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North Logan » With the largest commercial development in the history of Cache County well under way, investors are betting on an improving economy to fill it up.
Ryan Reeves is the broker for the $100 million-plus Eagle Creek Industrial Business Park, which recently broke ground at 3100 North and Main Street in this northern Utah community, population 8,149.
San Diego-based Faulkner Development Group is building more than than 50 acres of industrial infrastructure, plus 40 acres of office and commercial retail real estate. It could be finished within five years. Two buildings with 80,000 square feet of industrial space are the first under construction, Reeves said.
"The industrial-product vacancy rate in Cache County is 2.8 percent, the lowest in the state," he said. "We already have 20,000 square feet under contract when construction is finished in September. In the past three years we've had an amazing amount of out-of-town investors coming to Cache County."
Not everyone thinks North Logan is the proper location for such a project.
Utah real estate developer Dell Loy Hansen said today's economy requires complementary, not competing, development. His 115-room Marriott Hotel -- plus shops, a fitness center and the 32,000-square-foot Riverwoods Conference Center and Business Park -- are up and running along on Logan's Main Street.
Hansen believes his childhood hometown of North
But overall, Sandy Emile, president of the Cache Chamber of Commerce, said the future looks bright for the Logan metropolitan area that includes North Logan. Forbes magazine, US News & World Report and CNN have identified the area as one of the best places in the nation to develop new businesses.
"Looking at the pointers -- the earmarks, the number of requests that I have coming across my Chamber desk for new businesses -- there is no reason not to anticipate our area is primed, more than any other area of our state, to move forward," Emile said, adding that Eagle Creek is near Logan-Cache Airport.
Derek Miller, acting boss of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, looks at the larger statewide picture and says there are many positive signs of economic growth -- Downtown Rising in Salt Lake City, a new airport in St. George and expansion projects in the north by Procter & Gamble, Hershey's and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Entrepreneurs looking for a place to grow their companies are looking for skilled and educated employees, reasonable costs associated with doing business and a good quality of life for the work force, Miller said.
"What makes northern Utah such a great place is they're able to hit the mark in all three of these areas," Miller said. "The community and elected officials are proactive. They have a vision and plan, and they are aggressive as far as economic development goes.
"It's not accidental that the companies go to these places."
