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ECONOMIC INDICATORS
- Utah has the nation’s second-worst teacher shortage, according to a study by education research firm and scholarship website engine Scholaroo. Utah has 44.22 teachers per 1,000 enrolled students. For comparison, Vermont has 97.6 and Nevada has 43.65. Details are at https://scholaroo.com/report/the-u-s-teacher-shortage-2023/.
- Salt Lake City is ranked No. 29 and West Valley City is No. 114 on a list of “Most Relaxed Cities,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on 42 stress factors and stress relievers, including depression rates, the average length of a workday, and access to spas and massage therapists. The top-ranked city is Sunnyvale, California. The No. 200 city is Detroit. Details are available at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/most-relaxed-cities/#rankings.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
- Salt Lake Community College and the University of Utah have joined to open the Juniper Building at 14551 S. Sentinel Ridge Blvd., Herriman. A first-of-its-kind collaboration in Utah, the three-story, $57 million, 92,000-square-foot building is on an 88-acre campus. By beginning with an associate’s degree at SLCC and transferring to the U for a bachelor’s degree, students will now have two degrees in one location. In addition to educational offerings, the Juniper Building will provide all enrolled students with the necessary resources and amenities such as admissions, financial aid and advising. While the Juniper facility is the first completed building, more buildings are anticipated to meet future growth on the Herriman campus. SLCC and the UofU expect that within the first year the new campus will serve over 2,000 students and grow to serve some 7,000 students by 2025. SLCC previously offered classes in Herriman when it opened the Herriman Annex at the former Herriman City Hall in 2018.
GOVERNMENT
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced $248,000 in Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant program funding to help Utah communities address stormwater and sewer infrastructure needs. Program updates are designed to ensure that small and financially distressed communities receive grant assistance at no cost. This funding for Utah is part of the $50 million in grants that EPA made available nationally.
HEALTHCARE
- Neuragenex, a company focused on non-pharmaceutical and non-invasive pain management treatments, has opened clinic locations in Bluffdale and Lehi. Opening soon are locations in Cottonwood Heights, Herriman, Orem, South Jordan and St. George.
INSURANCE
- MGIS, a Salt Lake City-based disability insurance provider for doctors, has named Dr. Islam Fayed as the winner of its annual Dale Brunken Annual Student Loan Repayment Award. Fayed is a doctor of neurosurgery with Cooper University Health Care in Camden, New Jersey. The award provides a $15,000 payment to the winner to go toward repaying student loan debt.
INVESTMENTS
- WGU Labs, an affiliate of Salt Lake City-based Western Governors University, has invested in Julius, a social impact company with the mission to solve the talent needs of the rapidly transitioning clean energy industry by providing inclusive solutions to start and grow green careers. Financial terms were not disclosed. The engagement will use WGU Labs’ supportive ecosystem to accelerate Julius’s scale and impact on the green workforce through research and go-to-market enhancement activities to improve the distribution and adoption of their solutions into the labor market at scale. WGU Labs and Julius also will conduct a labor market analysis to pioneer a Workforce Readiness Index to measure the green talent economy. Julius represents the 23rd partnership for the accelerator at WGU Labs since its inception in 2019.
- LoanPro, a Farmington-based lending platform company, has announced a minority equity investment in TrueNorth, a New York City-based global financial technology services company. The amount was not disclosed.
MANUFACTURING
- Northrop Grumman Corp. has manufactured the first set of solid rocket motor cases for the Missile Defense Agency’s Next-Generation Interceptor program in Clearfield. The completed cases will be filled with inert propellent and shipped to Alabama, where they will be integrated into an interceptor, continuing pathfinder activities and further proving out processes. Once integration is complete, the interceptor will be used for additional testing and process verification.
PARTNERSHIPS
- EdX, a global online learning platform from 2U Inc., has launched a new Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp in partnership with several universities, including the University of Utah. The online, part-time, 24-week program is designed for learners with little to no prior technical training who want to rapidly build the skills needed for an entry-level technical role requiring AI skills. Classes will begin this fall, with the UofU welcoming its first cohort in November.
PHILANTHROPY
- Carl’s Jr. restaurants gave away 4,500 backpacks to children visiting restaurants in Utah and Idaho Halls on Aug. 19. Participating restaurants gave backpacks to children 18 years and younger. Carl’s Jr. has more than 1,000 locations across the U.S. and a presence in 28 countries worldwide. Snow Star LP, a privately held company based in Salt Lake City, runs and operates Carl’s Jr. With both a U.S. and international footprint, Snow Star LP has 44 franchised restaurants in two states.
- IMA Salt Lake City, former Diversified Insurance, in partnership with the IMA Foundation, recently hosted its inaugural “Pickle Palooza” fundraising event in Sandy, with more than 150 people competing in pickleball to raise an expected $80,000 for the IMA Foundation. The nonprofit organizations Children’s Center of Utah and Success in Education were recognized after receiving grant funding from the IMA Foundation within the past year.
