Industry Briefs 11-27-23

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ASSOCIATIONS

• The Republican Attorneys General Association has elected Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes as its new chairman. Reyes served as the association’s vice chairman during the two prior terms and will serve as chairman through November 2024. The association represents 28 Republican attorneys general in the U.S.

CONTESTS

• The Women Tech Council is accepting nominations through Jan. 15 for the Shatter List, which showcases technology and innovation companies that are creating and enacting practices and cultures that remove the glass ceiling in technology. The list is compiled by scoring companies on four factors: executive engagement, company leadership initiatives, community investment and formal internal programs. In selecting companies for the list, the Women Tech Council collects data from secondary data sources. Any data submitted through this nomination process is evaluated in addition to that data. Nominations may be submitted at https://womentechcouncil.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8CcgZkW6JUcnI9M.

DIVIDENDS

• The board of directors of Extra Space Storage Inc., Salt Lake City, has declared a fourth-quarter 2023 dividend of $1.62 per share on the common stock of the company. The dividend is payable Dec. 29 to stockholders of record Dec. 15. The company is a real estate investment trust that owns and/or operates 3,651 self-storage properties. It is the largest operator of self-storage properties in the United States.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 4, Ogden is No. 5 and Provo is No. 13 on a list of “Best Places to Start a Small Business,” compiled by LendingTree. It analyzed the 100 largest U.S. metros and scored them in three categories: business climate, entrepreneurship and local economy. Each grouping had three individual metrics. The top-ranked city overall is Raleigh, North Carolina. That state had cities take the top three spots. The No. 100 city is Allentown, Pennsylvania. Details are at https://www.lendingtree.com/business/small/best-places-for-new-small-businesses.
• Utah is the top-ranked state in the 2023 “State of Lung Cancer” report, released by the American Lung Association. Utah had the fewest new lung cancer cases (25.2 per 100,000 population) and smoking rates. The sixth annual report highlights the toll of lung cancer in Utah and examines key indicators, including new cases, survival, early diagnosis, surgical treatment, lack of treatment and screening rates. Utah is No. 44 for lung cancer screening and No. 34 for early diagnosis. Nationally, the report found that lung cancer survival rates are improving for everyone, including people of color. The national rate for new lunch cancer cases is 54.6 per 100,000 population.
• Salt Lake City is one of 129 cities nationwide that earned the highest score of 100 on the 12th edition of the Municipal Equality Index, a nationwide assessment of LGBTQ+ equality in the areas of municipal policies, laws and services. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the education arm of the nation’s largest LBGTQ civil rights organization, in partnership with the Equality Federation, an advocacy accelerator rooted in social justice that builds power in a network of state-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, released the results of the index. Other Utah cities in the index are Park City, 86 out of 100; Ogden, 58; Orem, Logan and West Valley City, 48; Provo, 40; and West Jordan, 36. The national average is 71. A total of 506 cities and towns are part of the index. Five cities scored zero points. Details are at www.hrc.org/mei.
• Eleven Utah cities are on a list of “Most Expensive Cities to Heat a Home in Winter,” compiled by HVAC Gnome. It compared the 500 biggest U.S. cities based on three categories: energy costs, cost inflators, and lack of energy efficiency. More specifically, it looked at average monthly electricity and gas bills, periods of extreme cold, the average size of homes, and residential energy efficiency code adoption, among 10 total metrics. The Utah cities on the list are No. 217 Ogden, No. 272 West Valley City, No. 282 Provo, No. 291 Salt Lake City, No. 297 Sandy, No. 304 Layton, No. 206 St. George, No. 308 West Jordan, No. 323 Orem, No. 352 South Jordan and No. 383 Lehi. The most-expensive city overall is Springfield, Missouri. The least-expensive city is Los Angeles. Details are at https://hvacgnome.com/blog/studies/most-expensive-cities-heat-home-winter/#rankings.

