Articles
8 February 2012

Around Utah

by Utah Business Staff

08 February 2012—

 Northern

Ogden – A new computer science course at WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY takes a critical look at the positive and negative impact of computer games on society and culture. The new course, approved by the WSU board of trustees in December, is being offered for the first time this spring. During the semester, students will examine and analyze the art, history, philosophy and impact of digital entertainment (video and computer games along with simulations) on individuals and society.

 

Ogden – JACK B. PARSON COMPANIES announced the opening of a new ready–mixed concrete batch plant at 10200 Batiste Road in Pocatello, Idaho. The new plant will readily serve the Blackfoot, American Falls, Pocatello, Inkom, McCammon and Downy, Idaho areas. Jack B. Parson Companies, Idaho Concrete Company and Idaho Sand & Gravel have been doing business in Idaho for nearly 40 years and operate 15 plants throughout the state.

 

Ogden – The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) presented STAKER PARSON COMPANIES with the 2009 Quality in Construc-tion award for its work on the I-15 road–widening project between State Street in Farmington and Main Street in Layton. The Quality in Construction award recognizes only those projects which meet strict quality criteria for hot–mix asphalt production, placement and compaction. Staker Parson placed nearly 300,000 tons of asphalt on the project, termed “Davis County Lane Gain,” and received a significant portion of the smoothness and quality incentives from the UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

 

Ogden – R&O CONSTRUCTION started Phase II of the VALLEY FAIR MALL renovation. The mall is located at 3601 S. 2700 West. Phase II construction includes more than 100,000 square feet of new and remodeled stores that will be completed for a targeted opening fall 2010. The mall remains open for business during the renovation. SATTERFIELD HELM MANAGEMENT INC., the mall’s management company, has announced that ROSS DRESS FOR LESS, PETCO, FAMOUS FOOTWEAR, N.Y.P.D. PIZZERIA, FARR’S FRESH ICE CREAM AND FROZEN YOGURT CAFÉ and IN–N–OUT BURGER will be the business partners for Phase II of the Valley Fair project.

 

Layton – CANDLE WARMERS ETC. announced several new candle warmer offerings for 2010, including a ceramic plug–in fragrance warmer which comes in two styles; the Fleur De Lis Candle Warmer and dish; the value–priced Classic Candle Warmer Lamp; and new styles and designs for the company’s Illumination Fragrance Warmer.

 

Ogden – GROW UTAH VENTURES is moving its Ogden eStation to a larger facility to accommodate growth and meet the demands of entrepreneurs in Northern Utah. The new facility is located at 2036 Lincoln Avenue and is part of the remodeled American Can Center. The 3,200–square–foot facility will act as company headquarters for as many as 20 businesses. Grow Utah Ventures’ eStations are business incubators focused on growing startups into successful businesses. They come with private cubicles and offices, phone lines, printers, meeting space, and Internet access. eStation tenants are selected among applicants and invited to move their operations to the eStation campus.

 

Eden – The OGDEN VALLEY BUSINESS ASSOCIATION presented its Volunteer of the Year award to THE WOLF CREEK FOUNDATION in honor of Steve Roberts. The OVBA also recognized HARLEY & BUCKS RESTAURANT GROUP, owned and operated by local restaurateur Craig Bonham, as Business of the Year. Bonham is owner of Harley & Buck’s, CARLOS AND HARLEY, and other restaurants in Ogden Valley.

 

Riverdale – The LARRY H. MILLER GROUP OF AUTOMOTIVE COMPANIES (LHM Auto) will open a Larry H. Miller Chrysler Jeep Dodge Riverdale dealership in Weber. The dealership is located at 5215 Freeway Park Drive (at the juncture of Riverdale Road and I-15). It will be open to the public for all vehicle needs pertaining to Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge product as well as a variety of used vehicles. Troy Bullard, who has worked for LHM Auto in the past, is the general manager for this new location.

 

North Salt Lake – COMPANION SYSTEMS was named as one of the top 500 women–owned businesses in the United States on the Div500 by DiversityBusiness.com for the fifth year in a row. DiversityBusiness also ranked Companion Systems as the No. 1 women–owned business in Utah. This is the 10th annual listing of the nation’s top businesses by DiversityBusiness.com. 

 

 

Salt Lake Area

 

Salt Lake City – WASATCH BARRICADE, a division of SORENSEN COMPANIES, INC., has been awarded the Qwest Communications Barricade Contract for Utah. Work area protection, traffic control services and flagging services will be provided to every corner of the state effective for three years. Since 1997, Wasatch Barricade has grown to four locations in Utah—Syracuse, West Jordan, Lindon and St. George.