- The South Valley Chamber of Commerce is collaborating with five local hotels to launch a two-month pilot program aimed at enhancing guest experiences and raising awareness about menstrual product accessibility. The initiative is set to provide complimentary period products to hotel guests. The participating hotels are Hilton Garden Inn-Sandy, Residence Inn-Sandy, Courtyard by Marriott-Sandy, Embassy Suites-South Jordan and Hampton Inn-Draper.
REAL ESTATE
- The SkyRim Project will be a 38.14-acre master-planned multifamily and commercial development in Hurricane, according to an announcement by NAI Excel. The community is proposed to include 519 total residential units and 76,419 square feet of commercial space. Jon Walter and Kevin O’Brien represented Steward Land Co. in the acquisition of the property.
RECOGNITIONS
- Salt Lake’s Downtown Alliance has presented Caryn Bradshaw, managing director of Sports Salt Lake, with the Vasilios Priskos Honor Award for extraordinary contributions to downtown’s vitality, safety and livability. It was presented at Downtown Alliance’s annual State of Downtown event. The Vasilios Priskos Honors are presented to a downtown creator who typically works behind the scenes, a person that has made a big difference in a quiet way. Bradshaw has helped sculpt Sports Salt Lake, an initiative of Visit Salt Lake, and has championed Salt Lake County as an attractive location for sporting events.
- Lucid Software, a South Jordan-based visual collaboration company, has been ranked No. 62 on the Forbes Cloud 100, an annual ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world. It is the fourth consecutive year for the company to be ranked. The ranking is published by Forbes in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures.
- Domo, an American Fork-based company offering a data experience platform, has been named to the Q2 2023 Constellation ShortList for Multicloud Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms for the eighth consecutive year. The company was also named to the first-ever Q2 2023 Embedded Analytics ShortList. The Constellation ShortList vendors were determined through Constellation’s client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share and internal research. The firm evaluated more than 25 vendor solutions in the market.
RESTAURANTS
- Vessel Kitchen has announced it will open its seventh restaurants in Salt Lake City International Airport’s Concourse A this fall. The company opened its first location in 2016 in Park City.
- Burly Burger has selected the West Haven Salt Point development for its next location. Mountain West Commercial Real Estate helped secure the retail space for Burly Burger, with the lease negotiation process facilitated by agents Mike Medina, Alberto Vazquez and Parker Dixon. Shaydon Wood and Adam Hawkes represented the landlord. The West Haven Salt Point Development is being developed by CW Urban.
RETAIL
- Cameron Ashley Building Products, based in South Carolina, has opened its first distribution center in Utah at 570 W. 1700 S., Building 2, Suite 1000, Salt Lake City. The new location is expected to stock drywall, acoustical ceilings, fiberglass insulation, residential and commercial spray foam and associated accessories. Salt Lake City customers previously were serviced by a Las Vegas distribution center.
- Ross Dress for Less will open a new store Oct. 7 at the northeast corner of West Telegraph Street and 700 West in Washington. The 22,000-square-foot store is in the Cotton Mill II Center. Ross Dress for Less and DD’s Discounts currently operate over 2,000 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam.
SCHOLARSHIPS
- V School, based in Salt Lake City, Meta and Impact Magazine are collaborating to offer a full-ride scholarship in UX/UI design exclusively for a black woman, alongside $500,000 in partial scholarships of $2,000 each for other qualifying and selected applicants. The recipient of the full-ride scholarship will also receive a Macbook laptop provided by Meta. The collaboration is expected to help 240 students transition to high-paying careers in the tech industry.
SERVICES
- Cicero, a Salt Lake City-based management consulting firm, has appointed Jason Richards as senior partner. He will leverage his industry insights to drive strategy and transformation engagements. Before joining Cicero, Richards served as the executive director at sPower’s Sustainable Power Group, where he led the company’s sales operations and marketing efforts. Prior to that, he was head of business development at Clearlink and served as the business operations manager at Progrexion. Richards earned an MBA and bachelor’s degrees in business management and business marketing from the University of Utah.
TECHNOLOGY
- Fortem Technologies, a Pleasant Grove-based company focused on airspace awareness, security and defense for detecting and defeating dangerous drones, has appointed Tom Thebes as chief financial officer. Former CFO Greer Carper will be transitioning to a new role as the company’s senior vice president of corporate development and strategy. Thebes has nearly 40 years of financial and operational management experience, specifically in the manufacturing and defense sectors. His prior positions include CFO and vice president of finance at Armor Express, Blue Force Gear, Domo Tactical Communications, Protected Vehicles Inc., and Force Protection Inc., as well as executive vice president of operations/CFO at Chemring.
- RizePoint, a Salt Lake City-based company offering quality management software, has promoted Paul Damaren to chief revenue officer. He will lead RizePoint’s global revenue strategy and oversee the company’s sales and marketing initiatives. Damaren previously was executive vice president of business development.
- RainFocus, a Lehi-based provider of an event marketing platform, has opened registration for its “Insight 2024” event. With the theme “Amplifying Impact,” the program will bring together people from events, marketing, technology and more to discover data, trends and solutions. It kicks off in November with a series of virtual events leading up to the hybrid Insight conference, set for Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at the Hyatt Regency in Salt Lake City and online.