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CONTESTS
• Instasize, a Salt Lake City-based company offering a toolkit for social media content creators, has announced the Creator Tour, an all-expenses-paid travel program for social influencers of all kinds. The Creator Tour is designed to provide social media entrepreneurs a chance to explore the world, capture rich content and meet other like-minded creators. Anyone with an Instagram account and the desire to produce inspiring content can apply to join the tour. Instasize will be accepting applications throughout the year for nine different tour destinations. The Instasize team has planned custom itineraries focused around world-class content planning and creation and will hand-pick five to seven social media content creators to bring on each excursion. The May 2019 tour to Tokyo, Japan, is now open for applications. Details are at https://instasize.com/creator-tour.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Three Utah universities have made a list of best online MBA programs in 2019. The University of Utah was ranked No. 52, Southern Utah University was ranked No. 77 and Westminster College was ranked No. 141 on the list compiled by BusinessStudent.com. Programs without accreditations (AACSB or ACBSP) were not included. The rankings were determined by analyzing five criteria: tuition, accreditation, acceptance rate, student support and engagement.
GOVERNMENT
• The U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded more than $291 million in conservation funding for states and tries to clean up and repurposed abandoned coal mines. The total includes more than $1.36 million in Utah. The Abandoned Mind Land (AML) Reclamation grants are provided through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The grants, funded in part by a fee based on coal produced in the United States, help to eliminate dangerous conditions and pollution caused by past coal mining. AML-funded projects have closed dangerous mine shafts, eliminated highwalls, reclaimed unstable slopes, treated acid mine drainage, and restored water supplies damaged by mining.
INTERNATIONAL
• Applications are being accepted until April 3 for people wanting to participate in the state of Utah’s trade mission to Switzerland, France and Italy in June. The trade mission is an undertaking of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and World Trade Center Utah. It takes place June 12-22 and will be incorporated with the Paris Air Show. It will include market-specific business briefings by in-country experts and the U.S. Commercial Service, VIP receptions for business and government leaders, company visits and customized B2B meetings. Details are at https://wtcutah.com/trade-missions/europe/.
INVESTMENT
• Tower Arch Capital LP, a Salt Lake City-based investment firm, has announced the closing of Tower Arch Partners II LP and its parallel investment entity with $450 million of capital commitments. Fund II closed at its hard cap and was substantially oversubscribed, Tower Arch said. The fund’s investors include current and former management team members, foundations, diversified financial institutions, university endowments and family investment offices. Tower Arch Capital professionals are significant investors personally and remain collectively one of the largest investors across Fund I and Fund II. Fund II’s investment focus will continue to be in the lower middle market, targeting transformational opportunities where founder and family-owned businesses need capital and/or professionalization to take them to the next level of growth and success. Shannon Advisors acted as placement agent, and Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal counsel.
LAW
• Stoel Rives LLP has hired Romaine Marshall for the firm’s litigation group as a partner in its Salt Lake City office. In addition to his experience as lead counsel in a variety of business disputes, Marshall brings experience as a cybersecurity and privacy lawyer. Marshall has worked with clients to develop industry-specific cybersecurity programs, conduct risk assessments and internal privacy audits, and respond to regulatory investigations. Prior to joining Stoel Rives, Marshall was an associate at Kirton McConkie PC, and most recently a partner at Holland & Hart LLP. Marshall received his law and bachelor’s degrees from Brigham Young University.
MANUFACTURING
• ZAGG Inc., Salt Lake City, has announced that Brad Holiday has stepped down as chief financial officer and has transitioned to senior vice president of finance and strategic projects. Taylor Smith, who had served as vice president of finance and accounting, will succeed Holiday as CFO. Smith also has served as director of SEC reporting. Before joining ZAGG in 2011, he served in various roles at KPMG LLP starting in August 2004, including senior manager, manager, senior associate, and associate within the audit group. Smith holds a B.S. and a master’s degree in accountancy from Brigham Young University.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
• Castle Gate RV Park and Campground will open April 18 in Helper. It has 106 total sites and can accommodate rigs up to 100 feet with spaces wide enough for the largest slide-outs on both sides, still leaving space for awnings and tables and chairs. It also offers Wi-Fi, campfires, a splash pad and playground for children, horseshoes and picnic pavilion. It also has two sizes of cabins and tent sites with water and electricity. Groundbreaking for the largest RV park and campground ever in Carbon County took place in May 2018.
