No end in sight: For those still worried that Utah is headed for another downturn in the construction industry, just look around you. A bunch of major projects and hundreds of small ones are expected to keep things hopping for years to come

By Frances Johnson

 Ask anyone to describe Utah’s construction market in one word and they’ll all come up with the same one: “booming.”

“Things are looking phenomenal,” said Joey Gilbert, vice president of Associated General Contractors of Utah, which represents firms in heavy construction, industrial construction, road construction and municipal utilities. “This year [our members] are doing terrific as far as volume of work, type of project and number of projects.”

Several major projects around the state and across just about every industry are providing plenty of work for large construction firms and smaller subcontractors alike.  

Intermountain Healthcare alone is responsible for almost a half-dozen major projects. Alta View Hospital in Sandy, for example, is in the middle of a three-year renovation and reconstruction, slated to be completed in 2019. The project includes two new office towers and renovations to the hospital’s ER, InstaCare and surgical suites. The renovated campus will also include a helipad and space for new specialties such as podiatry and endocrinology — all for a price tag of $94 million.  

Remodels of Intermountain clinics in Bountiful, St. George and Layton are expected to be finished in the next few months. Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, another Intermountain facility, completed the first phase of a $430 million hospital replacement project last month when it opened the Sorenson Legacy Tower, a 12-story medical tower that includes an education center, a cancer care department, an InstaCare clinic, a simulation room and a Live Well Center. The rest of the project will be completed in 2019.

Healthcare isn’t the only sector where building is booming. Several of Utah’s colleges and universities also have major projects underway.

At the University of Utah, the George Thomas Building, which previously housed the university’s library and the Utah Museum of Natural History, is now the Crocker Science Building and winner of the 2018 AGC Utah Best Renovation Project award. 

Utah State University has invested $28 million in a new Clinical Services Building, which broke ground in the fall of 2016. The 100,000-square-foot facility will allow several university departments to merge into one space, including assessment, treatment and counseling services for minority and underserved populations. Southern Utah also got an infusion of construction work and revenue with the expansion and renovation of the Dixie Applied Technology College campus. The $30-plus-million, 150,000-square-foot project included a new classroom building and a new automotive building and was completed last fall.

And that’s not all. Vivint Smart Home Arena recently completed a $125 million renovation including re-seating of the entire bowl and a complete overhaul of the locker rooms, lounges, luxury suites, club spaces, press rooms and other spaces. A $50 million project was also just completed at the Real Salt Lake soccer training facility in Herriman. The new 208,000-square-foot facility includes eight soccer fields, a charter school and a stadium for the Real Salt Lake affiliate, Real Monarchs.

It all sounds like good news, but a boom like this comes with some growing pains.

“Lack of a skilled workforce continues to be a challenge and an area of focus for the association,” Gilbert said.

When the recession hit in 2008, many skilled workers left the construction industry for less-volatile sectors of the economy and attracting them back has been difficult, Gilbert said. Instead, the AGC workforce development committee has been working to educate high school students, as well as guidance counselors and career counselors about the opportunities that await the students in the construction industry. 

“That outreach has been a high priority for us for the past few years and continues to be,” Gilbert said.

The recession also made many in the construction industry wary of good news — the industry does have its ups and downs, Gilbert said.

But, if a downturn is coming to Utah, it’s a ways off. 

For example, the $3 billion renovation and expansion project at the Salt Lake City International Airport has an estimated three years left to complete Phase 1, which will include a new 908,000-square-foot terminal, a 1.7 million-square-foot parking garage, an elevated roadway and the beginnings of two new concourses that will be connected by a system of tunnels. The new concourses will include 25 new gates in the first phase, with more to be added later. The new concourse building will also include more retail space and restaurant options.

Once Phase 1 is complete, existing buildings will be torn down and new, updated versions erected in their place. By the time the project is fully completed — the end date is currently projected to be 2025 — every one of the existing airport buildings will have been demolished and replaced. At the height of construction, the project will take approximately 2,000 workers. It currently employs around 600.

The other major ongoing construction project in Utah is the state prison relocation, which Gilbert said is approaching a $1 billion price tag. Ground was broken in the summer of 2016 and completion is scheduled for 2020, with inmates relocating from the prison’s current Draper location in 2021. The completed facility will have two stories and a currently projected 3,600 beds. Due to its location on undeveloped land near the airport, construction also includes access roads and basic utilities.

Moving the prison also opens up construction opportunities in its former location at Point of the Mountain. Though any kind of development is still several years away, Gilbert said conversations about how to develop that space have already begun. Most likely the former prison site will house expansion of the high-tech corridor known as Silicon Slopes, which means a lot more construction ahead. 

Discussions are also beginning about how best to develop the inland port recently created by the state Legislature in the northwestern quadrant of the Salt Lake Valley. Supporters hope the port can capitalize on infrastructure from both the airport and new prison to create an international trade hub. The undeveloped land proposed for the port totals 38 square miles. The area is primed for “major development,” Gilbert said and, if developed correctly, the port could change distribution and logistics for the entire western United States.

And there’s much more. The Utah Department of Transportation will never finish building and rebuilding highways. Several major road reconstruction projects are underway with dozens more on the drawing board. Layton Construction is putting the finishing touches on the $275 million UPS operations hub in West Valley City and Big-D Construction is working on almost 2 million square feet of warehouse and distribution facilities in the Clearfield and Ogden area. And it’s virtually impossible to drive a mile in northern Utah without seeing significant retail, office or residential projects going up.

All of which is to say that caution and pessimism about Utah’s construction industry left over from the recession of 2008 are finally starting to fade.

“Most of the folks we talk to are optimistic that things will stay positive for the foreseeable future,” Gilbert said.