Industry Briefs 2-26-24

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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

• The Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity board, at its February meeting, approved two incentives for film productions in the state. The projects are expected to result in a total of $5.3 million in in-state spending and involve 877 jobs. Stranger Productions Inc. was approved for a rural tax credit of up to $500,000 for “The Stranger in My Home,” a feature thriller expected to spend $3 million in Utah and employ 16 cast, 72 crew and 450 extras. Principal photography is scheduled through March 1. The director is Jeff Fisher. Producers are Brad Krevoy and Jennifer Ricci. “The Stranger in My Home” tells the story of two babies swapped at birth and their two families meeting. 7003 Inc. was approved for a tax credit of up to $200,000 for “Branching Out,” a Hallmark Channel family drama expected to spend $2.3 million in Utah, including during shooting in Washington and Salt Lake counties. Principal photography was set to take place earlier this month. The production is expected to involve 14 cast, 100 crew and 225 extras. The director is Maclain Nelson. The producer is David Wulf. The film will tell the story of a girl who learns through a DNA test that reveals that her father lives nearby and the two “discover that family trees can be complicated and wonderfully unique,” GOEO documents say.
• Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainmenthas announced an expansion of Megaplex Entertainment. The Larry H. Miller Megaplex Entertainment at Desert Color is being developed in partnership with Woodbury Corp. as part of the master-planned community and regional shopping center. Project development is underway with specific construction details coming soon. The new entertainment complex will feature premium format auditoriums, luxury bowling with lane-side dining, a variety of food and beverage options, arcade with a prize redemption center, private event and party space, and more.

BANKING

• Central Bank, which has 12 locations in Utah County, has made several personnel announcements. Gavin Hales has been hired as a loan officer in the downtown Provo office. Hales has a background in commercial credit analysis, portfolio management and mortgage/TRID loan officer roles. Tyler Johnson has been hired as a loan officer at the bank’s downtown Provo Office. Johnson has a background in commercial credit analysis and management. Brent Worthington has been hired as a loan officer at the bank’s new Saratoga Springs Office. Worthington has 16 years of banking experience. Scott Preston has been hired as a loan officer at the Provo Riverside office. Preston’s background is in business and construction. Melissa Hurren has been hired as an SBA officer at the downtown Provo office. Hurren has over 20 years of experience in commercial lending and SBA lending, including establishing SBA departments at other banks. Todd Stewart is the bank’s new head of the treasury services. He has 13 years of experience, including roles as president of Utah community banking and chief credit officer at another Utah bank. Bud Bate has been hired for the Central Bank mortgage team as a loan officer at its Spanish Fork office. Bate has over 30 years of experience. Colton Sheriff has been hired as a mortgage loan officer at the Pleasant Grove office. Sheriff has nine years of experience in the mortgage industry. Presley Henson has been promoted to loan officer at the Traverse Mountain office. Her background includes being a part-time teller and various customer-centric roles, including customer service representative, loan assistant, lead customer relationship banker and officer assistant. Hillary Crook has been promoted to manager of the central loan processing department. With nearly 17 years of service, Crook has held roles including teller, customer service representative and loan processor. She most recently served as the assistant manager of commercial loan processing since September 2021.

BEAUTY PRODUCTS

• Beauty Industry Group, a Salt Lake City-based company offering hair extensions and related beauty products, has promoted Colleen Proven to senior vice president of Marketing Strategy and Creative Group, Professional Division. She will continue to elevate marketing strategy and creative under the BIG umbrella. Proven has a decade of experience in the beauty industry, most recently in luxury haircare with L’Oreal.