REAL ESTATE
• The Family Center at Riverdale has been sold for $48.2 million by CIM to CCA Acquisition Co. The 427,828-square-foot shopping center is 97 percent occupied by Target, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Best Buy, Pier 1 Imports, Show Carnival, PetSmart, Dollar Tree and Joann, among others. It was built in phases from 1995 to 2008 at 1083 W. Riverdale Road. Pete Bethea, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, along with Rob Ippolito and Glenn Rudy, NKF senior managing directors, along with Ben Brown and Brandon Goodman of Mountain West as local market partners, represented CIM. CCA was self-represented.
• Alliance Residential has announced The Ivy at Draper, an apartment community for active adults (55-plus). The community has been implementing improvements to its amenity spaces and will soon feature its own hair and nail salon, library and on-site café. They join a resident gaming room and TV lounge, clubhouse, fitness center, courtyard fireplaces and barbecues, and more.
• Newmark Grubb ACRES has added retail directors Tony Coop, John Owens and Jonathan Owens to its Salt Lake City office. Coop and John Owens each have 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, with Jonathan Owens being in the field for the past decade. Coop makes the move to NGA from Colliers International, while both John Owens and Jonathan Owens come from Cushman & Wakefield. Coop has a background in sales across several markets and industries. Before beginning his real estate career, he had sales experience in the international commercial aerospace industry and then office solutions. John Owens also has a background in law, receiving both his Bachelor of Science and Juris Doctorate in Law at the University of Utah. Jonathan Owens focuses on tenant representation for both national and regional tenants with an eye on further strengthening their existing presence as well as making an entry into the market. In addition to Jonathan’s tenant relationships, he has represented multiple developers in his role of leasing agent as well as assisting in site selection and development.
• LaBlast Fitness has leased 23,258 square feet in the Northshore Industrial Center at 758 S. Auto Mall Drive, American Fork. The space in the new building will serve as the corporate home for LaBlast Fitness. Skyler S. Peterson, senior vice president at Newmark Grubb ACRES, and NGA industrial associate Tre Bourdeaux represented the tenant, LaBlast Holdings LLC, in the transaction.
RECOGNITIONS
• Five people recently received the Deedee Corradini Women’s Leadership Awards. They were presented by Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and recognize female leaders who have helped other women and their community. It also serves to honor the legacy of Deedee Corradini, Salt Lake City’s 32nd mayor and the first woman to hold the position. Casey Chase, Ashlee Espinoza and Remy Fowles from Utah Venue Market received the Opportunity Builder award for 2019. Utah Venue Market is an all-women run business that works to promote women’s upward mobility. Victoria Petro-Eschler received the Emerging Leader for 2019 award. Petro-Eschler is the executive director of the Salty Cricket Composers Collective, a music program that offers free, after-school, orchestra-based lessons to students at Title 1 schools. Carolyn Tanner Irish received the Community Leader Award. She was the fourth woman ever to be ordained as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, and the first in Utah. For more than 35 years, she has been a pivotal leader at O.C. Tanner.
• Lexicon Travel Technologies, Park City, has been recognized as the top-performing vacation rental channel manager in Booking.com’s Connectivity Partner Program for its work on behalf of property managers in 2018. Lexicon is one of six connectivity providers across the Booking.com ecosystem worldwide to receive the recognition.
SERVICES
• Merlin, a Salt Lake City-based hourly jobs marketplace, has hired Charlie Besecker as vice president of sales and operations. Besecker most recently was at Qualtrics for six years, building out the entry-level sales and sales development programs and then the go-to-market enablement and learning and development functions globally. Prior to Qualtrics, he led several sales consulting agencies.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Domo Inc., American Fork, has announced that Carine Clark has joined its board of directors. Clark is president anc CEO of Banyan, a patient engagement company. She also has served as president and CEO of MaritzCX and Allegiance Inc., as chief marketing officer of both Symantec and Altiris, and serves on the boards of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) and Silicon Slopes. She earned her bachelor’s degree in organizational communications and MBA from Brigham Young University.