Urban flea market draws eclectic crowd

This weekend marked the launch of the third annual Urban Flea Market in downtown Salt Lake City. The event is an affordable marketplace where an array of eclectic, vintage used and new items are for sale, including clothing, original artwork, furniture, tools, oddball knickknacks and other things, said co-founder and executive director Kate Wheadon.

It is the biggest downtown flea market and a great place to find and sell antiques, secondhand and locally made treasures, said co-founder Michael Sanders.

The monthly events are held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the second Sunday of every month through October, with selected dates for the market on June 9, July 14, Aug. 11, Sept. 8 and Oct. 13. There are booth spaces available for up to 70 vendors with free parking for patrons, Wheadon said. Deseret News

City, county move toward cooperative management of downtown theater

Local celebrity Kurt Bestor was among the seven people who praised the upcoming Utah Performing Arts Center and the cooperation agreement during a public hearing Tuesday night.

Gunter Radinger, a downtown business owner and arts enthusiast, said the cooperation agreement will keep consistent oversight between the new and existing arts venues. A longtime supporter of the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera and the Pioneer Theatre Company, Radinger's primary concern is that none of the older groups and venues suffers once the new theater opens.

Of the 19 comments submitted to the City Council by email, the majority voiced opposition to the UPAC project in general. They did not, however, speak specifically against the interlocal agreement, according to a council memo.

The council voted 5-2 in support of adopting the cooperative resolution, with an amendment from Councilwoman Jill Remington Love.

The amendment stipulates that any public entity issuing bonds for the theater have authority to conduct an annual financial audit, extend the time given members to establish a UPAC board and requiring the UPAC board to review the details of the Arts Accessibility Program with the City Council prior to implementation.

Love's motion was a pared-down version of an amendment proposed by Councilman Soren Simonsen that would have also required the city and county councils be copied on all UPAC communications, as well as establishing an amount for each ticket sold that would be designated for the Arts Accessibility Program.


Love said the simplified amendment wouldn't micromanage the Center for the Arts and would allow flexibility in designing the Arts Accessibility Program.

Earlier in the day, members of the Salt Lake County Council voted 4-2 to support the operational model.

Council Chairman Steve DeBry, who was joined in a nay vote by David Wilde, said his opposition wasn't necessarily to the operational decisions being made, but to the center in general.

"For me to say I'm for it is contrary to my initial vote," DeBry said. "I’m just think we're risking cannibalizing our other facilities that we manage and we own."

Current financial struggles contributed to DeBry's opposition, he said.

A full quorum was not available for the County Council's meeting Tuesday afternoon, so the decision will have to be ratified next week. Deseret News

Murray council denies request for more Utopia funds

City Council members on Tuesday rejected a request to appropriate $168,800 in additional funding for the financially troubled UTOPIA fiber-optic network.

The money would have been used for operating expenses for UTOPIA (the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency), a consortium of 11 municipalities that is building the high-speed network.

The 4 to 1 vote followed a public hearing in which a dozen speakers opposed giving UTOPIA any more money. Councilman Darren Stam voted to appropriate the money, saying providing the funding would be less expensive in the long run than other options, which include pulling the plug entirely and allowing the project to "go dark."

Opponents at the meeting said enough is enough. Pam Squires described UTOPIA as a "money pit" from the start, while Mike Adams said the agency’s business models aren’t working.

Murray is among the 11 member cities that joined UTOPIA a decade ago; the group committed to $185 million in bond debt that stretches through 2040. The economic downturn, coupled with missteps, led Murray and seven other member cities to form the Utah Infrastructure Agency (UIA) in 2010 to approve an additional $60 million in bonds to rescue the floundering project.

Murray has already paid out $3.6 million for its share and remains on the hook for $58.6 million. The city’s fiber-optic lines are 64 percent built out, and about 22 percent of residents and 10 percent of businesses who could attach to the lines have done so. Only about 10,000 subscribers among all member cities have connected to the network, which has had nine consecutive years of operating losses.

UTOPIA has drawn criticism from Utah lawmakers, who are considering a bill that would make it impossible for the network to use money from the future sale of bonds to fund its day-to-day operations. SB172 would prohibit cities and counties from selling bonds after May 14 to build projects and then use any of that money to operate them more than one year after the debt was issued. Salt Lake Tribune

Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund Board Approves Funding for 497 Affordable Housing Units in Utah

The Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund Board approved $6,933,092 in low interest loans for housing projects throughout the state of Utah during a funding meeting held here on January 24.

