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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board, at its September meeting, recently approved a motion picture production incentive of up to $250,000 for Salty Pictures Inc. for its production of the fourth season of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” The first two seasons were shot in Utah and the third was shot in Los Angeles. It is expected to air on Disney+. The production is expected to spend nearly $18 million in Utah, including during principal photography scheduled for Sept. 20-Dec. 21 in Salt Lake County. The production is expected to employ 15 cast, 275 crew and 1,500 extras. The director is Kimberly McCullough. The producer is Zack Lowenstein.
• The Sundance Institute has selected Eugene Hernandez as Sundance Film Festival director and head of public programming. Hernandez has spent much of his 25 year career leading and advising nonprofit arts organizations and is a leader in the film and media industry. He has been connected to the institute since the early days of his career, attending the festival in the mid-1990s to build Indiewire, an online community for independent film. Hernandez will join Sundance in November from Film at Lincoln Center, where he has spent the past 12 years, currently as senior vice president of FLC, executive director of the New York Film Festival, and publisher of Film Comment. He will be based in New York and Los Angeles offices while also working in Sundance’s Park City office.
BANKING
• D.L. Evans Bank has appointed Morris Smith as vice president commercial loan officer at its South Ogden branch. Morris has over 32 years of banking experience, including serving as a branch manager for 10 years, construction and commercial loan officer for 13 years, a dealer loan Idaho/Utah regional manager for four years and a dealer loan manager for Utah for 5 years. Smith’s education includes receiving a two-year associate’s degree from Weber State University.
CONSTRUCTION
• Pentalon Construction Inc., Salt Lake City, has hired Lyle Kenney and Rich Davis as project managers. Kenney has experience working in Salt Lake City and has 35 years of project management experience. He will lead Pentalon’s Lotus Riverwalk project in Ogden, owned by the Lotus Co. Riverwalk consists of 101 units and nine townhomes. Davis relocated from New York to the Utah County area and has 25 years of construction experience. He will lead the 4800 Lofts project in Murray, owned by IMH Cos. and Next Level Homes. 4800 Lofts has 371 apartment units and 18,000 square feet of ground-level retail space.
CONTESTS
• The Small Business Administration’s Utah District Office is accepting nominations until 1 p.m. Dec. 8 for the 2023 National and District Small Business Week Awards, including the annual Small Business Person of the Year Award. Categories include Small Business Person of the Year (national and district awards), Small Business Exporter (national and district awards), 8(a) Graduate of the Year (national and district awards), Utah Rural Business of the Year (district award only), Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year (district award only), and Women-Owned Small Business of the Year (district award only). Guidelines for national awards can be found at sba.gov. Guidelines for district awards are at https://www.sba.gov/document/support-utah-district-nsbw-award-guidelines. The Utah District Office will be providing training for how to submit nominations via webinars Oct. 12 and Nov. 9, both at 10 a.m.
DIRECT SALES
• Nature’s Sunshine Products Inc., a Lehi-based producer of herbal and nutritional products, has announced the retirement of its chief financial officer, Joseph Baty, effective Sept. 30. Jonathan Lanoy will serve as interim CFO, principal financial officer and principal accounting officer until a full-time CFO has been appointed. Lanoy has been in the company’s finance department since 2008 and has served as corporate controller and vice president of finance since February 2017. Prior to joining Nature’s Sunshine, Lanoy was with public accounting firm Ernst & Young. Lanoy is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Masters of Professional Accountancy and a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from Weber State University.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Residents of Summit County are the highest-earners in Utah, according to a study by SmartAsset. It found that residents there have per capital income of $156,537. Summit County was followed, in order, by Wasatch, Grand, Salt Lake, Morgan, Davis, Daggett, Piuite, Weber and Utah counties. Details are at https://smartasset.com/mortgage/cost-of-living-calculator#Utah/perCapitaIncome-2.
Homes in Salt Lake City, Provo-Orem and Ogden-Clearfield are affordable only for homebuyers from four groups of professions, namely lawyers and judges, air transport workers and managers in some sectors, according to research by Storagecafe.com. It matched the 58 fastest-growing careers with the cities where those people can obtain a nice home. It concluded that if you want to become a homeowner now in Utah, you need to earn six figures. Average salaries in the state’s three largest metros are either slightly more or less than $60,000, while average home prices are clustered around the $500,000 mark. That translates into a qualifying income of $91,254 on average and a period needed to save up for down payment of 8.7 years. Between 2019 and 2021, average home prices in Salt Lake City rose 44 percent to $556,000, above the nationwide increase of 30 percent. Incomes in Salt Lake City, meanwhile, rose just 9 percent during the same period. IT professionals earn an average of $88,000 and will need an average of six years to save up for the down payment. Details are at https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/the-us-metros-where-most-professionals-can-still-afford-a-home/.