 

Salt Lake City – CIRRUS AIRCRAFT launched its new Vision SF50 jet, which took its inaugural Salt Lake City flight in February over the Salt Lake City airport. The Cirrus Vision SF50 blends high performance single–engine class and the very light jet (VLJ) category. It is designed to be a smarter, simpler and more efficient way to use transportation dollars for small- and mid–size businesses and other commuters. 

 

Salt Lake City – The SALT LAKE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU recently joined forces with VISIT BALTIMORE and the FORT WORTH CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU in a sales partnership to enhance the meeting and conventions sales efforts of the three sales and marketing organizations. The multi–city sales partnership is based on a national hotel model that encourages groups to sign multi–year contracts at properties located around the country, often with incentives. By joining forces and co–selling each city, the three sales organizations can offer possible discounts for booking Salt Lake, Baltimore and Fort Worth in a multi–year deal. 

 

Salt Lake City – MEDIA CORP INC. announces ALLEN COMMUNICATION LEARNING SER-VICES and  clients, RISK MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (RMA) and USANA HEALTH SCIENCES (USANA), have won three Omni Intermedia awards. Allen and RMA won for Educational, and Allen and USANA won for Programming and Educational. The Omni Awards exist to recognize outstanding media productions that engage, empower and enlighten. 

Salt Lake City – SALT LAKE LIFE SCIENCE ANGELS (SLLSA) has led an investment in MEDIPROPHARMA, INC. MediProPharma is a pharmaceutical product development company that identifies and develops multifunctional, mechanism–based CNS drugs. The company’s strategy involves development of “selectively not selective” CNS drugs which concurrently act at several biological targets. MediProPharma is currently advancing three drug development programs to commercial viability. The therapeutic indications include Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury, epilepsy, depression and pain. 

 

Sandy – The U.S. CENSUS BUREAU opened a call center in Sandy to help people complete their 2010 Census questionnaires. The center is one of 11 national facilities that will serve as an information resource/hotline for U.S. residents. The facilities will be managed by LOCKHEED MARTIN. Its subcontractor partner, VANGENT, will manage the hiring of 1,500 new employees. 

 

Salt Lake City – INTHINC, INC., a developer of technologies to improve driving safety fuel and operating efficiency and fleet productivity, has divested its ownership in electronics services manufacturing company INOVAR, INC. The new structure sheds significant obligations associated with manufacturing and allows for rapid growth.

 

Salt Lake City – Natural products branding agency INTEGRATED MARKETING GROUP (IMG) has been selected to create and execute an integrated communications campaign for CYVEX NUTRITION, a supplier of proprietary branded raw ingredients. Activities will include public relations outreach, creative development, media placement and event marketing. IMG’s communication program will emphasize Cyvex Nutrition’s expertise in the antioxidant category and increasing industry awareness of the health benefits of the company’s key ingredient offerings.

 

Salt Lake City –The UTAH EDUCATIONAL SAVINGS PLAN (UESP) has reached more than $3 billion in assets. From January through December 2009, the total number of UESP accounts increased 12.53 percent. In April 2009, Morningstar, an investment research firm, stated “Utah’s 529 plan has long been a favorite of ours and remains a strong choice for its low costs, flexibility and tried–and–true Vanguard index funds. The plan’s fees are a rock–bottom 0.22 percent to 0.35 percent, making it one of the cheapest plans in the country.”

 

Salt Lake City – OVERSTOCK.COM, INC, an online discount retailer, opened a warehouse store at 955 S. 3800 West. The store is open to the public every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and occupies a space within Overstock.com’s main Utah warehouse.  Inventory at the warehouse store varies from week to week. In the past, items like clothing, furniture, electronics, sporting goods, home accessories and bedding have been available.

 

Salt Lake City – C7 DATA CENTERS, INC., a regional data center operator and managed services provider, has signed a multi–year co-location agreement with ANSWERS CORPORATION, creators of the answer engine Answers.com which includes the properties WikiAnswers and ReferenceAnswers. Answers selected C7 Data Centers to be its production site for services to the Midwest and the Asia–Pacific area. 

 

Draper – WADSWORTH BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION received two prestigious construction awards from the Utah Department of Transportation: the 2009 Rural Construction Project of the Year and the 2009 Urban Construction Project of the Year. Wadsworth was recognized for excellence in design, engineering and innovative construction efforts. Wadsworth Brothers received the 2009 Rural Project of the Year for the Interstate 80 Four Bridge Replacement in Parley’s Canyon. The 2009 Urban Project of the Year award was for Wadsworth’s work on the Southern Parkway Project. 

 

Salt Lake City – THE CICERO GROUP, a market research, economic analysis and strategy firm, acquired Utah–based DAN JONES & ASSOCIATES, a market and political research company. Combined, the new firm will have 130 employees with seasoned professionals ranging from PhDs, MBAs, statisticians, strategists and economists, along with a data collection team responsible for collecting polling and survey responses. The company’s two focus group facilities will likely be expanded to three as it grows.

