Under one (big) roof, Utah offers low-cost way to do business

Informally known as the "Crossroads of the West," Utah long has been viewed as a place ideally suited as a staging ground for the movement of manufactured goods between the East and West coasts, Canada and Mexico.

A study by The Boyd Co. of Princeton, N.J., found that the state and the Salt Lake City area in particular, have a lot more going for them than just their central location and easy access to the interstate highway system and major railroad lines. The cost of operating a 500,000-square-foot distribution warehouse locally, that employed 175 workers at annual salary of $31,500 was $15.1 million a year, the second lowest among 30 cities it studied.

Many cash-strapped communities are actively courting logistics industries because the economic benefits are clear, he said. Large warehouses that sit on huge parcels of property can translate into a significant source of property tax revenue. And many of the jobs no longer entail just stacking cardboard boxes or driving a forklift to move and load pallets of merchandise onto a waiting truck.

For Utah, that means the competition for new warehousing projects will be getting a lot tougher, John Boyd Jr., a principal in The Boyd Co. said. Still, he anticipates that new warehouse and distribution facilities will be a major source of new investment and jobs for the state in the years ahead, making the state a major player. Salt Lake Tribune

Commercial real estate activity returning to normal

Salt Lake County’s multifaceted commercial real estate industry— made up of retail, industrial, office and apartment markets that don’t always move in tandem — is entering the new year in better shape than in a long time.

It’s not back to 2007, when industries were humming and the recession was yet to hit in full force. But many of the components that the commercial real estate sector uses to measure the sector’s vigor have stabilized over the past two years, and 2013 shows signs of shaping up nicely.

Last week, the commercial real estate and consulting firm released its annual review of commercial real estate action in Utah’s biggest counties. Although the office, industrial and real estate markets are each driven by different factors, the overall level of activity suggests that the industry is returning to normal long-term performance levels. Salt Lake Tribune

Free Tax Training Workshops

The Utah Department of Workforce Services has partnered with the Utah State Tax Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Labor Commission to offer a free  All Day Small Business Employer Workshop held on the third Thursday of each month at:

Salt Lake Community College, Larry H. Miller Campus
9750 South 300 West, Sandy, Utah 84070
Directions and map to SBDC

This workshop is designed to help small business owners and self employed persons with employees learn how and when to report Unemployment Insurance Contributions.  They will also learn how to withhold income for federal and state taxes, social security, and how to calculate Workers Compensation Insurance. Participants learn how to complete employment tax  forms and deposit taxes.

Prior registration is not required but is appreciated as it allows the taxpayer education coordinator to ensure seating and handouts.  For questions, call 801-957-4654. To register, call 801-957-5200.

The Utah State Tax Commission also offers workshops and online tutorials on the following:

Sales Business/Employer Withholding
Tax Implications For Business
Choosing a Business Entity

For further information on the above workshops you may go to: http://tax.utah.gov/training/

Utah-based Trucking Company Can't Find Enough Drivers

Even amid a struggling economy with high unemployment, trucking companies had a tough time hiring young drivers willing to hit the road for long hauls. Now the U.S. is speeding toward a critical shortage of truck drivers in the next few years as the economy recovers and demand for goods increases, an expert in the inner-workings of supply chains said in a report Tuesday.

U.S. companies are expected to create more than 115,000 truck driver jobs per year through 2016, but the number of Americans getting trained to fill those jobs each year is barely 10 percent of the total demand, said Page Siplon, executive director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics.

Siplon looked at a range of supply-chain jobs —from truck drivers and warehouse workers to air cargo supervisors — using career-specific employment forecasts by the U.S. Department of Labor and then comparing those numbers with Education Department statistics showing how many degrees and certifications for those jobs are being earned each year.

The results found truck drivers will account for 43 percent of expected growth in logistics jobs, but those will also be the positions with the fewest workers trained to fill them.

That doesn’t surprise Tom Pronk, vice president of recruiting for C.R. England, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based company that employs 7,500 truck drivers who deliver foods from companies such as Hershey, Nestle, ConAgra and Coca-Cola to retailers.

“We have an endless need basically in the industry,” Pronk said. “Everybody I talk to is very thirsty for drivers. My personal opinion is it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.”

