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ASSOCIATIONS
• NAIOP Utah, a commercial real estate development association, has announced its new board for 2021-22. The new president and board will serve through May 31, 2022. Board members are Daniel Stephens, BlackPine LLC, president; Josh Caldwell, Mortenson, vice president; Kyle Roberts, Newmark, secretary; Jacob Despain, Zions Bank, treasurer; Amanda Lawson, Cushman & Wakefield, membership chair: Ryan Ritchie, The Ritchie Group, membership co-chair; Jason England, Argent Group RiverPark & Innovation Pointe, programs chair; Molly Wilson, Extra Space Storage, programs co-chair; Craig Jenson, Snell & Wilmer, public affairs chair; Stuart Clason, Utah Association of Counties, public affairs co-chair; Jade Teran, FFKR Architects, marketing chair; Serra Lakomski, Rockworth Cos., developing leaders/student relations chair; Ellie Harned, Hines, developing leaders/student relations co-chair; executive committee members Brian Cheney, Cheney Law Group; Vinnie Figlioli, Harris Co.; and Angela Eldredge, Price Real Estate; corporate board member Nate Boyer, The Boyer Co.; and chapter executive director Lindsay Cleverly.
CONTESTS
• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah is accepting nominations until July 16 for its annual EDCUtah Economic Development Awards, which will be presented at its annual meeting in September. The Nick Rose Award for Leadership in Economic Development is presented to a private-sector individual that has demonstrated exceptional dedication to EDCUtah and economic development throughout the state. The Thayne Robson Award for Leadership in Economic Development is presented to a public-sector individual that has demonstrated exceptional dedication to EDCUtah and economic development throughout the state. The Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Cornerstone in Economic Development Award is presented to associations, organizations or developments that have merit far beyond their own boundaries and have had profound and long-term positive impact on the state’s economy. Nominations may be made at https://edcutah.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bwlqh09dxNGia4S.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 6 among states for the highest demand for small businesses, based on search queries, a list compiled by ZenBusiness. Utah had a score of 328 out of a possible 600. Utah ranked highly across all search terms but “small businesses near me” and “Etsy” were the top search queries. Pennsylvania led the rankings. Details are at https://www.zenbusiness.com/why-zenbusiness/.
• Utah is ranked No. 32 among states for economic recovery from the COVID pandemic, a list compiled by TOP Data. It measured data points across 23 metrics into three key indicators. Utah is ranked No. 41 for consumer confidence, No. 2 for job market strength and 43 for COVID safety. Vermont lead the rankings. Details are at https://topagency.com/report/pandemic-recovery/.
• Salt Lake City residents pay $133 per month in auto insurance costs and $400 in auto loan costs, according to a study by doxoINSIGHTS. The national average is $185 for auto insurance and $411 for auto loans. Salt Lake’s numbers put the average cost of car ownership at $4,806 per year, which is a 12 percent difference from the national average of $5,435. Details are at https://www.doxo.com/insights/regional-bill-comparison.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 79 on a list of “2021’s Best BBQ Cities in America,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared 199 of the biggest U.S. cities based on 14 markers, including the number of national award-winning barbecue restaurants and chefs; whether the city has hosted at least one “master-level” competition, the number of barbecue festivals and fan ratings. The top-ranked city is Kansas City, Missouri. Coming in at No. 199 is Aurora, Illinois. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-bbq-cities/.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Western Governors University, Salt Lake City, has appointed Nadeem Syed as chief financial officer. He succeeds David Grow, led financial strategy for 14 years and has since moved into the role of chief operating officer. Syed will lead all aspects of financial strategy and operations at the nonprofit university. Syed joins WGU after 11 years with AT&T, most recently as its head of consumer wireline finance. Prior to that, Syed led the product, corporate development and strategy finance for Xandr, AT&T’s advertising company. Prior to AT&T, he co-founded a medical imaging startup in Singapore, led software R&D at Hewlett-Packard, and conducted machine learning research.
GOVERNMENT
• Twenty-nine local governments in Utah will receive a total of $42.4 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for 2021, the U.S. Department of the Interior has announced. Because local governments cannot tax federal lands, annual PILT payments help to defray costs associated with maintaining important community services. PILT payments are made annually for tax-exempt federal lands administered by Department of the Interior agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation. Additionally, PILT payments cover federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission.
