Salt Lake projects boost economy

Salt Lake City's downtown development is changing the face of the city, a panel of developers said at the the Governor's Utah Economic Summit on Thursday.

The projects included the 222 S. Main building, the city's first high-rise in over a decade, and the highly publicized City Creek Center residential and business development.

"They are investing significant amounts of capital in our downtown area in a way that's going to improve quality of life," said Mark Bouchard, senior managing director at real-estate firm CB Richard Ellis. "It's going to transform the downtown area."

Plans to bring new development into downtown and make it a place to both live and work is a model that has been successful around the country.

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini said that as more business and mixed-use developers target the downtown Salt Lake area, the rest of Utah will also reap the benefits.

"If you have a vibrant core, you have a vibrant state," Corradini said. "Urbanization is a wonderful thing, and it's happening here."

The state's vibrance also is being fueled by its manufacturing industry, speakers on another panel at the conference said. Manufacturing has the highest payroll in the state at over $5 billion, comprised of 125,000 jobs that support an additional 170,000 jobs statewide, said David Sorenson, executive director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a non-profit organization that aims to increase the competitiveness, performance, and profitability of Utah manufacturers.

Tom Bingham, head of the Utah Manufacturers Association, said one of the biggest problems the industry is facing is the misconception people have that today's manufacturing jobs are like the "rust belt" jobs of previous generations.

"We're not talking about dirty jobs in most cases," Bingham said. The jobs also are about 140 percent of the state average in wages.

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E-mail: jlee@desnews.com

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