Northern Utah.

• Position: Regional Report - Interview

PARTICIPANTS:

David Hardman, Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce; Mayor Mike Caldwell, Ogden: Mayor Steve Curtis, Layton: Alex Lawrence. Weber State University; Barbara Riddle, Davis Convention and Visitors Bureau; Brandon Wood, NA! West Commercial Real Estate: Can i Fullerton, Bank of Utah: Collette Mercier, Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College; Darlene Carter, Henry Walker Homes; Jim Smith, Davis Chamber of Commerce; Kent Sulser, Davis County Economic Development; Louenda Downs, Davis County; Marty Smith, Ogden Eccles Conference Center; Mike Bouwhuis, Davis Applied Technology College; Randy Lewis, Orchard Cove; Robert Lindsey, Commerce Real Estate Solutions; Ron Richins, Military Installation Development Authority and Utah Defense Alliance; Sara Toliver, Ogden Convention and Visitors Bureau; Scott Lunt, Davis Conference Center; Sherm Losee, Zions Bank; Steve Cloward, North Front Business Resource Center and Davis Business Alliance; Vickie McCall, Utah Executive Real Estate and Utah Defense Alliance; David Bland, South Davis Community Hospital

Let's begin our discussion with the economy--what you have seen in the last year and what do you anticipate going forward?

CURTIS: Economically it's looking very bright in Layton. Housing starts are up. We've had a number of new businesses enter into our community, and the economy is working out to be very vibrant, very energetic.

But I wanted to mention liquor licenses. It's a touchy subject to a lot of people, but it's very frustrating. The economic growth of the city has been strongly strapped because of the availability of liquor licenses. For major, national restaurants, if they can't acquire a liquor license, they're not coming.

RIDDLE: It's important to note, too, that it's not just a tourism issue. It's much greater than that--it impacts economic development and, even beyond that, perceptions and misperceptions that it causes for folks that live outside of Utah.

TOLIVER: The number of licenses are an issue. The normalcy of the way that it's run and operated is also an issue. There was kind of a controversial issue that arose in the last few weeks with the DABC and the way they had started to interpret one of the regulations. Luckily, that seems to have abated for the time being.

RIDDLE: As you hear GOED talk about economic development, when they're entertaining potential companies who are looking, perhaps, to move to Utah, of course following them come all of their employees. And they want to make sure that they're moving to a place that's friendly to people moving in from outside of the state.

How about real estate? How is the recovery coming for that sector?

WOOD: Vacancy continues to erode. Lease rates have stabilized and some areas are starting to increase again. The number of transactions, number of new companies is increasing--not in dramatic fashion, but they're going in the right direction.

There's been very little new product over the last couple of years, but there is a lot of new product coming online this year. You have 80,000 square feet on Station Park in Farmington, up above the retail for their building--almost all of it speculative. Management Training Corporation in Centerville is doing a twin to their building of 60,000 square feet, all new spec space. U.S. Development will break ground this year on a 60,000-square-foot building next to the Megaplex theater in Centerville.

Couple that with all of the work that Ogden and Weber County and Davis County have done in entitling and preparing industrial and business properties--we have a lot of opportunity here. Those industrial parks aren't going to be filled with companies that are here already. I really believe we're at the beginning of something cool.

We're going to see a real paradigm shift. We finally have the critical mass here in Northern Utah, in terms of product and availability, to where we're going to see a lot of new companies coming to the area.

And locally, with the product here, we're going to see a real paradigm shift as well. Many business owners reside in Northern Utah but run their companies outside of Northern Utah because, historically, they felt like they either had to or there wasn't the product here available for them to be able to locate their businesses here. And we have tens of thousands of people leaving these two counties every day going to work in other counties. It's been recognized nationally as a great place to be, but sometimes locally there's still misperception.

DOWNS: Davis County had over 5,000 new jobs, the highest in the state. And coupled with that, we've been trying to provide opportunities for people to come and work in our county. And that's growing.

MCCALL: We have seen some real positive growth in housing. Housing starts are up and we've seen good growth as a result of the jobs in the area.

But I would throw out this word of caution, and that is nationally the unemployment numbers are not really reflective of what they truly are. We're looking at 7.3 as reported on the national scale. It's really 14.9 when you look at the cumulative number of jobs. Unless we turn that around, this housing bubble that we are in is really only good for about 18 months. If the housing and the job starts don't stay up, you're going to see numbers and values go down again.

I've seen property values actually start to increase a little bit. We're not back to where they were before we took this housing dip. But overall, we're in a very nice hiatus.

CARTER: It is important to point out that those who want to buy in south Davis County--from North Salt Lake to Farmington--the reality is that they may be more likely to move into Salt Lake County because of the financial limitations in these specific counties--FHA loan limits, jumbo loan limits, conventional loan limits. I can pick up and move to Draper and spend almost $200,000 more for the same down payment. That's the reality of the situation.

LOSEE: As a community banker--I've got 15 branches in Davis and Weber counties--I see progress. I see buildings going up. I see aggressive mayors. I see creative financing going on to try to get things stimulated.

But it comes back to the idea of perception, of a positive attitude. The comment I heard the other day from an economist on NPR was, "The economy is growing, but at an anemic rate." How motivating is that? Is it growing or is it not growing? An "anemic rate" tells me let's don't get involved. Let's don't build.

At our company, we're waiting for people to hire, to buy new businesses, to build new buildings. The money's out there. Everybody's ready to lend. I just like hearing, in this group at least, the fact that we think things are moving along a little bit better than at an "anemic rate."

How about commercial real estate?

FULLERTON: Things are looking up, but don't misunderstand that when we look at businesses' financial statements, they're bruised. They've taken a beating. And those people that have survived, I won't say they're thriving...