INVESTMENTS
• Lucid, a South Jordan-based provider of visual collaboration software, has closed a more than $500 million secondary investment that values the company at $3 billion. New investors in the secondary financing include Alkeon Capital, Tiger Global and Steadfast Capital Ventures.
• Tula Health, Farmington, recently raised $24.1 million in debt and equity financing from two venture firms: SpringTide Ventures, a health tech venture firm based in Utah and Boston, and Sandbox Capital Advisors, based in Salt Lake City. Tula creates behavioral change guidance via on-call support, and supporting hardware and software to help their customers manage chronic health conditions. The capital would be used to grow inventory, as well as hiring and training additional staff.
• Xenocor Inc., Salt Lake City, has announced a strategic investment by Barvest Ventures Inc., a member company of the Trudell Medical Group, an innovator in respiratory care and medical device development. Terms were not disclosed. The investment will be used to ramp up production and respond to growing demand for the Xenoscope, a single-use, fog-free, portable, high-definition laparoscopic imaging system. In addition, George Baran, chair of the Trudell Medical Group, will join the Xenocor board. He has experience in product development, production and global market distribution. Northgate Technologies Inc., a member company of Trudell Medical Group that designs and manufactures urology and minimally invasive surgical equipment, will be working closely with Xenocor to bring additional synergies to the relationship.
• Peterson Real Assets, a subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based Peterson Partners Inc., has made a growth equity investment in Crossroads Paper, a 100 percent recycled paper mill to be built in the Mountain West to serve the growing demand for e-commerce, agricultural and industrial packaging in the western United States. Financial terms were not disclosed. The mill site selection process is underway, with a final determination expected by year-end.
• Red Door Capital Partners LLC, a Salt Lake City-based independent private equity firm, has announced that Jeffrey (Jeff) Garcia has joined the company as senior strategic advisor. His role will be to help manage strategic partnerships with Red Door’s investor community and deal-flow origination. He will also be a member of the investment committee and deal flow review team. Garcia is a former starting quarterback in the Canadian Football League and the National Football League.
• Phoenix PharmaLabs, a Woods Cross-based company developing two non-addictive opioid compounds to treat acute and chronic pain, has completed a second round of financing, raising $1.07 million via the Netcapital equity funding portal. Like the company’s 2019 Netcapital offering, this raise, which was carried out under Reg CF, was also oversubscribed. More than a thousand investors participated in the most recent offering.
LAW
• Snell & Wilmer has added attorneys Lindsay Johnson and Stratton McCausland for the firm’s Salt Lake City office. Johnson is a member of the firm’s corporate and securities practice group. Prior to joining Snell & Wilmer, Johnson was an associate at Carman Lehnhof Israelsen LLP. She received her J.D. from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law school and her B.A. in economics from BYU. McCausland is an associate in the firm’s commercial finance group. Prior to joining Snell & Wilmer, he was an associate at Mitchell, Barlow & Mansfield PC and a law clerk at the Disability Law Center of Utah. He received his J.D. from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law and his B.A. in English literature from Weber State University.
LOGISTICS
• The Utah Inland Port Authority has hired Brad Andrews as vice president of business development and executive team member. Andrews has been a principal in several entrepreneurial ventures in biotech, healthcare services and consumer products. He also has served as an advisor to startup and emerging companies. He was the founder and managing member of Provide Nutrition LC, a manufacturer and marketer of medical nutrition products; held management positions in healthcare logistics, manufacturing and sales; and has worked in management for Fortune 100 companies including McKesson and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
NONPROFITS
• The Road Home, in partnership with Shelter the Homeless, has completed its newest housing project, The Magnolia, a permanent supportive housing facility with 65 total units. Owned by Shelter the Homeless and operated by The Road Home, the $17 million facility is at 165 S. 300 E., Salt Lake City. The Magnolia adds to The Road Home’s housing program, which includes the 201-unit Palmer Court, 32-unit Wendell Apartments, and rental assistance with supportive services that houses hundreds of households with private landlords throughout Salt Lake County.
REAL ESTATE
• Dynamic City Capital, a Provo-based real estate investment firm focused on premium-branded hotel investments, has acquired the Element Anaheim Resort Convention Center, a California hotel that will open in July. Financial terms were not disclosed. The five-story hotel features 174 suites. It is DCC’s third hotel acquisition this year, for a total of 538 hotel rooms in the first half of 2021.