Truck drivers make decent money. The Department of Labor says the median yearly wage for tractor-trailer drivers is $37,770, with some drivers earning more than $57,000. Handte and Pronk both said some drivers can clear $100,000 a year.

Both men said older drivers are feeling pressured to retire by federal safety regulations enacted in 2010 that keep a closer watch on drivers’ work hours, drug testing any tickets and traffic citations they get on the job. And the job can be hard to sell to younger workers who don’t think it’s worth the money to spend days and weeks on the road away from their families.

Truck drivers don’t need college degrees but they do need to earn a commercial driver’s license. That can take a month or longer of taking classes that cost $3,000 or more.

Trucking companies are trying different approaches to lure young drivers into their rigs. Some offer higher wages — a few extra cents per mile —or work with their drivers to carve our shorter routes designed to get them home sooner. C.R. England, which operates five driver training schools in the U.S., is refunding tuition to graduates after they work six months for the company.

David Sheehy of Greely, Colo., just graduated from the company’s school in Salt Lake City. He’ll be paired with an experienced driver for the next month, perhaps longer, before hitting the road on his own.

Sheehy, 32, said economic hardships in his hometown pushed him toward trucking after years of bouncing between different jobs with little stability. He drove a tow truck, worked for a car rental company and even was an umpire calling little league and high school baseball games. He’s single and excited about seeing new parts of the country. And he’s eager to earn steady pay. Stand Examiner

Onsite Recruitments

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Utah Counties Seek State Funds to Help Eradicate Noxious Weeds

Jerry Caldwell stands up to his ankles in light-brown weeds, an agricultural scourge that has spread to all corners of Tooele County and beyond.

Squarrose knapweed, a plant native to the eastern Mediterranean area, first appeared in Utah in 1954 and since has invaded nearly 200,000 acres. Each plant lives six years and harbors 3,000 viable seeds, causing several counties in Utah a major headache, Caldwell said.

Weeds such as these choke out native plants, use too much water, can harm livestock and pose a fire risk.

Caldwell, the Tooele County weed supervisor, has joined nearby counties in requesting $119,000 from a $1 million fund the 2012 Legislature created to help fight noxious weeds. Salt Lake Tribune

Genius awards honor top Utah inventors

Sensors that can be implanted inside a wall and detect when someone enters a room. Materials and processes that make alternative fuels. A tiny (really tiny) camera that can go deep inside your body and send back detailed photos.

These were among three of the innovations showcased Wednesday at the annual Utah Genius Awards luncheon in Salt Lake City.

The awards recognize Utahns who received a number of patents and trademarks in the past year.

To see more: Salt Lake Tribune 

Taco Bell operator looking for more Utah locations

The Salt Lake City office of the commercial real estate brokerage CBRE said it has been chosen by Taco Bell franchisee Mark Peterson to help select the sites for several new locations in Utah.

The Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain will open a 2,500-square-foot store in Payson in May, and several more stores are expected to be announced soon, including one in Herriman, where Peterson already has purchased land.

Russ Harris, vice president and retail specialist at CBRE, represents Taco Bell. "It has been more than 10 years since Taco Bell has opened a new location in Utah," Harris said in a statement announcing the deal with Taco Bell’s franchisee. "They recognize that Utah has a vibrant, expanding economy and is well positioned for growth."

He said the new locations will be in areas with rapidly growing populations. Salt Lake Tribune

U. students to local governments: Be more open

During a year of intensively studying information in the Internet age, a class of University of Utah honors students has developed a set of five guiding principles to help local governments throughout the state become more transparent.

"Information is the currency of democracy. It is the key to citizen engagement," said Theresa Krause, one of the honors "Think Tank" students who will unveil those guiding principles on Wednesday. "The Internet has made data available and changed the way we think about transparency and access to government."

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and Council Chairman Soren Simonsen are expected to be present to express their support for the Transparency Project during its formal introduction at the U.’s Hinckley Institute of Politics.

The project’s goal is to persuade all 270-plus county and city governments in Utah to adopt the principles. Salt Lake Tribune

Utah businesses receive statewide, local awards

Several Utah companies have been named the recipients of statewide and community business awards.

