We are the most popular state these days with many of our cities experiencing amazing growth.  Southern Utah is especially exploding with big and small businesses alike moving there.  If you haven’t heard there’s a mega-resort called Black Desert Resort, pay attention. 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. The focal point, the Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course is already open amidst the lava and red rocks. 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. Check out the 7,200 course and book tee times now at www.blackdesertresort.com.

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, bike path, crosswalks and sidewalks. The road hadn’t been updated for 70 years except for filling winter potholes and was SLC’s largest construction project in history.  There are about 25 projects of UDOT just in the Salt Lake Valley currently under construction, from work at State Street from 3000-6400 South to Big Cottonwood Canyon, along Redwood Road, and I-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 on a voter-approved Funding Our Future street reconstruction bond on 200 South, has just finished lower 9^th and 9^th and is now full swing on upper 9^th and 9^th. The annual street fair there last weekend had to move to Liberty Park for the Saturday event 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 capitol city you’ll see more than two dozen mid and high rises 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 if when you go to FANX this week. The last guard tower at Utah’s old prison was demolished three weeks ago at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley which means after the past nine months the demolition of the old prison is almost complete. A mixed-use development of 600 acres (state-owned land) called ‘The Point’ will start construction in 2025 after final scrape and prep work is done to the land. The longtime chapel that served the inmates over the years is going to stay as part of the history of the site.