Q&A: Northern Utah roundtable.

• Position: Regional Report - Discussion

Mark Anderson

Weber Basin Water Conservancy District

Mike Bouwhuis

Davis Applied Technology College

Chad Buttars

Utah Executive Real Estate

Tom Christopulos

Ogden City

Cameron Cook

The Boyer Company

Eddy Cumins

Utah Transit Authority

Marlin Eldred

Davis County

Chris Falk

Newmark Grubb ACRES

E.J. Harris

MarketStar

Kevin Ireland

Ogden Weber Chamber of Commerce

Mark Johnson

Ogden City

Douglas Larsen

Weber Economic Development Partnership

Rob Lindsey

Cushman & Wakefield Commerce

Bret Millburn

Davis County

Glen Olpin

America First Credit Union

Angie Osguthorpe

President / CEO Davis Chamber of Commerce

Tim Pehrson

Intermountain Healthcare

Ross Reeder

Ogden Eccles Conference Center

Mike Schultz

Castle Creek Homes

Bob Stevenson

Layton City

Jim Taggart

Ogden Weber Convention & Visitors Bureau

Sara Toliver

Ogden Weber Convention & Visitors Bureau

Wick Udy

Jones Lang LaSalle

Chuck Wight

President, Weber State University

Not Pictured: Dave Hardrman, Michael B. Newton

We'd like to thank Dave Hardman. CEO of the Ogden Weber Chamber of Commerce, for moderating the discussion.

Weber County Stats:

3.9 percent unemployment rate

240,475 population

$64,974 median household income

Ogden largest city

Department of Treasury--IRS largest employer

Source: Department of Workforce Services

Davis County Stats:

3.2 percent unemployment rate

329,692 population

$67,707 median household income

Layton largest city

Hill Air Force Base largest employer

Source: Department of Workforce Services

What's happening with the Farmington Station area? What about commercial real estate in general?

ELDRED: As far as the retail sector, Station Park is supposed to be full by the end of this year. University of Utah Medical has some corporate office space they're going to be building that will come up out of the ground this year. Cabella's is not part of that, but that's being located out there.

FALK: About a year and a half ago, there were three new office projects coming online in south Davis County. They were adding 50 percent to the available vacancy. To date, assuming the deals that are in place go through, 78 percent of that vacancy will be absorbed, which is astonishing. They were all speculative projects as well. And very few of those new tenants in any of these projects were poached from other buildings. It was all growth.

Unfortunately, we don't have any new products coming online. New buildings in downtown Ogden are almost fully absorbed; pockets of South Ogden, Bountiful are doing really well, but we still have some really soft pockets. We're finally seeing the natural growth to where new product is filling up. People that want to get in and maybe can't, they're moving up to new properties so rates are starting to hike. We're seeing finally for the first time in a decade that natural real estate progression that helps lease rates and values bump up.

There are four or five groups--national or international companies--that are now looking in Davis/Weber County for newer, nicer product, 25,000 square feet or more, and it doesn't exist. They cannot find it and may not end up locating here because of the lack of projects. I'm hoping someone will be willing to show a little confidence and take the leap on a new project.

COOK: Up at Business Depot Ogden, our lease rates are holding strong. We started two new buildings last fall. Before that we were completely full. Both of those are about done now. Once the moves take place with Wayfair moving into a large building, we'll have about 140,000 square feet open, which is about a 2 percent vacancy in our new buildings. We're probably 80 percent full on the old space.

In the last six to nine months, we have had a ton of activity in the 5,000-square-foot range--the small companies, the startups that are growing out of their basement into real spaces. Historically we've had a number of spaces that have never been filled in--the old buildings that are now completely full in that 5,000-foot range.

CHRISTOPULOS: We've developed a new park, The Business Exchange, which is out on 24th Street. So if you're looking for space that is developing, that space is now available. We call it the lifestyle park. It's by the river. It's designed to be a fairly high concept area.

We're doing an economic study right now on the airport. That could turn into quite a gem for both counties, enabling them to bring in a lot of the defense type contractors. Northrup expanded to the airport last year and has 200 jobs. Forsythe Engineering has developed our first 30,000-square-foot hangar. They'll develop a second hangar for guidance support and aircraft retrofitting. So the airport is an area we have a lot of focus on.

MILLBURN: In Davis County we have the Freeport Center, and it's pretty well full and always looking for expansion opportunities. One of the exciting products that is coming online and hoping for a ground breaking later this year is the Clearfield transit-oriented development. We'll have a unique product, some flex space. There will be opportunity for a small, supportive front and then manufacturing/warehousing behind, and everything that comes with TOD projects.

ELDRED: The TOD site will actually be a half million square...