 

Draper – STORAGECRAFT TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, a provider of innovative disaster recovery, system migration, data protection and security solutions for servers, desktops and laptops, announced the availability of StorageCraft ShadowProtect Granular Recovery for Exchange, the latest version in the award-winning ShadowProtect line of backup and disaster recovery software for Windows systems and data. ShadowProtect Granular Recovery for Exchange gives administrators the ability to restore individual Exchange mailboxes, e-mail messages or e-mail attachments, minimizing downtime following a major or minor crisis.

 

Salt Lake City –THE DAVID ECCLES SCHOOL OF BUSINESS was awarded a $1.25 million grant to become part of a new initiative to develop programs designed to instill a high standard of ethics in business school students. Eight universities across four states will collaborate on the programs. The initial grant and ongoing support for the initiative is provided by the Daniels Fund, a private foundation established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, who was widely recognized for his ethics and integrity in business.

 

South Jordan – SERVPRO’s 2009 year-end system-wide revenue hit $1 billion for the first time in SERVPRO’s 40-year history. Entrepreneur magazine listed SERVPRO as the No. 1 restoration services franchise system for the sixth consecutive year in its 2010 Franchise 500 ranking. The company jumped 19 places from No. 28 overall in 2009 to No. 9 overall in the 2010 rankings. Additionally, allbusiness.com ranked the SERVPRO System as the No. 9 franchising opportunity, a 15–place jump over its 2009 ranking. Both lists cited SERVPRO as a growing franchise despite the economy.

 

Salt Lake City – XMISSION released its new residential digital phone service, XMission Voice, to DSL customers in Utah. All Utah residents who qualify for 1.5 Megabit DSL or faster can bundle it with XMission Voice. Features include free nationwide long-distance (in the contiguous 48 states), voicemail, voicemail to e-mail, voicemail for iPhone, call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, 3–way calling, caller ID block and emergency forwarding.

 

Salt Lake City – Fortune ranked CHG HEALTHCARE SERVICES as the 26th best company to work for in America, according to Fortune magazine’s 13th annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” survey. CHG recently launched CHG Pulse, an interactive Website that provides insight into the company’s culture through the use of photos, video and employee spotlights. The company also uses its presence on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to keep its employees informed and engaged.

Salt Lake City – The UTAH JAZZ is the first team in the NBA to provide an online service which allows season ticket holders the ability to sell and transfer the “renewal rights” to their seat locations. This new service provides fans the opportunity to become a season ticket holder in sold–out seating areas that are not available directly from the Utah Jazz.

 

Salt Lake City – UTAH SCIENTIFIC has entered into an agreement with BARCO to integrate Barco’s high-resolution multiviewers with Utah Scientific routing switchers. The integrated systems will give operators a simple method for instantly identifying the status of multiple video sources in television and other video operations.

 

Salt Lake City – Following the hosting of MPI’s 2009 World Education Congress, the SALT LAKE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU (SLCVB) was awarded two prestigious industry awards: Corporate & Incentive Travel’s 2009 Distinctive Achievement award and Meetings & Conventions’ Gold Service award—the 15th time the SLCVB has been honored with this award. Each award was voted on by the readers of the respective publications, meeting professionals responsible for booking hundreds of thousands of meetings and conventions nationwide.

 

 

Central

 

Orem – SMASHBURGER will open its third Utah location at University Parkway and South State Street. The other Salt Lake-area Smashburgers are located at 3513 S. 2700 West in West Valley City and 1028 E. 2100 South in Sugar House. 

 

Provo – FAMILYLINK.COM, a family social network with more than 60 million users, was named by comScore as the top growth Website in comScore Media Metrix study. According to the study, FamilyLink.com increased its visitors 142 percent from November to December. Familylink.com outranked companies such as UPS, Nintendo Co. and Hallmark.

 

Provo – RED SKY IT SOLUTIONS donated $110,000 worth of Brocade FastIron WS Series and Edge X Series network switches to Brigham Young University’s Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. The network switches will replace outdated equipment in the classroom labs and within the college’s network infrastructure. The Brocade FastIron Edge X Series switches are high-performance data center-class switches that provide Gigabit copper and fiber-optic connectivity and 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. The donation of Brocade networking equipment is the first of several initiatives in Red Sky’s support for BYU. 

 

Orem – PINNACLE SECURITY will offer a new touch screen developed by GE SECURITY, INC. with input from Pinnacle. The new product’s design and expanded functionality represent a step forward in providing consumers with the latest technology. 

