Industry Briefs are provided as a free service to our readers. Company news information may be sent to brice@slenterprise.com. The submission deadline is one week before publication.
BANKING
- Crews & Associates, an Arkansas-based company providing investment banking services, has hired Marcus Keller of Salt Lake City as managing director of capital markets group. Keller helps local governments with their municipal advisory and underwriting needs. Keller started his career in public finance in 2014 and has experience as a municipal advisor and underwriter across Utah and Idaho. Keller earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Brigham Young University-Idaho and a the Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Utah.
CERTIFICATIONS
- Ethik, based in Provo, has announced its national Women’s Business Enterprise certification by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. The certification affirms that Ethik is a woman-owned and operated business that meets the criteria set forth by WBENC. The certification will help the company expand its reach and form partnerships with corporations and government agencies that value diversity and sustainability. Since Ethik’s inception, it has involved over 2,600 artisans, including human trafficking survivors, widows and single mothers.
COMMUNICATIONS
- ISP Connext Internet Services, based in Ogden, has activated the initial stages of construction on the Ogden City Fiber Project. The company introduced the OCFP fiber optic backhaul and associated infrastructure as it continues to expand the fiber infrastructure across Northern Utah. In anticipation of building fiber-optic infrastructure throughout all of Ogden City, Connext officially franchised with the city in April of last year. Connext has completed fiber-optic infrastructure to hundreds of homes in Ogden, with the planning and engineering completed for thousands more. New construction recently began and Connext plans on completing Ogden City within the next couple of years.
DIVIDENDS
- The board of directors of Cricut Inc. has declared a one-time cash dividend of $1 per share to holders of its Class A and Class B common stock. The dividend is payable July 17 to stockholders of record July 3. The total payment will be about $234 million. South Jordan-based Cricut offers cutting machines and design software for hobbyists.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
- Utah is ranked No. 15 among states for small-business first-year failure rate. Using new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Lending Tree’s annual business survival rate report shows that 23.2 percent of Utah’s businesses fail within their first year of operation, compared to the national average of 20.8 percent. The state’s failure rate within five years is 48.5 percent, putting it No. 29 and comparing with the national rate of 48.4 percent. The rate within 10 years is 62.6 percent, putting it No. 42 and comparing with 65.1 percent nationally. Details are at https://www.lendingtree.com/business/small/failure-rate/.
- Utah has three cities in the top 15 in a ranking of “best places to ride out a recession,” compiled by SmartAsset. They are No. 7 Sandy, No. 10 Layton and No. 14 West Jordan. SmartAsset assessed more than 400 cities and evaluated them across four categories: economic stability, housing, employment and social assistance. Other Utah cities in the rankings are No. 22 Orem, No. 30 West Valley City, No. 35 Salt Lake City, No. 47 Provo, No. 79 St. George, and No. 83 Ogden. The top-ranked city overall is Castle Rock, Colorado. The bottom-ranked city is Camden, New Jersey. Details are at https://smartasset.com/data-studies/best-cities-ride-out-recession-2023.
- All 28 suburbs within 30 miles’ driving distance from Salt Lake City have a lower price per square foot of living space that is lower than in the city, according to a study by real estate search portal Point2. The median home price in Salt Lake City is $540,000, while the median price per square foot is $345. Magna is the most affordable suburb, with the price per square foot 44 percent lower than in the city. Fruit Heights and Herriman follow suit with median prices 42 percent lower than in the city. The most expensive living space in the U.S. is in Irvine, California 1, with a median home price of $1.37 million, or $680 per square foot. Details are at https://www.point2homes.com/news/us-real-estate-news/affordable-suburbs-near-expensive-cities.html.
- Salt Lake City is No. 80 and West Valley City is No. 187 on a list of “Best Cities for Burger Lovers,” compiled by Lawn Love. It compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on four categories, including access to burger vendors, consumer ratings and national recognition, among nine total metrics. The top-ranked city is New York City. The bottom-ranked city is Paterson, New Jersey. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-burger-fans/#rankings.
- Utah is No. 41 on a list of “Best States for Green Burials,” compiled by Lawn Love. It compared the 50 states based on four categories, including access to green burial locations, funeral homes specializing in natural burials, and demand, among 18 total metrics. The top-ranked state is California. The bottom-ranked state is Alaska. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-states-green-burials/#rankings.