EDUCATION

• Nonprofit ACE Scholarships has been selected by the Utah State Board of Education to administer the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program, designed to provide K-12 students up to $8,000 in education saving accounts to cover education-related expenses. Utah’s $42.5 million program will allow parents to choose the best learning environment for their children, with funds set aside to help students meet various costs associated with education, including tuition and fees, tutoring services, testing preparation, materials and curriculum costs, and more. Funding for the scholarship program will be available beginning in the 2024-25 school year and is open to all students with priority placed on low-income families. Details are at https://ufascholarship.com/.

GOVERNMENT

• The Utah Department of Workforce Services has named Muris Prses as director of the Eligibility Services Division, which determines eligibility statewide for supportive programs including SNAP, child care, Medicaid and financial assistance. Prses succeeds Dale Ownby, who will retire at the end of the year after helping create and then lead the division for over 10 years. Prses is a 25-year veteran of Workforce Services and has been the assistant director of Eligibility Services for the past 10 years. He also spent 10 years in the Workforce Development Division and held multiple leadership roles.

HEALTHCARE

• Halia Therapeutics, a Salt Lake City-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on chronic inflammation and neurodegeneration, has appointed Lisa Shamon as vice president of regulatory affairs and Xianne Penny as senior medical director. Shamon has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical biotechnology space, having led multiple programs through early- through late-stage development. She has expertise in regulatory strategies and global interactions for oncology and other therapeutic areas, including rare diseases. Prior to joining Halia Therapeutics, Shamon held several regulatory affairs positions at various companies, including Alza Corp., Exelixis Inc., Aeglea BioTherapeutics, FivePrime Therapeutics Inc. and Amgen Inc. Penny is an immuno-oncology specialist and has dedicated many years of her career to research in this field. Penny previously was senior principal clinical immunologist at Amgen, with a focus on early- and late-phase clinical trials, including life cycle management.

INVESTMENT

• Ninety, a Park City-based company offering a cloud-based platform supporting leading business operating systems, has raised a $35 million Series B round of funding, led by Blue Cloud Ventures, with participation from Catalyst Investors and existing investor Insight Partners. The new round values the company at over $200 million. It will be used to provide enhancements to the platform.
• PhotoPharmics, an American Fork-based, privately held, clinical-stage company focused on Parkinson’s disease research and treatment, has closed a $16 million investment round led by Kickstart Fund, a venture capital firm based in Salt Lake City. The company said the funding will be used for a clinical trial aimed at obtaining FDA market authorization for Celeste, the company’s therapeutic device for Parkinson’s disease.
• Philo Studio, a Lehi-based venture studio, has added Scott Evanson as venture partner and head of platform. Evanson will spend time facilitating playbook adoption, training programs and co-founder boot camps to equip Philo’s founders-in-residence with the tools and abilities necessary to thrive in the typically tumultuous startup lifecycle. Evanson has experience in founding, funding and mentoring startups to help turn innovative ideas into viable businesses. He has been both a serial founder and mentor to undergraduate students involved in Sandbox, Brigham Young University’s technology startup incubator. He founded and subsequently sold two successful startups: Smart Rhino Labs and DataSpark.

MILESTONES

• Instructure, a Salt Lake City-based company offering a learning platform and the maker of Canvas, has welcomed the 2 millionth member of the Instructure Community, an online resource for global users of the Instructure Learning Platform. It averages more than 57 million page views annually, providing users with information and support as they learn about and implement the products in the Instructure Learning Platform. Since its launch in 2010, Community resources have expanded to now include thousands of blogs, including more than 465 in 2023; hundreds of Instructure live events, with 78 happening this year; dozens of hubs, user groups and interest groups boasting nearly 615,000 participants in 2023; content that has been visited by people from 233 countries and translated into 13 languages; and the Panda Bot, a generative AI tool designed to answer Community questions in 15 enabled languages.

NONPROFITS

• Utah Food Bank’s 18th annual Utah Human Race took place on Thanksgiving. The event is a fun run designed to have an impact on the 317,000 Utahns facing hunger. Every registration fee and sponsorship dollar benefited Utah Food Bank’s mission.

