Governor Gary Herbert and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams helped break ground for a new 2.3 million square foot industrial storage and distribution campus Thursday in West Valley City.
The new facility located off of the 21st South freeway is projected to bring as many as 3,000 new jobs to Utah. Freeport West is developing the location. They already own and manage more than 10 million square feet of property in the state.
At the groundbreaking ceremony local and state government officials were on site to praise the use of tax increment financing to incentivize the development of the land. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams says for a project like this one, tax payers will ultimately be the ones who benefit.
“Something like this, that really is a regional draw to the state of Utah, that’s going to bring warehouse distribution to Utah instead of Nevada is really key." McAdams says. "And then the jobs that will multiply off of that are key. So, this is real growth that we will see to our economy.”
Governor Herbert says the new development shows that Utah’s economy is continuing to grow and expand.
“Again it shows that our efforts to provide a very business friendly environment here in Utah is working," Herbert says. "The entrepreneur, the risk taker, the wealth creators like what they find here in Utah.”
Herbert also says his 100,000 jobs in 1000 days initiative is several months ahead of schedule and that they’ll hit that mark soon.
Freeport West officials expect to have the first building of the warehouse complex completed near the end of 2015.