ENVIRONMENT
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded two Brownfields grants to Salt Lake City-area partners to assess, clean up and revitalize properties in the city. The Salt Lake City Corp. will use $495,200 in Brownfields funding to clean up the former Schovaers Electronics site. Salt Lake County will use a $1 million grant for assessment and cleanup projects in Magna Township. The Schovaers Electronics site at 22 S. Jeremy St. was formerly used as an electrical supply company, electroplating facility and appliance repair shop and is contaminated with heavy metals and volatile organic compounds. Specific contaminants of concern include trichloroethene and hexavalent chromium in soil and groundwater likely due to seepage from the facility and off-site sources. The cleanup will allow the site to complement the new Folsom Trail with trail-oriented commercial space. Salt Lake County will use the funds to develop environmental assessments and cleanup plans at more than 20 high-priority sites in Magna Township. Potential reuse of these sites includes plans for affordable housing, retail and commercial spaces. The county’s partners include Magna Township and NeighborWorks Salt Lake.
ESG
- USANA, a Salt Lake City-based company offering health and wellness products, recently released its 2022 sustainability report. The third annual report highlights the company’s recent environmental, social and governance achievements. They include 50 percent of the company’s energy use at its Salt Lake campus coming from solar arrays and the purchase of renewable energy certificates, a 20 percent reduction in waste sent to landfills; saving the equivalent of 435,266 supplement bottles worth of plastic annually after moving to smaller bottles for 10 products; over 12.9 million meals provided through the USANA Foundation; achieving 85 percent engagement in global employee surveys; more than 350 employees completing USANA’s career mentorship program; 100 percent of employees received current Good Manufacturing Practices training; creating a supplier code of conduct as part of sourcing efforts; and investing $11.6 million in research and development.
EXPANSIONS
- TCN Inc., a St. George-based provider of a cloud-based call center platform, has opened offices in the United Kingdom and Romania.
FINANCE
- D.A. Davidson’s Special District Group, in partnership with Petros PACE Finance, has successfully priced and closed $160 million in Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing for Summit Vista, Utah’s first life plan retirement community. The proceeds will be dedicated towards ongoing construction, with a focus on enhancing the development’s energy efficiency, renewable energy and water efficiency. C-PACE is a financing mechanism that allows property owners and developers to fund up to 100 percent of building retrofits and new construction to improve a building’s energy efficiency, renewable energy and water efficiency. Owned in partnership with Gardner Group, Wasatch Group and Solamere Capital, Summit Vista offers a full continuum of care in Taylorsville. It is expected to have nearly 1,600 residential units at completion.
GOVERNMENT
- Van Christensen has been appointed as division director of the Utah Division of Finance. He succeeds Jonathan Ellis, who served as interim director since March following the departure of Janica Gines, who served in the role since 2018. Christensen joined the state in 1996 as an auditor in the State Auditor’s Office. After 21 years, he was recruited into agency work, where he’s served at the Utah Department of Workforce Services since 2017.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $95.5 million nationally for affordable housing and community development activities in 55 Native American communities, including $2 million to the Utah Paiute Tribal Housing Authority. The funds come from the Indian Community Development Block Grant Program. Grant funds may be used for infrastructure, community facilities, housing rehabilitation, economic development and more to support Native American and Alaskan Native families on Indian reservations and in other Indian areas.
INSURANCE
- PCF Insurance Services, a Lehi-based insurance brokerage firm, has appointed Rocky Steeleas senior vice president of legal and compliance. Steele’s education includes a bachelor of arts degree from Brigham Young University.
INVESTMENTS
- Spiff, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on sales commission software, has closed a $50 million Series C fundraise led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed, Norwest, Kickstart Fund, Album and others. The company said it will use the round to build on its sales commission portfolio and to begin solving for other complex sales and finance processes that have historically relied on spreadsheets.
MANUFACTURING
- Nature’s Sunshine Products Inc., a Lehi-based manufacturer of herbal and nutrition products, has named Kevin Herbert as executive vice president and president of North America. Herbert has over 25 years of experience, previously serving in executive and senior-level leadership positions for several companies, including Samsung, Borden, Hain Celestial, White Wave Foods, as well as starting his career at Procter & Gamble. He joins Nature’s Sunshine from Crossmark, where he led the transformation of its Natural Specialty Channel.