PARTNERSHIPS

• Pluralsight, a Draper-based technology workforce development company, has announced a partnership with Elice, a leading education technology in Korea. Elice will leverage Pluralsight’s technology learning content as a complement to Elice’s existing online learning offerings currently available in Korea. Pluralsight content will be offered through Elice’s LXP platform and translated and localized using Elice’s proprietary AI technology.

PHILANTHROPY

• This year’s annual “Warm Bodies, Warm Souls” campaign resulted in at least 300 bags of clothing being donated to 12 local charities, to be distributed to people in need. The drive is an effort by Bank of Utah, Arctic Circle and Red Hanger locations. The first donations were dropped off at the Pamela Atkinson Resource Center. Other charities receiving donations this year are Cache Community Food Pantry, Logan; Tremonton Community Pantry; The Family Support Center, Brigham City; Catholic Community Services (Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank), Ogden; The Lantern House, Ogden; Bountiful Community Pantry; Crossroads Urban Center, Salt Lake City; The Road Home’s Family Shelter, Midvale; Heber Valley Center Stage, Heber; Community Action Services and Food Bank, Provo; United Way, Price; and Hope Pregnancy Care Center, St. George.
• Employees at Ken Garff Salt Lake Imports Group-Nissan Downtown, Honda Downtown, Hyundai Downtown, Southtowne Hyundai and Nate Wade Subaru recently prepared and gifted 500 Thanksgiving meals for veterans during the fourth annual “We’re ‘Hear’ for You” Veterans Thanksgiving Meal Drive-Thru. The meals were prepared Nov. 16 and place in reusable totes and then presented to veterans the next day at Veterans Administration campus in Salt Lake City.
• The Grainger Foundation, an Illinois-based private foundation, has donated $1 million to the National Ability Center, a Park City-based entity that provides adaptive recreation and outdoor adventures for individuals, families and groups with varying physical, cognitive and developmental disabilities. The donation will fully fund program specialist roles across a three-year pilot program. The positions will assist the NAC as it improves talent retention, increases staff expertise and boosts impact on participants. In addition, this donation will provide funding for training, continuing education and certifications, as well as a stipend for specialized equipment and gear needed to implement adaptive programming. The Grainger Foundation provides support to a broad range of organizations, including educational, medical, cultural and human services institutions.
• EyeCare4Kids, Salt Lake City, was selected as a recipient of a $100,000 grant from Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson and his wife, Ciara, in partnership with CommonSpirit Health. The joint contribution via the couple’s Why Not You Foundation is part of their commitment to contribute $1 million to 10 charitable organizations in Colorado and Utah. EyeCare4Kids plans to use the funds from the 2023 CommonSpirit Equity Fund to provide underserved children and families across the state of Utah with professional eye care services and eyeglasses.
• The nonprofit DoTerra Healing Hands Foundation is participating in the global giving season movement with a goal to raise $100,000 to bring reforestation to the areas of Maui affected by the fires earlier this year. The initiative is driven by residents of Lahaina, restoration NGOs, local nonprofit Hiki Ola, and Maui-based doTerra distributors. Planting will begin in late 2024 or early 2025. Locations for planting will be determined by vulnerability and extent of damage, as well as the wishes of the Maui people. DoTerra is a Pleasant Grove-based company offering aromatherapy and essential oils.

