Daybreak Sold, Amazon-Utah Employee Growth, and More (The Week-in-Review, April 10—16, 2021)
Utah’s top business news this week: Larry H. Miller Real Estate buys Daybreak; Amazon-Utah now has 8,000 employees; Facebook data centers powered by Utah solar projects; and more.
For as active as Utah’s business community has been in the first three-plus months of 2021, it was inevitable that the news cycle would slow down eventually — at least for a bit.
As such, this week qualifies as I only felt there were a handful of noteworthy biz news announcements this week from the so-called State of Deseret. Hence, this edition of Deseret Business Watch will be a bit shorter than previous issues.
Nevertheless, there was at least one doozy of an unexpected news item this week and that was the sale/purchase of Daybreak.
LHM Real Estate Buys Daybreak Planned Community from Värde Partners
First thing Monday morning the news release shot out across PR Newswire:
As far as major news announcements go for Utah’s business community, this was up there with all of the other big news stories from the first quarter of 2021.
Although financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed (either in the press release or when I spoke with LHM’s Amanda Covington), LHM Real Estate had purchased the master-planned Daybreak from Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Värde Partners.
The acquisition included over 1,300 undeveloped acres of land in the southwestern portion of Salt Lake County in the city of South Jordan., as well as
Ownership interest in a portion of existing commercial assets and future commercial development, as well as
Remaining undeveloped residential property.
Brad Holmes, president of LHM Real Estate, explained in the news release part of the company’s thinking as to why it chose to move forward with the Daybreak purchase when he said,
“This transaction creates an opportunity for Larry H. Miller Real Estate to not only expand our real estate footprint and holdings, but to also creatively and proactively address regional growth through mixed-use planning and development.”
A Brief Daybreak History
Daybreak was launched in 2004 as a master-planned community of over 4,000 acres (~6.1 square miles) based in South Jordan, Utah under the direction of Kennecott Land, a land development company owned by Rio Tinto Group.
Over a dozen years later (with 500 home sites, manmade Oquirrh Lake, and the SoDa Row Retail District built out), Kennecott/Rio Tinto announced in 2016 it had sold the Daybreak community (with its 2,500 undeveloped acres of land) to Värde Partners.
Here again the sale price and financial terms were not disclosed.
But as a nearly 30-year-old alternative investment company, Värde has invested over $75 billion over its lifetime and currently manages over $14 billion in global assets.
As such, Daybreak was just one another asset for it and its investment partners. And for many major investment firms, a five-to-seven-year holding period is fairly common.
However, that is not the impression I received about the intent of LHM Real Estate when speaking with Amanda, the Chief Communications and Government Relations Officer of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies.
“We are very excited about this acquisition. We see Daybreak as a desirable destination, a place where people live where the businesses are, with entertainment, recreation (there as well).”
Amanda further explained that LHM Real Estate had had extensive discussions with city, county and state government officials, and that they saw “significant growth opportunities” in the southwest part of Salt Lake County.
She closed by saying, “We invite businesses and residents to come talk with us (as) this is a really great opportunity.”
Brandon Fugal, arguably the state’s top commercial real estate leader, agreed.
“This is definitely a landmark transaction. Bringing Daybreak under local stewardship is an extremely positive move. LHM has the vision and resources to take the next steps of development forward in a way that will elevate the community and improve the quality of the master plan.”
Brandon is the Chairman of Colliers International – Utah, and as noted on his LinkedIn profile, in the past 12 months he “personally structured 1.6 million square feet of office building transactions and negotiated over 150 deals.”
“We are observing record new construction and absorption in the southwest quadrant (of Salt Lake valley) in not only Daybreak, but in other projects (as well) driving significant growth and momentum in that area of the market,” Brandon explained.
In closing, Brandon added that, “This is a smart move, not only for LHM, but for the entire community.”
I concur.
Although I could not get anyone to give me an official (or unofficial) value to this acquisition, by my back of a napkin calculation, I expect this was a transaction worth over $1 billion.