DIVIDENDS

• The board of directors of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., based in Provo, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 6 cents per share. The dividend is payable March 6 to shareholders of record Feb. 26. Nu Skin offers personal care, nutrition and anti-aging products.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Utahns would invest in artificial intelligence and robotics if they had $10,000, according to a survey by MarketBeat.com. It asked people which one future industry they would invest in if they had $10,000. No. 2 for surveyed Utahns is biotechnology and gene editing, followed by No. 3 renewable energy advancements, No. 4 virtual reality and augmented reality, No. 5 sustainable agriculture and food technology, No. 6 longevity and anti-aging research, No. 7 nanotechnology, No. 8 quantum computing, No. 9 smart city infrastructure and No. 10 asteroid mining. Details are at https://www.marketbeat.com/originals/top-10-industries-to-invest-10k/.
• Discovering a partner’s $40,000 debt would deter most Utahns from committing to a relationship, according to a study by DatingAdvice.com. The national average is $52,024. The lowest amount is in Montana, at $10,000. The highest is in Wyoming, at $100,000. Details are at https://www.datingadvice.com/studies/how-financial-obligations-impact-dating-in-america.
• Morgan County is ranked No. 1 on a list of markets for year-over-year growth in co-ownership among non-married people, compiled by Pacaso, a second home co-ownership marketplace. Growth in the county was 42.75 percent in the 2022-23 period. The average growth among the top 10 counties was more than 21 percent.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 73 on a list of “Best Cities to Walk Your Dog,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared nearly 480 of the biggest U.S. cities based access to dog-friendly trails and off-leash parks with positive ratings, dog walking services and safety, among 17 total metrics. Several other Utah cities are on the list. The top-ranked city is Colorado Springs, Colorado. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-cities-walk-your-dog/.
• Golden Spike National Historical Park has ranked No. 22 on a list of most popular places to visit on Presidents Day, compiled by photo book company Mixbook.com. It surveyed people to uncover which presidential sites they would most desire to visit if distance and travel time posed no obstacle. The top-ranked location is Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Details are at https://www.mixbook.com/inspiration/presidential-pilgrimages-survey-reveals-top-50-locations-to-spend-presidents-day-2024.

EDUCATION

• Twenty people will be participants in the spring 2024 Master of Business Creation program at the University of Utah’s Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy, in partnership with theLassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the David Eccles School of Business. The program for entrepreneurs provides personal mentorship, applied curriculum, scholarships and more. Program participants, called “founders,” started 18 companies and are enrolling in the MBC Online option, which is a virtual, flexible and part-time experience that spans three semesters. Some of the startups have more than one founder in the program. The new founders joining the MBC program have already made progress establishing their companies and are looking to increase sales and attract investors, among other goals.

ENERGY

• Greenbacker Capital Management, a renewable energy asset manager, has announced that its utility-scale Appaloosa Solar 1 project has entered commercial operation in Iron County. It has more than twice the power generation capacity of its sister project, Greenbacker Renewable Energy Co.’s Graphite Solar in Carbon County. Appaloosa is now Greenbacker’s largest operational clean energy asset to date. The minority owner is rPlus Energies LLC. Appaloosa has a long-term power purchase agreement in place with utility PacifiCorp. GCM acquired the project in late 2022. In its first year of operation, Appaloosa is expected to generate enough clean energy to abate approximately 395,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

• Applications are being accepted through March 18 for the RAMP Spring 2024 Cohort, an eight-week accelerator program run by Grow Utah, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to grow Utah entrepreneurship. The program will run March 28-May 23 and feature expert product design and manufacturing mentors, free use of prototyping and testing lab equipment, expert “lean-launch” startup mentors, showcasing business and innovation to potential partners and investors, and preferred consideration for follow-on funding. Details are at https://www.growutah.com/ramp/spring2024.

EVENTS

Venture capital events company Progression has opened registration for its inaugural conference, Progression 2024, to be held May 2 at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team’s USANA Center of Excellence in Park City. Progression aims to identify the most innovative companies in the VC landscape that align with advancing a nonprofit’s core mission. The event is being held in partnership with Protect Our Winters, a Colorado-based nonprofit devoted to helping passionate outdoor people protect the places and experiences they love from climate change. Progression has partnered with the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association to help POW identify purpose-driven companies that are in the midst of fundraising. The association will help bring relevant investors to the Park City conference. Progression will work with the RMVCA and POW to source and select six venture-stage companies that are in the midst of fundraising, and POW will have the final decision about which companies they feel best align with their mission and deserve the opportunity to present. The startups will subsequently have the chance to pitch to the audience at the event and build meaningful fundraising relationships through the post-pitch networking reception.

EXPANSIONS

• LivAway Suites, a Lehi-based extended-stay hotel company, has broken ground on a location in Dewitt, New York, near Syracuse Hancock International Airport. Since launching last spring, LivAway Suites now has five locations under construction and expects to break ground on 10 additional properties this year. It is on track to open its first locations this summer.