• Industrial Supply Co. of Salt Lake City, given by Associated General Contractors of Utah, an organization of qualified construction contractors and industry related companies dedicated to skill, integrity, and responsibility.
• Mity-Lite Inc. of Orem, given by Utah Manufacturers Association, whose mission is to enhance the business climate of Utah.
• Candle Warmers Etc., given by the Davis County Chamber of Commerce, who offers its members an unparalleled opportunity to invest in the community as well as their own future success.

Salt Lake Tribune

Utah hotel occupancy, rates up slightly

Utah occupancy and average daily room rate for hotels and motels were both up slightly in 2011. According to the Utah edition of the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report, the 2011 occupancy rate was 62.7 percent, up from 59.7 percent in 2010.

The average daily room rate for the year to date was $95.69, compared to $93.29 for 2010. Revenue per daily room rose as well, from $55.70 in 2010 compared to $60.04 for 2011. Salt Lake City recorded the best in 2011, with a 69.6 percent occupancy rate and average daily room rate of $93.65.

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Ogden occupancy was at 60.7 percent, Cedar City at 53 percent, St. George at 60.1 percent, Logan and Utah County at 58.1 percent, and other Utah cities and towns at 61.2 percent. Salt Lake Tribune

West Jordan is lowest in nation for senior citizens

West Jordan has the lowest percentage of seniors of any city in America with a population of at least 100,000. Just 4.6 percent of its residents are older than 65, two-thirds lower than the national average, according to U.S. Census data released Wednesday. Meanwhile, the new Census analysis also shows that Utah — with its highest-in-the-nation birthrate — finished second-lowest among the states behind Alaska for its percentage of residents older than 65, as older folks here are vastly outnumbered by kids. Salt Lake Tribune

Rate of multi-generational homes rises in Utah

A Salt Lake Tribune analysis of recently released 2010 Census data shows that such multigenerational households grew by 50 percent in Utah during the past decade — from 25,673 to 38,852. About one of every 21 households in Utah, or 4.6 percent, has three generations or more living together. That is up from 3.7 percent in 2000.

The rate is much higher in some places. Among communities of at least 5,000 residents, Kearns has the highest rate in the state. One of every 10 households there, or 10.2 percent, is multigenerational. Other communities high on that list include: West Valley City, 9.2 percent of all households; Bluffdale, 8.4 percent; Magna, 8.3 percent; and White City, 7.9 percent. Salt Lake Tribune

S.L. Valley’s east side has Utah’s oldest median ages

New 2010 U.S. census data show a pocket of adjoining east-side areas in Salt Lake County have the oldest median ages of all communities in Utah that have populations of at least 10,000. Holladay, where the senior center is located, has the oldest median age at 38.5 years old. No. 2 is nearby Cottonwood Heights at 36.9 years. Third is Millcreek at 35.3 years. Fourth is Murray at 34.6 years.

In comparison, Utah overall has a median age of 29.2 years — or 25 percent younger than in Holladay.

Also in Holladay, census data show that about one of every six residents is older than age 65. That rate is nearly twice as high as the rest of the state, where only one of every 11 people is older than 65. 

That east-west age divide historically has existed even within Salt Lake City, which spans both sides of the valley, she said. The only major exception to that general rule is in east-side Draper in the south end of the valley, where new housing developments have been attracting younger families.

University of Utah research economist Pam Perlich says that “all the research shows that people like to age in place. It’s not like people just immediately flee their homes [when they get older]." Salt Lake Tribune

Jobs springing up in Utah, from health care to Home Depot

At its medical center in Murray, Intermountain Healthcare formally opened its Homer Warner Center for Informatics Research, a facility dedicated to optimizing the use of information in health and biomedicine. The center employs about 60 people but could add a couple of hundred positions in the next decade, high-paying jobs that in some cases will reach six figures, said Marc Probst, Intermountain Healthcare’s chief technology officer.

On another front, the 23 Home Depot stores in Utah launched a campaign to hire about 500 temporary employees for the busy spring planting season. The best among those part-time hires have chances of being kept on full time by the home improvement retailer, which is looking to hire 60,000 seasonal people nationally, said Marty Tanner, who oversees half of Utah’s Home Depots from an office in the east Sandy store. Salt Lake Tribune

After bleak ’09, most Utah hotels see improvement

Occupancy figures statewide last month averaged 49.6 percent, up solidly from 44.4 percent in November 2009, according to the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Lodging Report. That marks the ninth consecutive month in which Utah hotels filled more rooms nightly than in the same month a year ago.