And that only places a $770,000 value per acre of Daybreak land and does not assign any value to the commercial properties included in the deal.
Nice.
Other News Items of Note from This Week
What follows below are six additional Noteworthy News Items taken from the breaking news announcements that hit our radar this past week from Utah’s business community, news items we thought you might find worthwhile if not also intriguing.
Case in point —
Amazon Now at 8,000+ Employees in Utah
Did you know that Amazon is now one of the biggest employers in Utah with over 8,000 full- and part-time employees? Nah, me neither. Turns out the tech behemoth has also invested over $1 billion in Utah during the past decade. Crazy.
You can learn more about Amazon-Utah from this write-up on the GOED Utah website.
Utah’s Facebook Data Centers now run by 180MW Solar Power Plants
First off, you know that Facebook has built one major data center out near Eagle Mountain, with another facility being built nearby, right? Did you also know that these Facebook facilities and others owned by the social media powerhouse will be supported by a 180 megawatt Iron County solar power project led by D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI)? It’s true.
The DESRI announcement is not the most lucid news release I’ve read recently, but here’s the link in case you’re interested in learning more.
SLCC Program to Help US Vets Transition to Entrepreneurship
If you or someone you know is a veteran of the U.S. military and they have ANY INTEREST AT ALL in investigating what it takes to become an entrepreneur, please point them toward Salt Lake Community College. Not only is it the largest community college in the country, but it recently launched a program specifically aimed at helping Vets start a business or succeed in a business they’ve already begun.
To learn more about this program, please visit the Veteran Business Resource Center page on the SLCC website.
Deseret News Names New President/Publisher
One of the things you learn after living in Utah for awhile is that sometimes volunteer "callings extended by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to some of its members create significant executive openings in local businesses. Case in point, Deseret News Publishing Company announced this week that Robin Ritch has been promoted to President and Publisher, replacing Jeff Simpson who will become a Mission President for the church beginning this June.
Most recently Robin served as Sr. Vice President of Operations at the Deseret News, although she has been working with the organization and the church for the past three-plus years in various capacities.
Utah’s Two Largest Travel Agencies to Merge
Honestly, I missed this story when it was first released on April 7.
{NOTE: Commercial wire services still have real value and purpose. Just saying.}
Nevertheless, the two largest travel agencies in Utah — Morris Murdock Travel and Columbus Travel — have announced that they’re merging. And in the process, Travel Weekly says the combined entities generated over $170 in sales in 2019, enough to rank them as the 47th largest agency in the U.S.
Post-merger (expected to close sometime later this year), current Morris Murdock President, Brian Hollien, will become the President of the combined entities.
30-Year Anniversary for an SLC Tech Company
Last of all … I suspect most Utahns have probably never even heard of Cirque (although I helped them with public relations work over a decade ago). But this Salt Lake City-based company invented capacitive sensing technology — the stuff that makes touchpads on most keyboards work. And this week Cirque reminded the world that it has now been in business for 30 years.
They also produced this informative video to help tell their story.
Congrats, Cirque, for 30 successful years. And Happy Birthday!!!
ICYMI: The “Nu Skin Biz Unit Grows Livestock Feed” Feature Story
Consider this a postscript, but on Tuesday I published my take on one of the more interesting, and unexpected, news stories I’ve come across so far this year. And that’s the fact that Nu Skin Enterprises has a separate strategic investment arm generating $165 million in annual revenue that owns a company producing livestock feed. And no, I kid you not.
So if you haven’t read this yet, I invite you to check it out here: “Nu Skin Biz Unit Grows Livestock Feed.” Thank you.
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About the Author
David Politis is a Marketing Mercenary, which is a fancy way of saying that organizations and individuals hire him to solve their marketing problems. To learn more, please feel free to visit David’s LinkedIn Profile or the website for his business: The David Politis Company. If you have a story idea for him (or would just like to connect), you can reach him at me@davidpolitis.com.