FINANCE

• Greater Commercial Lending has completed $25 million in government-guaranteed financing for Lisbon Valley Mining Co. in La Sal, with the funding designed to empower the company to expand and improve copper mining operations. The loan will be used to strengthen copper mine production by allocating funds toward working capital and procurement of heavy equipment, as well as refinancing existing debt. The project is expected to generate approximately 90 new jobs, along with the preservation of 101 existing jobs. The financing is backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Business & Industry Loan Program. The financing structure includes participation by Community Bank & Trust–West Georgia. The GCL is a credit organization that provides government-guaranteed loans to businesses and organizations in underserved and rural communities, helping to finance key infrastructure services, like power, renewable energy and transportation, as well as schools, hospitals, agriculture and more.

GOVERNMENT

• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced over $128 million to 835 public housing agencies and project based rental assistance owners for the 2023 Renewal and New Family Self Sufficiency Program grants. The amount includes over $896,000 in Utah. The FSS program is a voluntary initiative offered to families in HUD-assisted housing. Participants receive coaching, referrals to services, and establish a family escrow savings account. Program coordinators provide coaching and develop local strategies to connect participating families with public and private resources. Renewal funding amounts for housing authorities in Utah are $74,088 for Ogden, $291,935 for Salt Lake County, $187,012 for Salt Lake City, $136,692 for Provo, $63,186 for Davis, $56,215 for Utah County, and $66,790 for Tooele County.

HEALTHCARE

• Myriad Genetics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based genetic testing and precision medicine company, has appointed Dr. Dallas Reed as principal medical advisor to its women’s health business unit. She will support internal and external efforts to increase access to, and equity around, genetic testing throughout a woman’s health journey, including family planning, pregnancy management and hereditary cancer risk assessment. Reed has nearly 15 years of clinical and academic experience rooted in genetics and obstetrics/gynecology. She is an ob/gyn and medical geneticist who serves as the chief of genetics at Tufts Medical Center and as an associate professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.

HOSPITALITY

• Woodbury Corp., a real estate management and development company, has announced the opening of the Courtyard by Marriott Orem University Place at 750 E. Park Ave., Orem. It features 140 rooms, a bistro bar featuring Starbucks, a fitness center, indoor pool and whirlpool spa, 1,480 square feet of dividable meetings space, boardroom, market, guest laundry, and outdoor patio with lounge seating and fire pit. Courtyard by Marriott has more than 1,200 locations in 60 countries and territories.

INVESTMENT

• Beta Boom, a Salt Lake City-based pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm, has closed a $14.5 million Fund II raised by Managing Partners Kimmy and Sergio Paluch, with limited partners that include Ally Bank, Pivotal Ventures, Bank of America and Atento Capital. The fund will support early-stage startups that address the most critical needs of the fastest-growing yet least-served populations.

PARTNERSHIPS

• The Utah Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Initiative, a public-private partnership with the mission to elevate Utah’s advanced materials manufacturing industry, has partnered with the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International to provide an educational series, which aims to introduce advanced materials manufacturing to the air mobility (AAM) aircraft manufacturing market. The first course is “Composites: Lighter, Stronger, Better,” which teaches AAM aircraft companies how composites are helping the industry to be better stewards of the world by identifying what materials are used to make composites, and how composites impact weight, strength and stiffness of manufacturing materials. UAMMI provided content for the series through a licensing agreement with the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering for a four-part series developed by Dr. Brent Strong.

REAL ESTATE

• Toll Brothers Inc. has announced Toll Brothers at Jordanelle Ridge is coming to Coyote Canyon Parkway in the Jordanelle Ridge master plan in Heber City. Site work is underway, and construction of the sales center and model home will begin this spring. It will include 30 new homes and its amenities will include an on-site amenity center with pickleball courts, a fitness center, a café, a kids club, and equipment rentals. Seven home designs are available, with prices from the mid-$800,000s. Toll Brothers is in over 60 markets in 24 states.
• The Hills Clubhouse has opened at Promontory Club, Park City. It features the Sage Modern Italian restaurant and indoor golfing that includes four golf simulators. The Hills Clubhouse was designed by architect Doug Frederikson & Associates and interior designer Vallone Design of Phoenix, Arizona. This summer, The Hills short course, designed by Forrest Richardson, will open for play. It features the newly constructed Golf Academy at Promontory.

