Box Elder Co. project becomes 4th inland port

Brice Wallace 

Another meeting, another Utah inland port approval.

That’s been the pattern of the Utah Inland Port Authority board, which recently approved the Golden Spike project area as the state’s fourth inland port. Typically, port projects have been presented at one board meeting then approved at the following meeting. The Sept. 12 board meeting will feature possible approval of the Six County Agri-Park project area plan in Juab County.

The Golden Spike project area features{mprestriction ids="1,3"} several pieces of land totaling 1,500 acres in Garland, Tremonton, Brigham City and other parts of Box Elder County. UIPA says it will further its state directive “to facilitate appropriate development throughout the state of Utah that encourages the retention and expansion of existing companies and the recruitment of new companies to create employment opportunities for residents surrounding project areas.”

“The establishment of the Golden Spike Inland Port project area represents a significant milestone for Utah’s economic future,” Miles Hansen, UIPA board chair, said in a prepared statement.

“The proposed location of the Golden Spike project area offers substantial benefits for neighboring counties. Three of the top five importing counties — Cache, Davis and Weber — along with two of the state’s top five exporting counties — Weber and Cache — stand to gain from this strategic location. Davis County will also have access to options between this location and Salt Lake City.”

Box Elder County Commissioner Stan Summers said that if Utah is “Crossroads of the West,” then Box Elder County is the “Crossroads of Utah.” When Interstate 15 was completed, only 20,000 vehicles came through Box Elder County. Now the number is about 75,000, he said.

“I know people that aren’t educated on this [who] think it’s just going to come in and ruin everything, but we are interested in quality of life, quality jobs, the quality of the things we’re supposed to do over here,” he told the inland port board.

Paul Larsen, Brigham City’s economic development director, said about 7,000 people commute every day from Box Elder County for employment elsewhere. The area’s lower-than-2-percent unemployment rate has become an issue for companies considering the area for expansion, he said.

“So our response to those people is, if you offer a good-quality job that pays well and has good benefits, you have a pool of at least 7,000 people that you can draw from to fill those jobs” and who would gladly trade long commutes for shorter ones, he said.

Larsen noted that during the 2008 recession, La-Z-Boy closed a manufacturing plant, jobs were cut at Autoliv and Northrop Grumman, and Nucor reduced employees’ hours. “So we want to diversify our economy,” he said, “so that the next time these conditions come around — as we know they will; we won’t be at 2 percent unemployment forever — we’re better-positioned to weather that economic storm.”

Summers has said that the Golden Spike area will focus on light industrial, aerospace, composites, food manufacturing and steel-related industries, among others.

At the same meeting in which the Golden Spike was approved, the board OK’d an incentive for a 540-job project there. Lakeshore Learning Materials LLC, based in California, was approved for a property tax differential rebate equivalent to 60 percent of the assessed property tax, for no more than 25 years. Lakeshore will build a 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center in Garland and create those jobs over the next decade. The company earlier had been approved for an incentive from the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, in the form of a tax credit of about $7.17 million over 10 years, plus a grant up to $1 million for infrastructure development and talent development. Utah government documents estimate the company's project investment at $219 million.

Lakeshore Learning develops and retails learning materials and furniture and offers services to support the educational community.

Golden Spike becomes the state’s fourth inland port location. It joins Salt Lake City’s, which includes parts of Magna, Salt Lake City, West Valley City and Salt Lake County; the 899-acres Iron Springs Inland Port near Cedar City that is being developed, owned and operated by BZI Steel; and the 2,200-acre Verk Industrial Park project area in Spanish Fork.

The Sept. 12 board meeting will focus on the Six County Agri-Park proposed project area in Juab County. It would serve as a site for protein and other agricultural processing, agriculture technology, agriculture implements and tools, cold storage and value-added beef processing.

UIPA says that three other communities have passed resolutions inviting the port authority to create project areas: Beaver County, Tooele County and Weber County.{/mprestriction}