Salt Lake County will be home to many of the approved projects, other projects will be constructed in Grand and Weber Counties. Department of Workforce Services

Fuel Your School Program Benefits Nearly 700,000 Students in Nine Communities across the U.S.

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and DonorsChoose.org today announced that its Fuel Your School program funded $4.49 million, benefiting local classroom projects at 1,733 K-12 public schools across the country and impacting a total of 697,904 students in 2012.

Through Chevron's Fuel Your School program, 5,673 teachers in nine markets received critical classroom resources.

Through the Fuel Your School program, Chevron contributed $1 for purchases of eight or more gallons, up to a total contribution of nearly $5 million, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 31 at participating Chevron and Texaco stations in nine U.S. markets, including Salt Lake and Davis counties. In total, $4.49 million dollars were generated to benefit [nationwide] public school classroom projects posted on DonorsChoose.org.

The purpose of the Fuel Your School program is to help support and improve critical education programming and materials, particularly in the STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and math - to help prepare students for the growing number of technical jobs in the modern economy, including possible engineering positions at Chevron. Market Watch

Utah gives Boeing incentives to open 787 tail piece factory

Aircraft maker Boeing Co. announced Friday it will expand manufacturing operations in Utah by opening a third factory in the Salt Lake City area to fabricate a tail piece for the Boeing 787.

Boeing is taking over a factory originally built by KraftMaid Cabinetry in the Salt Lake suburb of West Jordan.

Boeing has 575 employees in Utah and said it will add 100, paying factory wages that state officials said will average $65,000 a year.

Hiring will begin immediately for engineers and project managers, and Boeing will add production workers after converting the KraftMaid factory into a production facility for carbon-fiber aircraft parts, said Craig Trewet, director of Boeing Salt Lake.

Chicago-based Boeing assembles the 787 in Seattle and has had operations in Utah for 25 years.
It makes flight deck parts, has a paint shop and assembles the 787’s vertical tail fin at other locations near Salt Lake’s airport. In West Jordan, Boeing will make horizontal stabilizers for the aircraft’s tail.

“The site we’ve chosen is an ideal location to add composite manufacturing capability focused on Boeing’s key business strategies,” said Ross Bogue, vice president and general manager of Boeing Fabrication. “This new facility will provide a real competitive advantage in our supply chain.”
Boeing said it will take two years to redesign the 850,000-square-foot factory.

Gov. Gary Herbert joined company officials Friday for the announcement and has authorized tax incentives and other benefits for Boeing’s expansion.

The company will be entitled to a 20 percent rebate on payroll, income and sales taxes at the new location for a maximum incentive of $1.3 million over 10 years, said Michael Sullivan, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

In addition, Utah offered Boeing up to $225,000 in matching funds to train new manufacturing workers.

That makes it more likely that Boeing will hire Utah residents rather than bring in workers from other locations, Sullivan said. Standard Examiner

Utah’s Health Catalyst gets $33M in new funding

Utah-based Health Catalyst said Tuesday it had secured $33 million in new investment to help it keep up with growth in the rapidly expanding demand for electronic records for the health care industry.

The company, which has offices in the Cottonwood Heights area of Salt Lake County, said it had received the funding from Norwest Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital, both from the Bay Area, and Sorenson Capital of Utah.

Bullock said Sorenson’s $5 million investment was prompted by Health Catalyst’s position in helping deliver efficient results for health care providers. Health care is the No. 1 economic and humanitarian issue facing the U.S., he said.

"Being able to address that with quality of care and efficiency of care is what [Health Catalyst] does," Bullock said.

Health Catalyst provides software for what it calls a data warehouse, a database that stores information gathered by physicians and others regarding diagnoses and treatments of patients. It then analyzes that information in order to tell providers what works best for patients and what improvements might be made to improve outcomes and make systems more financially efficient.

Burton said the company in the past two years has brought out about 40 programs designed to measure outcomes and costs of specific conditions and diseases, such as diabetes.

Health Catalyst faces stiff competition from some industry database heavyweights such as Oracle and IBM, said Burton. But he said the Utah company’s advantage in the marketplace is that its products were designed specifically for health care providers and were not adopted from other industries. That’s important given the complexity of health care information and its analysis, Burton said.