RECOGNITIONS

• LoanPro, a Farmington-based company offering lending and credit platform, has been named “Fintech of the Year” by the Utah Governor’s Fintech Advisory Council. The award recognizes both the company’s modern credit platform and how it has enabled innovation in the fintech sphere. The advisory council aims to make Utah the innovation hub for fintechs. LoanPro has successfully launched and supported over 2,000 of their clients’ lending and credit products. The award also highlights LoanPro’s efforts to develop Utah’s human capital through their investment and partnership with the University of Utah’s Stena Center for Financial Technology. Alongside LoanPro, Steve Smithof the Stena Center was honored as the “Most Influential Person in Fintech.” Smith and his wife Jana partnered with the University of Utah to launch the Stena Center.
• The South Valley Chamber announced recipients of its annual awards at its annual State of the Chamber event. They are Board Member of The Year, Judy Cullen, Visit Salt Lake; Tourism Award, Scott George, Woodbury Corp.; Community Service Award, Darci Olsen, Glenmoor Golf Club; Chamber Service Award, Craig Weston, VEST Inc.; Business Education Award, Ralph Little, RalphLittle.com; and President’s Award, Hale Centre Theatre.
• Western States Lodging and Management, a management and development firm focused in hospitality, senior living and multifamily housing, has announced Meagan Siler, executive director of the Legacy House of Logan, as the recipient of the 2023 Matt Wittwer Award, recognizing her commitment to WSLM’s “Personal Touch Culture.” Legacy House of Logan operates under the brand Legacy Retirement Living Communities. Siler oversees all operations for the senior living campus. WSLM operates in 12 states and has more than $1.6 billion in assets under management.
• Students from Brigham Young University have received four nominations for the Television Academy Foundation’s 43rd College Television Awards. The awards program recognizes and rewards excellence in student-produced programs from colleges nationwide. Student entries are judged by Television Academy members. The commercials nominated are “Alzheimer’s Association: No One is Alone” by Remington Butler (director/ writer) and Alex Mcbride (producer); “IMAX: Maximum Immersion” by Remington Butler (director/writer), Eli Wright (producer), Alex Mcbride (producer) and Lucy Nielson (producer); and “Lyft: We Don’t Judge, We Drive,” by Remington Butler (director), Carter Halvorsen (writer), Jeremy Holbrook (writer), Gwynie Bahr (producer) and Tanner Jackson (producer). In the Animation Series category, “The Witch’s Cat” by Jessica Fink Blaine (producer) and Abby Staker(director/writer) is nominated. Twenty-one student-produced programs were nominated from 181 entries submitted by 37 colleges and universities nationwide for the awards. Winners will be announced April 13.

TECHNOLOGY

• DigiCert, a Lehi-based provider of digital trust, has appointed Jugnu Bhatia as chief financial officer and Dave Packer as chief revenue officer. Bhatia has experience leading corporate and operational finance for both private and publicly traded companies. He most recently served as senior vice president of finance and chief accounting officer at Zscaler Inc. Prior to that, he spent nearly 20 years in finance, strategy and operational roles with organizations including Oracle and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Packer has more than 30 years of tech industry experience spanning leadership roles in sales, field operations, alliances, professional services, customer success and support. Prior to DigiCert, he led worldwide field operations at Matillion, as well as Ping Identity and E2open.
• LoanPro, a Farmington-based company offering lending and credit platform, has hired Jer Woodas president of credit sponsorship, launching an initiative to reinvent direct credit sponsorship partnerships for banks and their fintech partners. Wood has 20 years of experience in banking, most recently as president of Hatch Bank for six years. Wood has also held foundational leadership positions with several other sponsor banks, including Celtic Bank, Axos Bank and others. In addition to fintech sponsorship, Wood has experience in the banking industry, including portfolio management, pricing, compliance and wide-scale digital banking and digital transformation projects.
• Consensus, a Lehi-based company offering a demo automation platform, has promoted Whitney Jonesto chief financial officer. She previously was vice president of finance and business operations.