• The average Utah household pays $1,910 a month for the 10 most common household bills, according to a study by Doxo. Utah ranks 26th among states in terms of average monthly spending. Utah’s household expenses, on average, are 4.6 percent lower than the national average of $2,003. Utah households spend 33 percent of their income on household bills. In total, Utah residents pay $20 billion in household bills. Among 37 Utah cities and towns, residents of Park City pay the highest amount, an average of $2,679 per month. Logan has the lowest, at $1,497 on average. Salt Lake City pays $1,813.
• Utah is ranked No. 2, behind only Minnesota, on a list of “Best States for Millennials,” compiled by website Scholaroo. It considered 52 metrics in seven categories. Utah was No. 2 for employment, No. 6 for personal finance, No. 8 for quality of life, No. 10 for health, No. 16 for safety, No. 20 for political and social environment and No. 24 for affordability. On breakout lists, Utah is No. 4 for highest millennial homeownership rate and No. 2 for highest gender pay gap. The bottom-ranked state is Louisiana. Details are at https://scholaroo.com/best-states-for-millennials/.
• Utah is ranked No. 10 on a list of places where students are the most likely to drive the nation’s tech future, compiled by CodeWizardsHQ, a provider of coding classes for children and teens. Using data from Advocacy Coalition, it ranked the most and least progressive states when it comes to access and enrollment to computer science courses. The study revealed that Utah has a rural access rate of 77 percent and a minority access rate of 88 percent, with 74 percent of high schools offering computer science. The U.S. has a rural access rate of 49 percent for computer science studies and a minority student access rate of 72 percent. Across the country, 58 percent of high schools offer computer science as a subject. The top-ranked state is South Carolina. The bottom-ranked state is Louisiana. Details are at https://www.codewizardshq.com/it-index/.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 41 on a list of “2022’s Best Cities for Chocolate Lovers,” compiled by Lawn Love. It studied the 190 biggest U.S. cities for abundant chocolate factories and high-quality shops selling chocolate, including chocolatiers, dessert shops and patisseries. It also considered chocolate-themed entertainment like museums, tours, theme parks and events. The top-ranked city is New York City. The No. 190 city is Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-chocolate-lovers/.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Draper, has launched its Associate of Science in Respiratory Care program. The flexible degree blends online instruction with in-person skills training to help students earn ASRC while balancing school life with other priorities. The program requires no prerequisites and consists of 82 semester credit hours within six semesters. Graduates will be prepared to pass credentialing exams to obtain their credentials as certified and registered respiratory therapists. The program is seeking provisional accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care.
GOVERNMENT
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board, at its September meeting, recently approved a one-time $500,000 from the Industrial Assistance Account to support trade associations. Targeted associations include those focused on aerospace/defense, biotechnology and material processing. To be eligible, the associations must have a significant amount of industry involved in their work. No more than $250,000 will be awarded to any one association.
HEALTHCARE
• PolarityTE Inc., a Salt Lake City-based biotechnology company developing regenerative tissue products and biomaterials, has announced that Jeff Dyer has resigned from its board of directors after 5 1/2 years.
INVESTMENTS
• Inherent Biosciences, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on commercializing a diagnostic in the biotech field of epigenetics, has raised Series A funding from an investor group led by Los Angeles-based Propel Bio Partners. Numerous stakeholders from patients to physicians and reproductive healthcare executives also participated in the round, which included investments from Portfolia’s FemTech II Fund as well as Alliance of Angels. The amount was not disclosed. Inherent is commercializing an epigenetic sperm quality test. The company said the funding will enable it to expand its pipeline, scale commercial operations and generate further data.
LOGISTICS
• The Utah Inland Port Authority board recently selected Dan Hemmert as the authority’s treasurer. Hemmert is executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah). Hemmert previously owned and operated Red Hanger Cleaners and was a partner in five restaurants. Hemmert also served in the Utah Senate, where he was the Republican majority whip. Prior to dry cleaning and politics, Hemmert was a managing director of a private equity fund, the CFO of a family office/asset management firm, the CFO of a venture-backed technology company, and spent a year as an associate at a large international law firm.
PHILANTHROPY
• Big O Tires has donated $50,000 to sponsor Shriners Children’s “Walk for Love” at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. It took place Sept. 16, the same day of Shriners Children’s 100-year anniversary. Big O Tires has nearly 400 independently owned and operated locations in 19 states.