Hotels in Salt Lake County, location of almost half the state’s inventory of rooms, had a 56.4 percent occupancy mark in November. That was 7.2 percent better than a year earlier, more than offsetting a slight increase in vacancies at county hotels in October. Salt Lake Tribune

In October, Utah hotels kept pace with prior year

Salt Lake County hotels filled fewer rooms nightly last month than in October 2009, the first decline in year-over-year figures since February. Despite a 1.4 percent drop in Salt Lake, which accounts for almost half of the rooms counted in the monthly survey, the statewide occupancy average for October was up 1.8 percent from a year earlier, to 59.5 percent.

Improved showings by Utah mountain resorts, St. George hotels and lodging establishments outside Utah’s metropolitan areas were able to more than offset the business slowdown in Salt Lake, according to figures from the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Lodging Report. St. George had a solid month in October, filling 70.4 percent of its rooms nightly at an average rate of $82.25. A year ago, only 64 percent of rooms were occupied each night for roughly the same amount of money. Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake among Newsweek's 'Top 10 Places in America Poised for Recovery'

In an article appearing in its current issue, Salt Lake City is among Newsweek's "Top 10 Places in America Poised for Recovery." According to Newsweek, the Wasatch Front has been bolstered by big names like Adobe, Electronic Arts, and Twitter setting up shop in Utah. In addition, the area's short commutes, decent public schools, excellent recreation opportunities and affordable housing are also seen as major advantages over other areas. Approximately three-quarters of Salt Lake area households can afford a median-priced house, compared to 45 percent in Silicon Valley and about half that in New York City and San Francisco. Deseret News

Note: The full article can be found at http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/08/the-top-10-places-in-america-poised-for-recovery.html

Census Bureau Releases American Community Survey data for 2009

The U.S Census Bureau has released the 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates on American FactFinder. There you will find tables with social, demographic, housing, and economic data for areas with populations of 65,000 or more. The American Community Survey provides a wealth of demographic, social, economic and housing data. For example, here is where Utah ranks among all U.S. states and the District of Columbia in 2009.

Utah ranks:

• Forty-ninth for the percent of households with one or more person 65 years or older.
• Number one for the percent of households with one or more person under 18 years of age.
• Fifty-first for the percentage of people with a disability.
• Eighth for the percentage of people over 25 who have graduated from high school.
• Twentieth for the percentage of people over 25 with at least a Bachelor's degree.
• Thirty-fourth for the percent of married couples with both spouses in the labor force.
• Forty-eighth for the percentage of children in poverty.
• Twelfth for the percentage of children without health insurance coverage.
• Twentieth for the percentage of the population without health insurance coverage.
• Fifth for the percentage of homes built since 2005.
• Twenty-first for median family income.
• Twenty-second for the percentage of the population that is foreign born.
• First for average household size.
• Forty-ninth for the age of women at first marriage.
• Forty-first for the average travel time to work.
• Eighteenth for the percentage of the population that is white/not Hispanic.
• Sixteenth for the divorce rate for women.

Data for 2009 are available for the state, Cache, Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Washington, and Weber counties. Three-and five-year estimates will be available for the remaining counties in three to four month.

Click here to access the data.

California businesses lured to Utah by friendly business climate

Utah’s success in luring California-based business into expanding their operations here isn’t playing too well in the Golden State. A consortium of business groups, operating under the Californians Against Higher Taxes banner, is out to convince their government leaders that the state’s business climate needs to be improved. And they are pointing to Utah’s success to support their stand.

“Businesses are fleeing our state for Utah, and they are taking thousands of jobs with them,” said Scott Macdonald, a spokesman for the California group that includes the California Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business/California and the California Taxpayers Association.

The group notes that in recent months:

• San Jose-based Adobe systems announced it will build a $100 million campus in Orem and hire more than 1,000 new employees.

• Twitter, the San Francisco-based social networking company, said it intends to relocate its data center to Salt Lake City.

• The Redwood City-based Electronic Arts Inc., a video-game producer, opened a 20,000 square-foot plant in Utah with 100 employees.

• EBay announced plans for a $287 million building project in Draper to house its primary data center. The Salt Lake Tribune

• Oracle reported it planned to resume construction on a large data center in Salt Lake City that is expected to create 100 jobs.