Wednesday, September 20, 2023
From downtown Salt Lake to St. George, Utah is growing, growing, growing.
Urban Living
Posted By Babs De Lay on September 20, 2023, 4:00 AM
Utah's a popular state these days, with many of our cities experiencing phenomenal growth. Southern Utah is especially exploding, with big and small businesses alike moving there.
If you haven't heard, there's a new mega-resort called Black Desert Resort (blackdesertresort.com). This luxury golf, dining and hotel/condo project sits on 630 acres in Ivins, about 8 miles northwest of St. George and will be the biggest resort in the state upon completion. Check out the focal point: a Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course—already open amid the lava and red rocks—so book your tee times now.
The hotel is going to open this fall, followed by ongoing construction of a total of 3,330 living spaces, 75 single family homes and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial and restaurant spaces.
And although it's been an unusually active summer of road-repair hell, the repaving and work on 300 West between 900 and 2100 South is finally done, with new tar, a bike path, crosswalks and sidewalks. The road hadn't been updated for 70 years—except for occasionally filling winter potholes—and it was the largest construction project Salt Lake City has undertaken.
There are currently about 25 projects under construction by the Utah Department of Transportation, just in the Salt Lake Valley—from work on State Street between 3000 South and 6400 South, in Big Cottonwood Canyon, along Redwood Road and on Interstate 80 in Sugar House.
Hundreds of tons of asphalt and concrete have been poured and laid and there's still plenty of work to be done.
Downtown, Salt Lake City is working off of a voter-approved Funding Our Future street reconstruction bond. Work is ongoing on 200 South, the city has just finished lower 9th & 9th and is now in full swing on upper 9th and 9th. The recent annual street fair there had to relocate to Liberty Park due to massive construction.
Highland Drive in Sugar House is also under the bulldozers, and all of this construction fits in with the city's plan to resurface 150 lane miles of Salt Lake City roadway.
Also in the capital city, you'll see more than two dozen mid- and high-rise buildings currently under construction, with folks now enjoying the recently opened Hyatt Regency on the south end of the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center. You'll see it when you go to FanX this week.
The last guard tower at Utah's old prison at Point of the Mountain in the south end of the Salt Lake Valley was demolished three weeks ago, which means, after nine months, the demolition of the old prison is almost complete.
A mixed-use development on 600 acres of state-owned land called "The Point" will start construction in 2025 after the final scrape and prep work is done to the land. The longtime prison chapel that served inmates over the years is going to remain as part of the history of the site.
About The Author
Babs De Lay
A full-time broker/owner of Urban Utah Homes and Estates, Babs De Lay serves on the Salt Lake City Historic Landmark Commission. A writer and golfer, you'll find them working as a staff guardian at the Temple at Burning Man each year.
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