• MobilityRE, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on real estate intelligence technologies for mortgage lenders and real estate agents, has appointed Jonas Kruckeberg as director of growth and client success. In this role, Kruckeberg will strengthen customer engagement for the company’s flagship product, Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI). He will also oversee sales and customer success. Kruckeberg has 18 years of experience in driving sales and forging strategic partnerships at mortgage technology firms. He most recently served as chief revenue officer at Knowledge Coop.
• Oakwood Homes of Utah, a Denver-based homebuilder and subsidiary of the Clayton Homes/Berkshire Hathaway family of companies, has appointed Andrew R. Nielsen as vice president of operations. He will oversee home construction and design, purchasing and production for the Utah division of Oakwood Homes, in addition to managing Oakwood’s 10,000-square-foot design studio, the New Home Center. Nielsen has more than two decades of homebuilding experience, with particular expertise in residential interior design, new home construction, product knowledge, community rollouts, team-building and customer service. In his early career, Nielsen worked at Richmond American Homes, Aspire Design Center, Jeff Landry Design and Boyd & Dreith LLC.
RECOGNITIONS
• Two Utah companies have earned 2021 IT World Awards. Presented for the 16th year, the Globee Awards recognize information technology and cybersecurity vendors with advanced, ground-breaking products, solutions and services “that are helping raise the bar for others in all areas of technology and cybersecurity.” In the Startup of the Year for IT Software category, Zevant, based in Draper, was a Gold Globee winner for reducing pharmacy benefits cost by over 15 percent through automated analytics. Spearstone, of Lindon, earned a Bronze Globee for Best Product to Combat and Reduce the Impact of COVID-19. Its DriveStrike made device and data security accessible during pandemic. More than 65 judges from around the world representing a wide spectrum of industry experts participated in the judging process.
• Several Utah companies and organizations earned Hermes Creative Awards, an international awards competition administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The awards recognizes creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of materials. Earning Platinum awards are Big Monocle, Lehi; England Logistics, Salt Lake City; New Age, American Fork (two); Stoke, Provo; Suse, Provo (two); USANA Health Sciences, Salt Lake City (two); and Utah State University, Logan (four). Earning Gold awards are BYU College of Nursing, Provo; DoTerra International LLC, Pleasant Grove; England Logistics (two); New Age (three); Stoke; USANA Health Sciences (three); and Utah State University (five).
• ChamberWest presented business awards in several categories during its recent Annual Awards Gala. They are Business of the Year, Jordan Valley Medical Center; Small Business of the Year, Ad Wear; Best Place to Work, Cyprus Credit Union; Best New Business of the Year, Shrio Kuma Snow Cream; and Volunteer of the Year, Oz Hutton, Melange LLC. ChamberWest also recognized Dan England, chairman of C.R. England, with the ChamberWest Hall of Fame Award.
• Five Utah companies and organizations are on the “Best Companies for Women to Advance List 2021,” compiled by Parity.org. Among medium-sized companies are Domo, Lucid and Overstock.com. Among small companies are Davinci Virtual Office Solutions and United Way of Salt Lake. The list recognizes organizations that have implemented a mix of exemplary benefits, policies and programs that ensure women have significant opportunities to advance their careers.
RESTAURANTS
• The McHenry Group, a Salt Lake City-based restaurant and lifestyle concept incubator, has opened Sunday’s Best at 10672 S. State St., Sandy. It is an all-day brunch restaurant that is a collaboration between restaurateurs Michael McHenry and chef Tyler Stokes.
RETAIL
• Ross Dress for Less will open a new store on July 17 at Fashion Plaza at the southeast corner of East Winchester Street and State Street. The 26,500-square-foot store brings Ross’ total to 24 stores in Utah and 1,595 locations overall. Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts operate over 1,850 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Pattern, a Salt Lake City-based partner for global e-commerce acceleration, has added Mike Roth to its board of directors as a senior advisor. Roth has 20 years of experience building and scaling global operations at Amazon. Roth served as a senior leader and architect of Amazon’s transportation and operations programs globally. He led Amazon’s North America division and most recently served as vice president of global customer fulfillment operations, leading Amazon’s fulfillment teams in the Americas, Europe, Japan and India.