 

American Fork – GLOBALBASED TECH-NOLOGIES and TRUENORTH ACADEMY, both privately held companies, announced TrueNorth Academy has become a division of GlobalBased. The combined company will leverage the work of 100 leading-edge technology, training and customer service employees. Clients will continue to receive turnkey technology services such as data-mining and lead generation, but will also have the option to leverage marketing and training services.

 

Lehi – The UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION has selected HADCO CONSTRUCTION to build the Utah County segment of the Mountain View Corridor. The three-mile construction area on 2100 North from Redwood Road to I-15 in Lehi consists of constructing a frontage road system of two lanes in each direction with signalized intersections, building four new bridges spanning the Jordan River, and site preparation for a future FrontRunner rail line. The project is slated for completion in the fall of 2011.

 

 

Southern

 

St. George – HUNT-LEAVITT INSURANCE AGENCY and ROBERTS-LEAVITT INSURANCE SERVICES, both LEAVITT GROUP affiliated insurance agencies, combined operations. The agency will now operate as HUNT, ROBERTS & LEAVITT INSURANCE AGENCY. Travis Roberts and Jaron Hunt are the local managing co-owners of the agency. The Roberts-Leavitt staff will move into the current Hunt-Leavitt location at 162 N. 400 East, Building C, Suite 102 (between Designer Furniture Gallery and Workforce Services), but contact information remains the same. The merger will make the office the largest insurance agency in Washington County. It will also expand the lines of services and insurance carriers available. Roberts-Leavitt Insurance Services has been serving the Southern Utah area since 1984. The agency provides all types of insurance to local residents and businesses, including personal insurance, commercial insurance, workers compensation, bonds, life and health insurance.

 

St. George – SOUTHWEST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION has been honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for customer service and diversity in lending programs in 2009. The Utah District of the SBA presented the Blaine Andrus Memorial Award to SouthWest Federal for its commitment to Utah small businesses. SouthWest Federal has funded a wide array of loans, including SBA Express, Patriot Express for veterans, ARC loans for economic recovery, SBA 504 loans for commercial real estate and SBA 7A loans for working capital.

 

Briefs

Martinizing Dry Cleaning to Build 15 Stores throughout Utah 

Layton – As MARTINIZING DRY CLEANING celebrates its 60th year in business, the Loveland, Ohio–based company will make its debut in the Beehive State with plans to open 15 locations throughout the state over the next five years. The first store has opened under the franchise ownership of Layton resident Scott Ray at 861 E. Gordon Avenue.

Ray owned and operated the DHL contractor SER Enterprises for the past 22 years. “When I came across Martinizing, I knew right away it was a concept that would withstand the test of time and the more I learned about the company, the more I was impressed. Being the person to introduce Utah residents to Martinizing is a big responsibility but I know it’s just the beginning of a very bright future.” 

Ray committed to open 15 locations throughout Davis, Salt Lake, Utah and Weber counties but would like to open as many as possible across the state. While the company guides and directs its franchise owners, Martinizing CEO, chairman and former Salt Lake City resident George L. Strike allows owners to operate their stores in the way they know best. And, Strike says he is excited for the future of Martinizing in Utah, regardless of today’s economy. He says it’s in economic times like these that a company’s strengths and weaknesses are magnified, either positively or negatively, and thus, believes Martinizing has something to celebrate during its 60th year.

 

Westminster College Receives Gift from Sorenson Legacy Foundation  

Salt Lake City – WESTMINSTER COLLEGE announced SORENSON LEGACY FOUNDATION has donated $833,000 to help construct a science education floor in the new four–story Meldrum Science Center. The James LeVoy and Beverley Sorenson Research Floor will include integrated laboratory/classrooms dedicated to genetics, microbiology, anatomy/physiology and undergraduate research, as well as faculty offices, a conference room and student lounge. The 60,000–square–foot center is scheduled for completion in spring 2010.  

“The education and discovery undertaken on the Sorenson Research Floor will complement our family’s desire to advance science and technology through innovation, which was a lifelong passion for my father, James LeVoy Sorenson,” says Joan Fenton, Sorenson Legacy Foundation trustee.

The Meldrum Science Center is the capstone project in the college’s 10–year master plan. It will enable the college to accommodate growing student enrollments, house high–tech equipment and expand critical space for undergraduate research. It will also allow for the increasing number of science, pre–med, nursing and health care majors enrolling at the college. Westminster’s graduates in these areas are highly sought after by health care, biomedical and research employers throughout Utah and in other states. 

Designed by VCBO ARCHITECTS and being constructed by BIG–D CONSTRUCTION, the $30 million science center is designed to achieve LEED Gold–certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The facility, which has been under construction since June 2008, will open for classes for the fall 2010 semester.


Built by Crowell