PARTNERSHIPS
- Alianza Inc., a Pleasant Grove-based communications cloud for service providers, has announced a partnership with Brightspeed, a North Carolina-based local exchange carrier, to deliver innovative voice and unified communications services to residential and small-business customers across the Brightspeed fiber broadband network. Alianza is a part of Brightspeed’s broader transformation effort to bring faster and more reliable Internet service and cloud communications to more than 3 million homes and businesses over the next few years. Brightspeed will serve residential and small businesses with the Alianza product suite, all under the Brightspeed brand. Brightspeed has assets and operations in 20 states.
PHILANTHROPY
- The Chartway Promise Foundation recently raised more than $66,500 to benefit medically fragile children in Utah. Through funds provided to partner Make-A-Wish Utah, the foundation provided Alexis Meek, a Lehi 18-year-old cancer patient, with $7,500 for her college tuition when she enrolls as a freshman at Utah State University in the fall. Following the tournament, Chartway presented Make-A-Wish Utah with a grant of $200,000 to fulfill the life-changing wishes for 40 children with critical illnesses. This year, the foundation has awarded more than $770,000 in grants to companion charities that support medically fragile children.
REAL ESTATE
- Post District Residences, a new apartment community at 575 S. 300 W., Salt Lake City, has opened to residents. Designed by architecture firm MVE+Partners, it includes 580 units. Rents range from $1,200 to $4,000. Among restaurants and retail outlets planned are Urban Hill, Sunday’s Best, Level Crossing Brewing Co., MENSHO and Traeger Grill’s worldwide headquarters.
- Acquisition of land for the second location for Kum & Go, in Herriman, was facilitated by Mountain West Commercial Real Estate. Kum & Go has more than 400 convenience store locations in 13 states. The company’s first Utah location opened in Draper in December. The Herriman store opened in early May.
RECOGNITIONS
- Jyl London has been named a finalist for a 2023 Banking Tech Awards USA Leadership Award for Woman in Technology in the bank/financial institution category. London is vice president of product and program management at TAB Bank in Ogden.
- The Executive Education program at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business ranks No. 4 in the United States and No. 47 in the world in the latest Financial Times executive education rankings. The University of Utah was the only program in the West to rank in the top 25 for student satisfaction. Financial Times ranks executive education programs using a variety of criteria, including course design, teaching methods and materials, faculty, and quality of participants.
SERVICES
- Namify, a Springville-based provider of corporate-branded goods and fulfillment services, has promoted Scott Bishop to vice president of sales over both product and software services. Bishop has been with Namify since 2009, starting as shipping manager and being promoted to vice president of logistics in mid-2013 and then gaining additional oversight of the company’s manufacturing and finish work in the following years. He worked to represent the company and its clients on production/fulfillment, and became a sales executive in 2020.
TECHNOLOGY
- Boom Interactive Inc., a South Jordan-based software provider, has appointed John Chiang to its board of directors. He will act as treasurer. Chiang serves on the boards of Apollo Medical Holdings and Deep Medicine Acquisition Corp. and as a corporate advisory board member of Pasadena Private Lending and Adept Development.
TRANSPORTATION
- Following a reduction in ski bus services from the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), leaders from Salt Lake County, Visit Salt Lake, UTA, Sandy City, Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude collaborated on creating a viable micro-transit solution to shuttle locals and visitors to Salt Lake area ski resorts. Through its 12 weeks of operation, Cottonwood Connect shuttled 9,007 riders to and from Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon ski resorts. Utahns made up 17 percent of riders, with out-of-state visitors coming in at 83 percent of ridership. Snow Country Limousine, who was selected as a private transportation provider after an RFP process, indicates that ridership would have been closer to 11,000 had it not been for frequent canyon closures that affected ridership on five of the12 operating weekends. The shuttle operated on four days a week and holidays Jan. 26-April 16. The public/private partnership was funded in part by VSL, UTA, Alta, Brighton, Snowbird, Solitude and a $239,000 appropriation from the Salt Lake County Council.
TRAVEL & TOURISM
- Visit Salt Lake, a private, nonprofit corporation promoting Salt Lake as a convention, meetings, sports events and travel destination, has hired Jill Lackey as convention sales director, pursuing citywide conventions in the education, cultural, social welfare and trade/business/commercial markets. Lackey worked for 22 years at Snowbird, where she held multiple sales-related positions, most recently as senior sales manager handling an eight-state region. Prior to joining Snowbird, she worked at Michigan’s Iroquois Hotel and with Deer Valley Lodging.