Long Term Relationship-Enduring Results!

The year was late 1995 and a referral came in from an agent in Las Vegas.  The deal was not very large at just 24,000 SF, but I was young and with just three years in the commercial real estate business I was excited for the referral. In my wildest dreams I would not have fathomed that 23 years and roughly 200 transactions later, between new deals and lease renewals, Mygrant Glass Company continues as one of our most active clients.

We are celebrating Mygrants incredible success this year with the purchase and opening of their new 70,000 square foot build to suit facility here in Salt Lake City this last month, and the upcoming purchase of a new 100,000 square foot build to suit facility in the Deer Valley submarket of Phoenix, Arizona.

What a ride this has been for all of us!  Rapidly approaching 80 locations in North America, Mygrant is by far the largest independent automotive glass wholesaler and by sheer volume of inventory and footprint, arguably the largest compared to all other national auto glass distributors.

On behalf of Mygrant Glass, we have been blessed to work with many landlords, their agents, contractors, and a literal army of primarily SIOR colleagues, whom we have partnered with on Mygrant Glass’ national expansion.

Thank you to all who have helped us along the way and most importantly congratulations to all the hard working people at Mygrant Glass who support their visionary owners to realize their dreams.

Stadler Rail Headquarters

Stadler is well underway on the construction of its new highly publicized North American headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. IPG was honored to represent the company in the land acquisition and continues to be involved with the company as they complete the new facility. The new facility will give Stadler a new home and a place to build train cars that are sold all over North America. The project benefited from a great deal of public support and efforts at every level of local, state and federal government got involved to help this project become a reality. 

Facebook to build massive data center in Eagle Mountain

Facebook is set to build a new data center in Eagle Mountain that will span nearly one million square feet and represent a $750 million investment in the city.

Eagle Mountain has worked for nearly a decade to lure data centers to the city — a plan officials say works well for the more isolated area. While Eagle Mountain can’t competitively draw other industries, the city — geographically the third-largest in the state — is a perfect fit for data centers that require a lot of land but not too many new employees.

While the data center, which is set to be completed by 2020, will most likely only bring in about 30 to 50 jobs, officials say that low number is best for the city so there is no significant impact on local resources like schools, police services or traffic. The city will also see a 1,000 percent return on investment, according to a fiscal impact study commissioned by the city.

Facebook has promised to spend at least $100 million to expand the city’s infrastructure to accommodate the project. This investment would, in turn, expand infrastructure in all of Cedar Valley and increase the county’s power grid by an anticipated 48 percent.

The data center will be powered by 100 percent net-new renewable energy through utilization of Rocky Mountain power renewable energy tariffs, and Facebook will purchase its own water rights and construct the required water infrastructure with money from its own pocket.

The state would grant Facebook an estimated $150 million in tax breaks for the project’s first phase, with taxes waived for up to 20 years per phase. Those tax breaks may include hundreds of millions of more dollars if the company decides to continue to build on its lot.

The officials who voted on the project chose to approve it if the state could implement a 40-year cap on the agreement.

The data center in its first phase would increase property taxes currently collected for the 490-acre site by 12,000 times. The project will benefit the city, county, Alpine School District, Central Utah Water Conservancy District and Unified Fire Service Area, officials said.

The data center is set for construction at the Sweetwater Industrial Park between a mink farm and water treatment facility.

National Industrial Market Trends Unprecedented

Market Intel from the top 10 construction activity markets in the country show signs of amazing buoyancy, although turmoil in the stock market related to potential trade wars and protectionist policies could put a damper on activity.  How this affects our local market remains to be seen but from our perspective it has not slowed deal velocity yet.

Salt Lake City, while not on the list of the top 10 construction markets in the country has similar dynamics to Denver which did make the list.  Nearly 70% of all under construction space in that market is pre-committed.  Our Utah market remains robust for both new speculative construction and leasing activity.  While tenants may enjoy more choices of available spaces here than Denver or other intermountain markets, spaces are rapidly being consumed and the number of spaces above 200,000 SF with immediate availability are limited to just three buildings in the entire market!

We found the following graph showing historic availability vs. construction vs. pre-commitments very interesting.  Give us a call at IPG Commercial to share your opinion, or request guidance for your next industrial real estate play.

Graph source: CBRE Research, 2017 

Busy Bees

I drove by the new 2.4 million square foot Amazon facility just west of the Salt Lake International airport a couple of days ago.  What a site, literally. 

The speed at which this 840,000 SF footprint building has risen from the ground is quite astounding.  With 70 facilities and nearly 100 million square feet under roof, I suppose Amazon has learned a thing or two about hiring the right teams.  Velocity and organization are now the new norms of what individuals and business entities expect now.  You go online, you press “one-click” ordering and the package shows up.  Clients are expecting that same type of service now in other areas, healthcare, groceries, mortgage loans…real estate services too.

The stakes are high, the demands are real and the opportunities are immense.  I hope in all our “busy-ness”, we can take time to slow it down, to focus on the things that are important to us, family, friends, a higher calling, whatever that may be for you.