REAL ESTATE

• High Ground Development has received approval from Salem City on the master plan for Three Bridges, clearing the way for the company to begin the next phase of the 530-acre luxury residential resort development. Three Bridges will feature Robert Trent Jones II golf, a surf lake, a luxury hotel, all-season pickleball, hiking and biking trails, fitness and spa, and an event venue. The first nine holes of the 18-hole golf course and practice facility is expected to be completed by summer 2025, with completion of the full 18 holes by summer 2026. The Twin Fin Beach Club and Surf Lake are expected to open in spring 2026, and a branded hotel opening in 2027.
• Meritage Homes, a public homebuilder with operations in Utah and nine other states, has announced two new home communities opening this year and one in 2024 in the Greater Salt Lake City area. Erickson Meadows in Grantsville will open for sales this month. It has 38 homesites with home sizes from 1,808 to 2,575 square feet. Prosperity at Overlake in Tooele will also open this month. It has 70 homesites with home sizes between 1,808 and 2,777 square feet. Brylee Farms in Eagle Mountain will have a model home opening early in 2024. It has 36 homesites and home sizes between 2,126 and 2,607 square feet. Meritage Homes has delivered more than 170,000 homes in its 37-year history.
• Rick Shand has been named director of sales at Promontory, a 7,200-acre recreational, private mountain community in Park City. Shand is a former branch broker for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Utah Properties. He recently led the launch and sellout of luxury development Pendry Park City. He also has worked on various, high-end projects in Park City Mountain’s Canyons Village. Shand also recently received a mayoral appointment to the Park City Planning Commission and was president of the Park City Board of Realtors in 2016.
• Entities involved in the Richmond Flats development recently celebrated its completion and conducted a tour of some of the 55 affordable residential units. The three-story building at 2960 S. Richmond St., Salt Lake City, is the first multi-family project from Community Development Corporation of Utah, a nonprofit developer. Richmond Flats’ co-developer, Blue Line Development, has a property management arm that will be managing the development. It is the first development made possible in part by the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City “high opportunity” fund, which was established to encourage the building of affordable housing in neighborhoods with good access to employment, education, transit and amenities that would increase residents’ likelihood of upward mobility. The $16 million project involved several partners and resources, including Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and state tax credits through The Richman Group and Utah Housing Corp., the Rocky Mountain Community Reinvestment Corp., the RDA, the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund, and HUD funds from the Housing Stability Division of Salt Lake City.

RECOGNITIONS

• Ogden City Arts recently recognized six honorees at the 2023 Mayor’s Awards in the Arts celebration at historic Union Station. The awards program was created to recognize the creative contributions of individual artists and arts organizations making a difference throughout Ogden City. The 2023 honorees are Lifetime Contribution, Weber County R.A.M.P.; Performing Arts, Ogden Friends of Acoustic Music; Arts Advocacy, Danielle Bendinelli; Emerging Artist, Cole Eisenhour; Literary Arts, Patrick Ramsey; and Special Recognition for Supporting the Arts, Mayor Mike Caldwell.

RETAIL

• PetSuites of America, a company focused on resorts for dogs and cats at more than 75 locations in the U.S., has opened PetSuites Herriman at 5116 W. Denali Park Drive, Herriman. It is the company’s first Utah-based resort. The 11,000-square-foot space will feature amenities for dogs and cats of all breeds, including state-of-the-art play structures, and secure indoor and outdoor play yards. It will offer daycare, grooming services, boarding, and customizable training for dogs.
• Discover Strength, a Minnesota-based company focused on strength training, is planning to open three locations in Utah. The first will open in December, with the other two opening within 10 months of each other. The first studio will be located at 527 E. 12300 S., Draper. Bringing the three locations to Salt Lake City is a family consisting of Bill and Lisa Arrigoni and their daughter and son-in-law, Ali and Jeff Wendt. Founded in 2006, Discover Strength has 34 locations open or in development.

TECHNOLOGY

• Entrata, a Lehi-based company offering an operating system for the multifamily industry, has announced that recently acquired Rent Dynamics will continue as one of three vendors to work with Fannie Mae for its Positive Rent Payment pilot that launched in late 2022. The pilot is extending for another year, through December 2024, following the success in the first year. The pilot helps residents establish or build their credit scores by sharing timely rent payment data with the three major credit bureaus through Entrata. Fannie Mae fully covers the cost of the first year of rent reporting services with an approved vendor for property management companies. To encourage adoption, Fannie Mae is offering more multifamily property owner-operators the opportunity to participate in the pilot through December 2024 by collecting and disseminating rent payment data for a 12-month period for property owner/operators of Fannie Mae finance properties.