REAL ESTATE
• Square Mile Capital Management LLC, a New York-based institutional real estate and investment management firm, has originated a construction loan of $61.8 million to finance the ground-up development of 375 West Whitney Avenue in Salt Lake City, a six-story, Class A, multifamily project with 264 units. The loan was made to the Roers Cos., a real estate development firm based in Minnesota that has developed 50 properties totaling 5,400 units. The financing was arranged by Gary Sefcik and Phillip Gause from Marcus & Millichap’s New York and Denver offices, respectively.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah, a private, nonprofit organization, during its recent annual meeting in Salt Lake City honored two individuals and one company for their leadership in economic development. Mel Lavitt, former chair of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity board, received the Nick Rose Award for Leadership in Economic Development. It is presented to a private-sector individual that has demonstrated exceptional dedication to EDCUtah and economic development throughout the state. Danny Stewart, Cedar City economic development director, received the Thayne Robson Award for Leadership in Economic Development. It is given to a public-sector individual that has demonstrated exceptional dedication to EDCUtah and economic development throughout the state. Dominion Energy received the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Cornerstone Award in Economic Development. It 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.
• Ultradent Products Inc., a South Jordan-based developer and manufacturer of high-tech dental materials, has been recognized for the second year in a row as a “Top Large Workplace in Manufacturing and Production” by Fortune Magazine. The company was No. 8 last year and No. 5 this year. It is the only company in Utah, as well as the dental industry, to ever make the list. Fortune bases its rankings on an evaluation of the company’s culture, values, employee satisfaction and third-party employee surveys and feedback
• LUX Catering and Events, Salt Lake City, is a finalist in the Green/Sustainable Business Achievement Award category of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s annual Dream Big Awards program. The awards celebrate the achievements of small businesses and honor their contributions to America’s economic growth. Twenty-seven finalists in eight categories were selected from more than 3,000 applications. One finalist will be chosen as the Small Business of the Year Award winner for receiving the top score after several rounds of judging. The Dream Big Awards program includes eight Business Achievement Awards. Winners will be announced Oct. 18 at a virtual event.
RESTAURANTS
• Café Rio Mexican Grill will open three locations in Utah this fall: Salt Lake City at 2185 State Street on Sept. 23; Pleasant Grove at 875 S. North County Blvd. on Nov. 4; and Lone Peak at 9920 N. 4800 W., Cedar Hills, on Dec. 2. The first Cafe Rio Mexican Grill opened in 1997 in Southern Utah.
• Celebrity’s Soul Food has opened a location at 487 E. 12300 S., Draper. It is the first company location in Utah and the first bistro-style concept for the brand. Franchise owners are Scott and Anissa Hargraves.
RETAIL
• The Outlets at Traverse Mountain, Lehi, has announced that Puma, Claire’s, Sunglass Hut, Janela Bay and Sweet Bath Co. are all now open for business. Overall, more than 12,000 square feet of new retail is opening. It is the only Utah location for Puma, which is a global sportswear brand and the third-largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. Claire’s offers jewelry and other fashion accessories for girls. Sunglass Hut offers a variety of sunglasses. Janela Bay, established in 2015 in St. George, offers flattering and modest swimsuits. Sweet Bath Co. was founded by two local mothers. It offers bath bombs, body scrubs, shower steamers and different kinds of soap.
TECHNOLOGY
• Hh2 Cloud Services, a Kaysville-based provider of construction industry software, has appointed Norbert Orth to its board of directors. Orth will work with the company’s executive leadership team to help further define market and product strategy, and scale operations to meet industry demand. Based in Seattle, Orth previously was chief operating officer of Viewpoint, a Portland-based construction software firm. He also was CEO of Dexter+Chaney, a Seattle-based construction software firm, which Viewpoint acquired. Prior to that, he held a variety of executive leadership roles, including CEO of MessageGate, vice president of sales at WRQ, and regional director at Procter & Gamble. Orth is a board member and mentor for several software companies.
• Experlogix, a South Jordan-based company with European headquarters in Veenendaal, Netherlands, has hired Mark Conway as vice president of sales for EMEA and Angie Cox as vice president of sales for North America. Experlogix offers configure, price, quote and document automation software. Conway has over two decades of global experience in the software/IT services industry, managing clients across the U.S., U.K., Europe and Asia. Before joining Experlogix, Conway was executive director of EMEA at Flintfox since 2019. Cox has more than 20 years of sales leadership experience, with an extensive background in building and developing business units and teams. Before joining Experlogix, Cox led the acquisition of a B2B software solution to a software company.
• MX, a Lehi-based company focused on open finance, has named Nandita Gupta as chief product officer. She will oversee the company’s product and data science teams. Gupta has more than 25 years of experience leading product and engineering teams, scaling payment platforms, developing open banking capabilities, and building a financial institution and fintech partnership network. She most recently spent 17 years at PayPal, where she was responsible for PayPal’s internal “payment as a service” platforms and developed and managed the products and services responsible for PayPal’s overall authorization rate. Prior to PayPal, she was a trained software engineer, successful tech startup founder, and product manager at various companies, including Excite at Home, Primus Knowledge Solutions and Sun Microsystems.