The company has about 65 employees and is hiring, he said. Salt Lake Tribune

Crown Auto Holdings Closes Up Shop

Crown Auto Holdings, a publicly held Salt Lake City-based company whose shares were traded over-the-counter, said it dissolved its operations on Dec. 31, 2012 with the approval of its sole director and majority stockholder.

The company, in a statement announcing the move, said all of its assets and inventor were assigned to a Utah corporation owned by its director in consideration of an agreement that saw its majority shareholder agree to take on the liabilities of the business.

As of Nov. 30, Crown Auto’s liabilities exceeded its assets by approximately $208,000, the statement said.

Crown Auto’s business centered around the purchase of vehicles at auctions in Nevada and the transporting them to Utah for sale. The company focused its business on credit-challenged buyers who were unable to qualify for financing through traditional sources.

The company said it will ask the OTC Markets Inc. to delist the company’s shares. Salt Lake Tribune

Utah Enters into 20-year Incentive Agreement with Boeing to Boost High-tech Job

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development has announced that it will work with The Boeing Company over the coming years to expand the number of high-tech manufacturing jobs located in its Utah operations.

GOED will enter into a 20-year incentive agreement with Boeing. The main goal of the agreement, which may have incremental adjustments during its life, is to increase composite manufacturing in the State. Currently, Boeing manufactures 787-8 and -9 vertical fin in Utah, and in March announced it would assemble the 787-9 horizontal stabilizer.

The first phase of employment will include the addition of 104 new highly incented positions that will pay at least 125 percent of Salt Lake County’s average yearly wage including benefits over the life of the agreement. Wages paid out over the life of the incentive will exceed $146 million. Over the lifetime of the agreement, Boeing will pay over $5.5 million in new state taxes.

Along with Boeing’s growing work in process, the addition of 104 new positions will help the company support airplane production rate increases. The Department of Workforce Services (DWS) and the Industrial Assistance Fund (IAF) will be matching Boeing training funds up to $225,000 for specialty training. In addition to this training DWS will be providing up to $100,000 in inaugural “WorkKeys” funding in Utah. “WorkKeys” is a national program that allows the company to have greater accuracy in determining the skill set of potential new employees. These programs working in tandem should allow the company to increase the proficiency of its incoming workforce.

As the world’s leading Aerospace company, Boeing is the largest manufacturer of commercial and military aircrafts and leads the world in aerospace technology. They are also one of NASA’s largest service providers and are in charge of operating the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. Boeing has operations in roughly 70 countries and customers in nearly 150 countries worldwide. They are headquartered in Chicago and employ more than 170,000 people. They are one of the largest exporters in terms of sales in the United States.

The GOED Board of Directors has approved a $1,376,254 Economic Development Tax Increment Financing (EDTIF) post-performance refundable tax credit, or 25 percent of Boeing’s new state revenues over the incentive’s 20 year lifetime. Standard Examiner

Tooele County Commissioners Questioned After More Layoffs

Revenue shortfalls have led to rounds of layoffs for Tooele County employees, and county leaders' actions are falling into question.

The county's financial issues started when the last weapon was destroyed at Deseret Chemical Depot in January and, subsequently, federal money stopped coming in. The county now has $23 million to work with for 2013 compared with $27 million in 2012 — a $4 million shortfall.

County layoffs began in August, when 22 county employees were let go.

Then in September, county commissioners asked department heads to cut at least 15 percent from their budgets. The cuts resulted in 22 more layoffs.

Some former employees have voluntarily retired and saw the county's revenue decrease coming years ago, and the commissioners had taken no action to increase revenue.

County commissioners say they chose those cuts over a tax increase. In fact, the county hasn't raised taxes since 1987. Deseret News

Salt Lake City RDA Loans $4.5 Million to Broadway Park Lofts

Board votes unanimously to finish project halted by housing crash.

The Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency is pumping new blood, in the form of a $4.5 million loan, into the partially finished Broadway Lofts near Pioneer Park.

"The significance is we finally have a rock-solid developer to finish the project," said Kyle LaMalfa, chairman of the RDA board, which is made up of the Salt Lake City Council.

