Retail construction catching up with South Mtn. growth

DRAPER — Retail construction on Draper's South Mountain is slowly catching up with the housing boom.

Ground was broken Thursday for Bangerter Crossing, Draper's newest retail center, with Harmons Grocery Store as a base. The 16.5-acre development is at 150 E. 13750 South, at the northwest corner of Bangerter Highway and 13800 South.

"People here on the south end of the mountain have been screaming for a grocery store," said Draper Councilman Bill Colbert. Once completed in spring of 2008, Harmons will be the only major grocery store in the area.

"I think this will be one of the great gateways into Draper," Draper Mayor Darrell Smith added.

"I'm pretty proud of Draper, and there was a day when everyone had a chicken coop with it," he said in reference to Draper's agricultural past. "Now the chicken coops are gone, and they've been replaced with things that are needed with the times."

Developers Wadsworth Development Group and Bowerman Investments noted that Bangerter Crossing, with nine retail pads, services a high-income, well-established area. The population in the surrounding 5 miles is projected to grow to about 127,800 by 2011, with an average household income of $107,493.

Bangerter Crossing has been over 10 years in the making. Kip Wadsworth, president of Wadsworth Development Group, was born and raised in Draper, and in 1996, he thought the site would make a perfect retail location. He worked for four years to buy the site from the various landowners.

The new shopping center will have a country feel that will be reflected in the architectural design, fitting of the area around it, Wadsworth said Thursday, pointing to a barn and silo nearby.

"I envision it to be a state-of-the-art development that encompasses the Draper feeling," he said. "We wanted a small-town center that had all the elements of a big city."

The Harmons store will be the second in Draper. Brothers Bob and Randy Harmon, owners of Harmons, said the new store will have chef-prepared entrees, artesian ovens from Germany to bake bread, 300 types of international cheeses and a theater-style mezzanine for shoppers to sit and enjoy lunch.

"We're really trying to bring something very, very unique here," Bob Harmon said.

Already signed on to the project are: Cypress Credit Union; Subway; Beans & Brews Coffee House; Great Clips; Tahiti Sun Tanning; and mybullfrog.com, a Verizon Wireless retailer.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com