intermountain West: Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho. So strong, in fact, as to be curious.

"You wonder why," Knold said. "It's almost as if something has changed. Why the Intermountain West?"

Fundamental change

The Industrial Revolution drew people to cities around or featuring flat roads and waterways, Knold said. Business meant producing a product — a product that had to be shipped or trucked or carried by rail to customers.

Today, Knold said, the development of interstate highways and air transportation, combined with the general movement away from the industrialized economy toward the information/technology economy, means people are discovering the delights of the previously too-remote West.

"Here, you have probably the most beautiful part of the country and the most underdeveloped," Knold said. "With the new economy, the barriers of old are breaking down. Rapidly. People are moving."

According to Jeff Thredgold, president of Thredgold Economic Associates, 70,000 more people moved into the state than moved out between 2005 and 2006. And more people means a need for more housing, more services, more amenities, more jobs.

And so, in February, Utah's already low unemployment rate found even deeper depths: 2.3 percent. Leading the way in job growth? Construction.