Ken Milo, the original developer of the high-rise condo project nestled on the east side of 300 South, across from Pioneer Park between 300 and 400 West, ran into hard times in 2009 when the economy and the housing market hit the skids.

But the RDA continued to look at the project as a prime example of future urban living. Earlier this year, the RDA was poised to loan Milo $4.5 million to finish the project, but the deal fell apart.

Enter Micah Peters and James Chellis, who formed BPL South Tower LLC. They acquired the unfinished project for $3.5 million, according to an RDA report, and doubled back to the RDA for a $4.5 million loan.
Tuesday, the board unanimously approved the loan that is expected to be repaid in two years.

"The loft project brings with it an urban lifestyle, like none other [in Salt Lake City]," LaMalfa said. "It’s for people who want to downsize and don’t need a lot of square footage, but want to be in proximity to what’s happening downtown."

It is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. Salt Lake Tribune

Lawsuits Suggest Historic Salt Lake City Mall in Financial Distress

A lawsuit filed in 3rd District Court this month by Bank of America claims that property owner Trolley Square Associates defaulted on a loan and owes more than $57.6 million plus interest and fees. The suit states that Trolley Square has failed to act in accordance with loan documents and turn over income generated by the

shopping center once the loan went into default.

Bank of America officials are asking the court to appoint a receiver to run the mall to secure and collect rents from tenants.

Another lawsuit, filed in 3rd District Court in September by maintenance and engineering firm Sentinel Building Services, accuses Trolley Square Associates, management company Unico Properties and senior property manager Dawn Katter of failing to correct several building, fire, health and safety code issues at the property.

In spring 2012, Sentinel stated that it brought the safety issues to the attention of Katter and demanded that the conditions be corrected. In doing so, explaining the seriousness of the violations with regard to building codes, Occupational Safety and Heath Administration regulations and safety codes designed to protect the public.

The suit alleges that Katter refused the request, acting on behalf Trolley Square and Unico. Thereafter, Trolley Square's owners and management conspired to avoid spending the money to make the repairs necessary to bring the mall into compliance with building, health, fire and safety codes, the lawsuit alleges.

The suit further alleges that in furtherance of the conspiracy, the ownership and management wrongfully terminated the maintenance contract with Sentinel. The lawsuit seeks general and punitive damages.

Calls to ScanlanKemperBard, the Portland, Ore.-based owner of Trolley Square Associates, were not returned.

Longtime Trolley Square merchant John Cottam, owner of the The Spectacle custom eyeglass shop, said news of the alleged financial problems were troubling.

"It's very scary. I'm very concerned about it," Cottam said. Deseret News

Zions Bank maintains streak as top SBA lender

Zions First National Bank once again ranks as the top lender of U.S. Small Business Administration loans in Utah.

The bank, a subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp, has ranked in the No. 1 spot for the past 19 years. It has been the top SBA lender in Idaho’s Boise SBA district for the past 11 consecutive years.

Zions said that along with its affiliates it approved 437 SBA loans in Utah, totaling $44.1 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 10. Those loans represented 40 percent of the 1,071 SBA-backed loans approved in the state during fiscal 2012.

According to SBA data, the loans helped Utah businesses hire 1,212 new employees and retain 2,289 positions.

"Roughly 97 percent of companies in Utah qualify as small businesses, and we know they help fuel our economic growth because they are the principal source of new jobs," Scott Anderson, Zions president and CEO, said in a statement.

Zions also leads other financial institutions in Utah in marketing SBA loans to women- and minority-owned businesses and startups. During fiscal 2012, 32 percent of the SBA loans approved by Zions were to women and minorities, and 34 percent were made to new businesses. Salt Lake Tribune

Business-for-sale market rebounding in Salt Lake City, U.S.

The small business-for-sale market is getting healthier, both nationally and in the Salt Lake City area. BizBuySell.com, which describes itself as the largest online business-for-sale marketplace, said the number of businesses changing hands nationally during the third quarter was up 2.8 percent, compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

In Salt Lake City, the cost to buy an existing business reflects that trend, with the median asking price at $383,500 during the quarter, compared with $230,000 a year ago. The median means that half of the owners of existing businesses were asking more than that amount for their companies and half were asking less.

During the third quarter, the 176 Salt lake City-area businesses that were listed for sale had median revenue of $450,567, up from $348,853 in the same period last year. The median cash flow — the money that comes out of the business over the course of a year — stood at $450,567, up from $348,853 in the third quarter of 2011. Salt Lake Tribune

SBA Web chat series to offer tips for Utah women entrepreneurs

The Small Business Administration is inviting Utah women who are interested in starting a business to participate in a series of one-hour Web chats during October.

In conjunction with Nation Women’s Small Business Month, the SBA chats will offer advice on how to put together business plans, navigate the challenges of entering competitive markets, and establish the foundation for a successful and profitable enterprise.

Subjects include: Starting and Growing Your Business, Finding Capitol, Contracting with the Federal Government and Business Opportunities for Young Women. Salt Lake Tribune

To see archived Web chats, visit here.

1,000,000 S.F. Lease to The Sun Products Corp. is Largest Transaction Ever in Salt Lake City

NAI West, The Sun Products Corporation, and Freeport West Industrial Properties recently completed Utah’s largest lease transaction in 2012.

The 1,000,000 square foot lease, located at Freeport West Landmark Industrial Park, will allow Sun Products to better optimize its Salt Lake City distribution centers. By consolidating their warehousing from six buildings to two main distribution centers, the company will realize significant complexity reduction, better workforce utilization, reduced local transportation requirements (reduced emissions), and improved customer responsiveness.

The property is made up of two buildings but will operate as one primary distribution facility: one building was completed and delivered this month, and an adjacent twin building to be completed in the third quarter of 2013. The buildings will provide warehouse, office, and light manufacturing space.

The buildings are being built by Big-D Construction, who provides a variety of construction management, design-build and general contracting services in Utah, California, Wyoming, and Arizona.

This successful transaction highlights the continued growth of Utah’s commercial real estate market and the state’s ability to attract and retain leading businesses. Utah Facilities

U. of Utah holds out hat for tech transfer

At a time when the University of Utah is tapping the philanthropic community to fund scholarships and buildings for research, academics, athletics and cultural amenities, the school this week added another request: funding for technology commercialization.

Money donated to a new Gateway Crimson Innovation Fund will help push university inventions, such as medical devices and treatments, drugs, energy technologies and software, into the marketplace.

Officials are seeking "venture philanthropists" to kick in $2 million in the fund’s first year, according to a press release issued Thursday.

The money will also be used to enhance education, since students are deeply involved with commercializing U. technologies, according to vice president for institutional advancement Fred Esplin. The press release, however, emphasized non-educational needs: securing patents; further research and development; creating prototypes; hiring management teams; and crafting marketing materials.

Funding for such activities historically comes from the University of Utah Research Foundation, a subsidiary non-profit that owns the U.’s portfolio of intellectual property arising from mostly federally funded research. The foundation reaps millions each year in royalties and licensing fees, which is dispersed to faculty inventors and their departments and supports commercialization. Salt Lake Tribune

Does Salt Lake City need an anchor hotel for convention center?

This week's USANA International Convention and the most recent visit of the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market rekindled the debate over whether downtown Salt Lake City should build a large hotel adjacent to the Salt Palace Convention Center.

The USANA event brought in an estimated 8,500 attendees and is expected to generate nearly $7.5 million in total visitor spending to Salt Lake and the state of Utah. The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, the state's largest annual convention, attracted 1,200 vendors, nearly 27,000 attendees and generated almost $25 million in visitor spending.

Total visitor spending figures are based on surveys of convention delegates conducted by the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Surveys conducted by the research group over the past five years indicate the average delegate spends $923 while attending a convention in Salt Lake.

Ensign said that the total estimated cost for such a project would be in the $300 million range. He said providing such significant financial support for a convention center hotel would be unfair to other hoteliers that built and upgraded their properties with no public funding.

He said subsidization could take various forms including property tax abatements, bonding or tax increment financing. Either way, such assistance would give the new property an unfair advantage. Deseret News

University of Utah eyes future stadium expansion

The University of Utah wants to expand Rice-Eccles Stadium to boost capacity by 10,000 seats and create booster areas for Ute football, a school administrator confirmed Tuesday.

The potential expansion is in a “conceptual phase” with no timetable for completion.

The university has conducted some feasibility analysis on a stadium expansion and the cost could range from $40 million to $60 million, Mike Perez, associate vice president for facilities management, said. Deseret News